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Part of war propaganda is to assign a nickname to the enemy so as to
dehumanize them. The USA has done this for decades in the wars in Southeast
Asia, Vietnam, the Middle East, Central America, etc.

Did the Japanese soldiers refer to Western soldiers as "鬼畜米兵"?  
Did the civilian population also refer to Western soldiers as "鬼畜米兵"?

Was there a slang term used by Japanese soldiers to refer to soldiers from
Asian countries in WW2?
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2015-05-20T02:59:15.747
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2015-05-20T16:45:30.260
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question
slang
Were western soldiers called "鬼畜{きちく}米兵{べいへい}" in WW2?
鬼畜米英 is somewhat famous even today as a slogan, and this is what most of
Japanese people learn in history classes at school. But this phrase is
obviously too long for everyday use, and there seems to be little evidence
that this was widely used in speech during the war.

Other shorter derogatory nicknames I know include
[アメ公【こう】](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%A1%E5%85%AC) and
米鬼【べいき】. In particular, I've heard アメ公 used often in war-films (which were
created long after the war), but I admit I have no idea how often these were
actually used by Japanese people in those days.

Wikipedia has the [list of derogatory
nicknames](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B7%AE%E5%88%A5%E7%94%A8%E8%AA%9E#.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E8.AA.9E.E3.81.A7.E5.90.84.E5.9B.BD.E4.BA.BA.E3.82.92.E5.B7.AE.E5.88.A5.E3.83.BB.E4.BE.AE.E8.94.91.E3.81.99.E3.82.8B.E3.81.9F.E3.82.81.E3.81.AE.E7.94.A8.E8.AA.9E)
referring to people in various countries. I'm not familiar with some of these,
though.
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2015-05-20T16:45:30.260
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2015-05-20T16:45:30.260
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answer