A Different Kind of Hunting License

This is just one of the examples of propaganda during WWII that Americans used to justify killing the Japanese. By characterizing them as snakes, "vile stinking vipers" as they are called on this particular poster-it dehumanized the enemy, making it easier for the soldiers to kill and the people to know they were killing, because they weren't humans-they were vile snakes. It even tries to cut out signs of mercy-urging the soldiers that if they try to say sorry or anything of the sort, they are not to be forgiving-they are simply hissing at you.
I think it's interesting in this one that they chose to portray the Japanese as snakes. I have seen in the past relating them to bugs or rats, but before this never snakes. When I think of snakes, I think of the story in the bible of Adam and Eve. The snake in this story was greedy and untrustworthy. I can't speak for everyone when I say this is probably a common relation, however I definitely think it is a common relation to snakes. This in turn makes the fact that they are compared to snakes all the more powerful. It helps to add to the brewing distrust that surrounded Japanese Americans during WWII (so much distrust actually that many were put in internment camps).
It is a common theme with war propaganda to dehumanize the enemy like this, which leads me to wonder-if war is considered so fundamentally wrong in our minds that we have to draw evil pictures to help us justify it and feel better about murdering others-can it really be the best way to go about solving problems? Ideally, to fix our problems we shouldn't have to lie to ourselves-right? I don't know, I just think there must be a better way.