File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-02-02.144, message 16


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 ---



   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005