Blast From The Past

My feelings toward the Japs could be described as a cold fury. I not only want them to be defeated. I want them to be smashed. I want them to be punished at least a hundredfold, their cities burned, their industries smashed, their fleet destroyed, and finally, their sovereignty taken away from them. We have been forced into a course of imperialism. So let it be. Germany and Japan are not safe to have around; we are bigger and tougher then they are, I sincerely believe. Let’s rule them. We did not want it that way–but if somebody has to be the boss, I want it to be us. Disarm them and don’t turn them loose. We can treat the individual persons decently in an economic sense, but take away their sovereignty.

– Robert A. Heinlein, Letter to John W. Campbell, December 9, 1941.