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Do most Americans not regard the Japanese as a worthy enemy? Maybe I listen to too much Dan Carlin or something, but my memory of Imperial Japan includes extreme bravery and substantial competence.
No, they don't, the dominant view of the WWII Japanese is that they were batshit crazy and directed by Nazi-tier evil leadership.
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I think that this has changed over time. I am old enough to have known many WWII vets and they almost universally hated the Japs and did not really admire them even in the most begrudging fashion. the common adjectives describing Japanese soldiers would have been more like fanatical, honor bound, or suicidal. More like a death cult than an army. I think over the period of the Cold War, when Japan became more and more of an economic and strategic ally, and as the WWII generation died out, that shifted. In the popular worldview, movies like TORA TORA TORA and later films like Letters from Iwo Jima contributed as well.
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The Japanese didn't adhere to Western codes of chivalry, they routinely tortured and executed their captives and generally fought without either decency or mercy. Such an enemy isn't seen as worthy and earns no respect; I think American attitudes towards them during the war reflect that.
A somewhat less subjective (but by no means esoteric) view might be that many of the Japanese conscripts were themselves basically brainwashed thugs drunk on pie-in-the sky notions of honor and loyalty to the emperor (they weren't all thugs, of course). They had their own codes, albeit not ones really accessible to non-Japanese, and this made them seem (particularly at the time) impenetrably barbaric. Their martial views of any enemy who would so dishonor themselves as to surrender contributed to the objectively horrific treatment they afforded any captives.
In the actual fighting (e.g. the jungles of Burma) they made formidable and resilient, if despised enemies. To say they were without decency or mercy may feel good but is a contextual judgment that overlooks the considerable cultural influences involved.
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