Japan's surrender was not a simple on/off switch

[Torplexed]

Originally Posted by Commander Wallace

War bringing out the worst in people makes it a thing to be avoided. Hopefully we all have learned that.

The Pacific War had a ugly racial tinge to it that the war against the Germans didn't. Prior to hostilities breaking out, the Japanese were seen as diminutive, buck-toothed and bespectacled sub-human specimens who couldn't shoot straight and, having started an endless war against the hapless Chinese they couldn't win, certainly couldn't be highly regarded a soldiers.

What's amusing is how quickly the subhumans of 1941 mutated into the superhumans of 1942 after conquering a vast empire in four months. In the wake of defeat after defeat, rumors began to fly among Allied soldiers that the Japanese possessed preternatural senses and abilities. Like bats, they could see in the darkness. Like panthers, they could move soundlessly through the jungle. Like ants, they could communicate with their own kind by some unspoken brainwave. They could live endlessly off the land, never needing rations. Unlike men they had no fear of death. The new myth, like the one it displaced, was based on absurd racial canards. But it struck fear into the men who had to face these reputed "superwarriors" on the ground, and for a while it proved to be self-fulfilling.