Building an Ethos of Killing: Comparing and Contrasting the World War II Combat Motivations of German soldiers on the Eastern Front and American Soldiers in the Pacific (thesis)

Abstract

On the American side, it is traditional to view World War II as a righteous war fought by soldiers inspired by freedom and democracy, as Adams succinctly defines this view in The Best War Ever. However, this conception of the war contrasts with the recent historiography that focuses on other motivators, such as racial prejudice, revenge, small unit cohesion, and the desire to return home. This study aims to address the historiographical debates over soldier motivations on both the Eastern Front and the Pacific Theater and add to the comparative historiography across multiple fronts in the Second World War through close analysis of contemporary German and American sources and the scholarly debates over combat motivations.