Faces of the Enemy
The subtitle to the book is Reflections of the Hostile Imagination. The book examines why “the enemy” is considered to be “the enemy,” and has many photos and illustrations of posters and films that show how hatred of the enemy is promulgated by the “other side.”
The book starts off hitting strong:
“Ordinarily, the job of turning civilians into soldiers involves a liberal use of propaganda and hate training. A variety of dehumanizing faces is superimposed over the enemy to allow him to be killed without guilt. The problem in military psychology is how to convert the act of murder into patriotism.”
“In all propaganda, the face of the enemy is designed to provide a focus for our hatred. He is the other. The outsider. The alien. He is not human. If we can only kill him, we will be rid of all within and without ourselves that is evil.”
It's the idea of taking normal people and turning them into paranoid people, fearful of this “other” being, and whipping them into a frenzy in which they are willing to kill this “other” in order to obtain peace. The author comes out with another name for humans. Instead of Homo sapiens, the author proposes Homo hostilis, and it seems really appropriate.
Some of the worst paranoia over time has been shown by anti-Semitic propaganda.
“The purpose of propaganda is to paralyze thought, to prevent discrimination, and to condition individuals to act as a mass.” In this case, “to prevent discrimination” means to stop people from actually thinking about things, and discriminating between what is really truthful, and what the government (or group) wants a person to think.
The author also ties this all into theology, noting how groups assume that God is on their side. “...the sacred blood of our heroes is sacrificed to hallow our ground and to destroy the enemies of God.” Think about the Crusades, Christians vs. Muslims. In WWII, the Japanese thought the Emperor was actually a God. (Hitler pretty much considered himself a god, basically.)
“In actual unspoken fact, woman plays another unacknowledged role in warfare; she is prize and bate. To the victor belongs the spoils, the chief of which is the enemy's women.” Consider that, in the Rape of Nanking alone, there were at least 20,000 rapes of women, and this is just one place in one war.
The book is divided into chapters, including Archetypes of the Enemy, The Psychology of Enmity, The Future of Enmity and IN the Meantime. It is a little dated in that it's from 1986 and thus does not include the active role women have taken in combat fighting since that time.
Still, it's a book that will cause a person to do a lot of thinking, and the numerous examples of propaganda posters will give a person a good idea of just how far some will go to generate hatred of others.
Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page
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