Following Pearl Harbor, a wave of anti-Japanese feeling swept through the United States. Glenn Gray, who served in the American army from 1941 to 1945, recounted the following incident: "When a Japanese soldier was flushed from his hiding place, the unit was resting and joking. But they seized their rifles and began using him as a live target while he dashed frantically around the clearing in search of safety. The soldiers found his movements uproariously funny, and were prevented by their laughter from making an early end of the unfortunate man. Finally, they succeeded in killing him, and the incident cheered the whole platoon."
A popular wartime saying in the United States was "the only good Jap is a dead Jap". In 1943, the United States Marine monthly magazine ran a photograph of Japanese corpses on Guadalcanal* with a heading reading: "Good Japs".
珍珠港事件之後，仇日情緒瀰漫美國。格倫．格雷一九四一至一九四五年間在美國陸軍服役，記述了以下故事：「一個日本士兵，在藏身處給趕了出來。我們那支軍隊本來在休息，有說有笑，這時都拿起來福槍，把這日本兵當作活靶，見他在那片空地上拚命四處跑，想找個安全處藏身，感到非常有趣，笑得無法早點送這可憐傢伙歸西。最後，他們還是殺了那日本兵。整排軍隊都因此大為高興。」
戰時，美國一句流行話是：「唯一善良的倭奴，就是死了的倭奴。」一九四三年，美國海軍陸戰隊月刊發表了瓜達爾卡納爾島*上日軍屍體的照片，標題是：「善良的倭奴。」
*瓜達爾卡納爾島是太平洋西南部所羅門群島之中最大的島嶼，一九四二年八月，盟軍登陸該島，與島上三萬日軍激戰。