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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   29426 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 19, 2024

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It's a matter of cultural differences. In Japan, I assume you're considered a wokescold if you say that the emperor gave permission for the attack on Pearl Harbor or that the imperial dynasty has Korean roots in part or that the imperial armed forces forced Korean women to be their barrack whores or that the Korean minority is discriminated against in Japan etc. These arguments may be hugely controversial there, but are of little consequence to a Westerner, so if an exported Japanese cultural product of any sort includes them, Western consumers will not identify any of this as woke.

It never really comes up, though. At least as far as I've seen (I don't have a huge social circle) there's no Japanese equivalent to the wokescold who takes smug pleasure or moral gratification in bringing up controversial topics. If something is controversial people just don't talk about it.

In Japanese media, the closest to that you'll likely get is Japanese right-wing themed focus on re-militarization.

If you want a hilarious example of this, check out Deep Blue Fleet. Basic premise is that when Yamamoto was assassinated in WW2, instead of dying he got isekai'd into... his younger self in 1905 with all of the knowledge of what would happen. He rapidly modernizes the Japanese fleet (including creating a bunch of submarine aircraft carriers, which is where the title of the anime comes from) and Japan basically dominates the world.

Absolutely hilarious revanchist slop, but a fun insight into the mindset of revanchist Japanese anime nerds.

Oh, sure, but AFAIK it’s not being done to troll the pacifists, it’s because nationalistic military nerds like it when their country conquers the world.

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