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CN Club Nouméa Member Wanganui Joined: May 03, 2010 Posts: 459	CN Club Nouméa Posted posted on Sat, Jul 16, 2011 3:59 AM Very interesting article. I remember reading Robert Heinlein's book when I was 11 years old, so it has been a while, but looking back on it, the original novel (first published in 1959, and which the film follows reasonably closely), seems to me to be directly inspired by the War in the Pacific. The unprovoked attack by aliens = Pearl Harbor The first assault that goes wrong = the US ground forces' initial missteps against the Japanese Army in places like the Philippines, where they found out that their racial stereotype of the "Japs" as puny, short-sighted incompetents was not quite as accurate as they thought. Shock and Awe = the US forces' softening up of Pacific island targets with massive artillery bombardments and carpet bombing prior to sending in the Marines (who I reckon Heinlein based his "Starship Troopers" on*). Prisoners (and abuses thereof) = the inhumane "take no prisoners" approach adopted by both Japanese and later US forces during the Pacific, mainly as a result of repeated Japanese massacres of prisoners, and Japanese soldiers' habit of turning on their captors, even after having "surrendered". After the initial defeats experienced by Allied forces in the Pacific and the Far East, there were also various propaganda films made in an endeavour to prove that the "Japs" were not superhuman soldiers and could be beaten. Propaganda - Hollywood churned out heaps of similar anti-Japanese propaganda during WWII The end - I would compare this moment to the victory at Guadalcanal, when the US forces realised that they could beat Japanese forces, that they had worked out their tactics, and that they were going to win the war. So, nice theory, but I think you need to look backwards rather than forwards in time to understand where Starship Troopers is coming from. CN The line "you want to live forever?" is a part of US Marine Corps history, although it dates from the First World War: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Daly#.22Do_you_want_to_live_forever.3F.22_quote Toto, j'ai l'impression que nous ne sommes plus au Kansas ! [ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2011-07-16 19:21 ]

Very interesting article.

I remember reading Robert Heinlein's book when I was 11 years old, so it has been a while, but looking back on it, the original novel (first published in 1959, and which the film follows reasonably closely), seems to me to be directly inspired by the War in the Pacific.

The unprovoked attack by aliens = Pearl Harbor
The first assault that goes wrong = the US ground forces' initial missteps against the Japanese Army in places like the Philippines, where they found out that their racial stereotype of the "Japs" as puny, short-sighted incompetents was not quite as accurate as they thought.
Shock and Awe = the US forces' softening up of Pacific island targets with massive artillery bombardments and carpet bombing prior to sending in the Marines (who I reckon Heinlein based his "Starship Troopers" on*).
Prisoners (and abuses thereof) = the inhumane "take no prisoners" approach adopted by both Japanese and later US forces during the Pacific, mainly as a result of repeated Japanese massacres of prisoners, and Japanese soldiers' habit of turning on their captors, even after having "surrendered". After the initial defeats experienced by Allied forces in the Pacific and the Far East, there were also various propaganda films made in an endeavour to prove that the "Japs" were not superhuman soldiers and could be beaten.
Propaganda - Hollywood churned out heaps of similar anti-Japanese propaganda during WWII
The end - I would compare this moment to the victory at Guadalcanal, when the US forces realised that they could beat Japanese forces, that they had worked out their tactics, and that they were going to win the war.

So, nice theory, but I think you need to look backwards rather than forwards in time to understand where Starship Troopers is coming from.

The line "you want to live forever?" is a part of US Marine Corps history, although it dates from the First World War:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Daly#.22Do_you_want_to_live_forever.3F.22_quote

Toto, j'ai l'impression que nous ne sommes plus au Kansas !

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2011-07-16 19:21 ]

Post #597837 by Club Nouméa on Sat, Jul 16, 2011 3:59 AM