because that would be monstrous

Tumblr'd by Adam Serwer, via Mother Jones... From Gideon Rose's How Wars End, on U.S. public opinion toward Japan in 1944:

In response to a December 1944 poll asking "what do you think we sould do with Japan as a country after the war?" 13 percent of Americans wanted to "kill all Japanese" and 33 percent wanted to destroy Japan as a political entity. The poll's comparable question on Germany did not even include the first option.

Of course it didn't. Because killing all Germans? That would be monstrous.