Alright, the answer will need to be expanded to involve pre-war view. Also, please keep in mind that while I will try to explain civilian view, since it is impossible to know what EVERYONE thought. I will focus on how the military command view and a couple books from the time to discuss this.
You are asking about how people viewed the americans, so I am going to focus my answer on that rather than the view on the American government. Which is completely different.
Now that's out of the way. Let's answer part of your question first. How did the Japanese military viewed the Americans WW2? One of the ways we can look at that is to look for a published book by the Japanese army immediately after the outbreak of the Pacific theater.
The book is titled "これだけ読めば戦は勝てる" (Read this and the war can be won). The book was a manual that is suppose to be read by the Japanese soldiers and in it it specifically deals with what kind of people the westerners are (Which, includes Americans.)
The title sounds super cheesy and reads like one of those "Read this and succeed!" type of scam books today, but it's actually a pretty consolidated book on how a solider is suppose to think. (Of course, effects varied on people, just like today.)
Here's an excerpt of the book dealing with Westerners.
"今度の敵は支那軍と比べると、将校は西洋人で下士官は大部分土人であるから、軍隊の上下の精神的団結は全く零だ。 "
Translation:
"The enemy this time, compared to the Chinese army, with their officers being westerners and soldiers and NCOs as natives have a distinct lack of unity."
Now, this is mainly a comment on the British army. But keep in mind, in the early days of war, all western enemy are counted as one big blob of people.
Another quote later in the book.
"戦は勝ちだ、対手は支那兵以下の弱虫で、戦車も飛行機もがたがたの寄せ集めである、勝つに決まっているが、唯如何にしてじょうずに勝つかの問題だけだ。"
"Although in battle they may win, our enemies are cowards that are more afraid than the Chinese soldiers, with the thinking that gathering as much tanks and planes will win them the war. Our victory is assured, the only problem is how to make that win better."
You might think "Wow such arrogance!". Unfortunately for the Japanese military command, they severely underestimated the ability of western allies.
Now, that leads to us to the question "why?". Here's an excerpt from a meeting that happened in March, 1942 of the Japanese military command regarding world situation.
They specifically talked about the Americans here.
"米の人的戦力は物的戦力に伴わざるべし。 "
Americans should use their man power and their material power to respond.
"物的戦力膨大なるも、米の政治経済機構は、今なお国家総力戦に必要なる臨戦態勢を整備しておらず、之が確立には今後幾多の摩擦紛糾を生ずべし。 "
"Even though their war front on the material front will expand, the current situation of American political and social administration is still not ready for total war, they should have a lot of internal conflicts to deal with."
Then the last one, where we finally can take a glimpse on how they viewed the common Americans.
"米英国民は生活程度高く、之が低下はそのすこぶる苦痛とするところにして、戦捷の希望なき戦争継続は社会不安を醸成す。一般に士気の衰退を招来すべし"
"American and British citizens live in high standard quality of life, with the war coming and their living standard dropping there will come a pain with them, once we crushed their hope to achieve victory, social collapse should be imminent and moral in the general population should come.".
As it comes, the Military command viewed the Americans as people who are used to a good life, and thus should not be able to take it when the war drags on and their standard of life goes down. Probably the biggest underestimate in the war.
Now, that should give you the basic reasons. Now, as for how the Americans were viewed. Although I cannot give you a general sense, because let's be honest, generalizing an entire population is stupid, but here are a couple quotes from books from the 1930s.
From the book "アメリカの正体" "The true America". The book was written in 1939, pre-war. Here's the excerpt on Americans.
"米國人の友情―意地惡き姑" "Friendship of Americans, the jealous aunt". In this chapter it specifically describes Americans as the jealous aunt who although befriended a young nephew (Japan), but couldn't let him become something bigger because of jealously.
Here's another book on Americans from the period "アメリカを観て何を教へられたか" "What did I learned from America". The book was written in 1938,
In the book there is a chapter that deals with Americans, specifically an attempt at American psychology.
"America is not a poor country, indeed, in contrary to the Japanese society where we had to work hard and sweat for each meal. They would have problems of where to spend money" The book was actually a book that praises america, but still fails to grasp the basic understanding of American society.
And then we have this book "亜細亜民族と太平洋" "The Asian race and the Pacific". This book was written in 1940, in it it also has a chapter that deals with Americans, this time with a much harsher tone.
"The American, at their very core, are materialistic animals. To them, the only measure of success is how much they can own. They do not have a spiritual culture, or any culture with regards to their nation. To them, the measure on how a country is successful is it's rich and the machines, and the entertainment.
The only thing they value, is if something provides enough entertainment for them. "This thing is useful" "This thing is not useful" is their only thought when considering. If something does not provide immediate use, they would think "Nonsense!"
America does not have culture, nor noble traditions. To them, sports, jazz, love, gambling, gaming, is all they know.
....America is shallow, it is morally corrupt. Americanism is a poison upon their society."
Some of these sentiments do reflect greatly in the civilian population, and add on top of that American racism towards the Japanese. And you get this huge hodgepodge of ridicule, hate, and sense of superiority towards the Americans.
One last quote, this is a book from 1932. "挑むアメリカ" "Challenging America". In there, a chapter deals with Americans again.
I'm going to paraphrase what they say in there.
"Americans are people we must watch. Americans have a deep rooted racism towards us Japanese, For example, in 1924 a survey was conducted on the sentiment towards the anti-japanese law. In the Eastern states it was 5%, in the middle states it was 50%, and in the southern states it was 50%, and in the Western states it was 80%. That is how the Americans truly view us. Not as a friend where they seem to look like, but an enemy."
As you can see, pre-war it was less about the savagery of the Americans, but rather their better quality of life making them weaker willed.
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