“Fun-house” Mirrors of History

The deployment of the B-17s [in the Philippines] and the hopes vested in them revealed American attitudes on the brink of war and during it: a chronic underestimation, rooted in part in racial stereotypes, of Japanese military abilities and a persistent overestimation of American technology. In turn, so opinion polls showed, most Americans seemed to view war with Japan—though not with Germany—eagerly, almost cavalierly. "U.S. Cheerfully Faces War with Japan," Life claimed on the eve of Pearl Harbor. Americans felt, "rightly or wrongly, that the Japs were pushovers," a schoolboy’s word congruent with [Magaret] Mead’s metaphor of a nation placing a chip on its shoulder.⁹⁸ The hope of unleashing its bombers against Japan, perhaps in a surprise attack, also accounted for much of the indignation felt about Japan’s act of "infamy" (as FDR called it) on December 7. What galled American leaders was not simply Japan’s treachery but their frustration at having it occur before the United States could mount its own surprise.
p. 62

Michael S. Sherry - 1995

98. On polls and Life, see O’Neill, Democracy at War, 73.