From: cbcox-AT-rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Carrol Cox) Subject: Re: M-I: Pride of the Marines etc. Etc. Etc. Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 16:33:34 -0600 (CST) The Pacific War involved racism on both sides, and both sides were hurt by their own racism. The U.S. never did build as good a fighter plane as the Zero because "they" didn't believe those little yellow monkeys could have built anything requiring Engineering skill. The Japanese never made any real preparations for anti-submarine war because they didn't think those decadent Americans could ever endure the rigor of long months at sea in a submarine. I picked up these little tidbits from a marvelous book by Jonathan Shay (both a Psychiatrist and classical scholar) in a book entitled *Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character*. It seems that when soldiers regard their enemy as subhuman it makes defeat intolerable and victory mean- ingless; hence a greater incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder among U. S. troops in the Pacific (and later in Vietnam) than those fighting in Europe. Shay cites John Dower, *War without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War* (1986) as his source for the impact of racism on both sides in that war. Carrol --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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