Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Japanese Form of Propaganda Against the US
In World War 2 the Japanese were known for never surrendering. Fighting to their very last breath, this made them a force to try to defeat. As the US slowly began to progress towards the main land of Japan, many islands where blinded with propaganda that made them view the US Marines in such a filthy way to help persuade every Japanese to fight till there last breath rather than surrender. Because if they surrendered they were told that the US Marines would kill them instantly. Although this was false for the most part even though they would just be taken captive, the Japanese were told that for a solider to become a Marine they had to shoot there parents and forced to rape women, setting a fear factor that forced many Japanese not to surrender. Because of this many committed suicide by jumping off cliffs to shooting ones self, which the government made public to Japans people expressing how it was a act of courage and sacrifice for their country. These suicides mentally effect the US soldiers, eventually breaking them down which was Japans greater plan. They tried to show that the US was weak and bound to give up under extreme pressure and illness and even surrendered which the Japanese viewed as cowardice. Treating those US soldiers they took captive horribly for they were no "real" solider.
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I agree that Japanese propaganda played a huge role in how Japanese soldiers treated the Americans as well as their own citizens throughout the war considering how much they exaggerated the malevolent and weak nature of their soldiers and influenced Japanese citizens to protect their country at any cost, but I also think a lot of it had to do with their culture. For hundreds of years, the Japanese have adhered to set of principles part of their "Bushido Code," a code of conduct and list of virtues used by the Japanese (historically applying to samurais but began to apply to their society as a whole in the 19th century) to follow. One of these virtues is "loyalty," which emphasizes the importance of an individual staying devoted to their country and doing whatever they can to further the interests of the nation. As a result, throughout history, this drastic idea of loyalty has been ingrained into Japanese culture, especially during the 20th century when militarism and patriotism were huge parts of their society, inevitably leading soldiers and civilians to want to sacrifice their own lives to protect the interests of Japan. Also, when the General of Japan, Hideki Tojo came into power, he created a Japanese Military Field Code which emphasized the importance of "serving [the Emperor] with loyalty and devotion" as well as "[being] united in compliance with the Imperial will," showing that he pushed the military to try and do anything they could to preserve the country's interests. As a result, the civilians ended up being influenced by soldiers as well as their general culture to stay loyal to their nation and do things that we would consider drastic, such as committing suicide in order to not have to surrender. So overall, I think that even though Japanese propaganda was a huge factor in how the country's soldiers and civilians acted in general, a major factor that led to many of their extremities was their historical culture based on loyalty to the Empire.
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