>>279637011This. Also, a bit of a cultural context thats worth keeping in mind:
Japan went into WW2 with the same 'Master Race' style dogma as the Nazis did, to the point that Hitler had to declare the people of Japan to be a lost Aryan tribe so that they could both be the master race together and be allies instead of competitors. A lot of their wartime propaganda was based on the myth that they were a genetically, spiritually, culturally superior people and that justified their treatment of others during the war because they were lesser than they.
And then Japan lost to America. Badly.
In the aftermath of WW2 the USA did a lot of cultural whitewashing and brainwashing to help rebuild Japan as an ally instead of a bitter enemy, and one of the weird quirks that arose out of that time period was the idea that Japan was superior to *most* of the world, but America was superior to Japan and thats why they won and Japan lost. So instead of being losers, they were just in second place.
This informs some early post-WW2 depictions of Americans that then became culturally ingrained, repeated, and exaggerated over time: "We're still cool, these Americans are just cooler. We're still strong, they were just stronger."