Was recently looking at How to spot a Jap a propaganda piece by the US. Quite shocking to see something like that, it was parts comical since so absurd yet mainly horrifying. Especially when in popular culture we will point out how Germany had their anti Jewish propaganda which dehumanized them and point at it as one of the evils that the Nazis did.
Was reminded hearing a story about the bomber crews recieving pamphlets that dehumanized the Japanese population in anticipation of dropping a nuclear weapon. Which also leads to question did they do any psychological preparation for the pilots of Enola Gay or similar? Wondering how they felt with the aftermath.
Have tried searching for it, yet have not been able to find any sources about it.
Wondering if such a thing did happen or if that is just a tall tale.
Thanks in advance
Edit: if there was, was that just for the Pacific theatre or did they issue pamphlets like that to crews before they did something like the bombing of Dresden or civilian areas?
I don't think there was any specific preparation for the crew of the atomic bomb dropping that involved dehumanizing the Japanese. For one thing, it isn't clear that they even knew what they were doing until they were in the air, with a few exceptions (like Tibbets). For another, it isn't clear they needed any additional "dehumanization" — if you really felt for the Japanese to any degree at the time, you probably didn't end up working on a B-29. In any event, they were certainly already part of a larger culture that had "normalized" the bombing of Japanese cities for some time at that point. I doubt a single pamphlet would have made any difference — you have to remember that these people were immersed in the context of war at that point.
As for how they felt in the aftermath, every one of the people on the Enola Gay defended it until they day they died (and they are all now dead; the last surviving crew member died last November). That doesn't mean they were all enthusiastic about it — what they basically all said was something along the lines of, "I'm sorry it had to be done, and it was a terrible thing that had to be done, and I hope it never has to be done again — but we needed to do it then, and we probably saved lives." This is not an uncommon take for people involved with the development and use of the atomic bombs, and is more measured than some of the modern pro-bombing takes that one can find today, but is ultimately in favor of the use of the bombs.