User blog:Morgane of the Mists/Cultural exchange, pt. 1

Warning: this is a long post.

One of my younger, more impressionable Asian students approached me yesterday with an interesting query. Is playing KanColle supporting Japanese Imperialism and Militarism?

Let me explain a little bit about this personal anecdote. This student of mine is Chinese. His great-grandparents died in the Shanghai bombing. A cursory search will reveal that the culprit is none other than dive bombers from Kaga. This particular question that he brings up, however, is not rare at all in the Chinese/Korean community. Hankook IIbo, Xinhua Times, etc, have all addressed this question in some fashion. Thus, it is extremely interesting that he comes to me - a half-breed of east and west - to answer this question. And, as such, I will attempt to answer this the best I can. It's just one opinion, so take as you will.

The really short version: No, because not enough people actually care about history.

The short version: Probably not for the vast majority of us.
 * If you were already a right-wing conservative dreaming of the "glory" days of the Great Japanese Empire or whatever, then yes, KanColle might be another venue for you to daydream. Every once in a while we get these folks in Nico or equivalents, and to be perfectly frank, the arguments on these boards rival that of youtube.
 * If you had an awareness or interest in WWII history, you are either A). horrified that WWII ships have been turned into scantily-clad girls or B). entertained by the prospect. In either case, your opinion is unlikely to change. You may appreciate the historical details Kensuke Tanaka paid when designing the characters, but in the end, a game's a game. I myself is borderline this second category - I like history of all types, this being no exception.
 * My guess, for the vast majority of players, they really could care less. People rarely talk about this openly, but this is anthro-moe we're talking about. The vast, vast majority of folks are only interested in the newest doujins coming out of Comiket and whether or not the newest character introduced is worthy of a box or three or five of tissues.

The add-on to the long version:

KanColle's popularity largely stems from the objective fact that it is a F2P browser game with great character designs and voice. If you know anything about browser games in Japan, know that they're large sinks of time and money. KanColle is arguably one of the former, but not necessarily one of the latter, which makes it amenable to the gaming population.

(Worth mentioning that the definition of "gaming" is quite different in Japan as well. I, of course, speak from a perspective of an outsider, as I neither purchase nor buy nor play enough games to formally count)

The second, and more important reason, is that the devs actively interact with their fanbase. The active promotion of second-tier media in the form of doujins, fanfiction (light novels), and other related goods is directly responsible for why KanColle has suddenly gained traction. Kadokawa'll be making money via other products instead of the game itself, which results in a loyal fanbase that's hard to dislodge. In my opinion, this is the distinction from other "cult classics" like Touhou: KanColle devs and fanbase are far more interactive as a result of the modern methods of communication. As such, because of such a diversified following, there are bound to be authors and artists running the full gamut of the social-political spectrum, even within the officially sanctioned works. I would peg Kagero, setting sail as one that leans more towards conservative views on the IJN, and Kakuyoku no Kizuna as one that is more on the "liberal" end. Nonetheless, these points remain common in all official KanColle works, and I think before anyone start pointing fingers at anyone else, it's a good thing to keep these points in mind.


 * Nothing in Kantai Collection is really defined well. This is a calculated move on the dev's part to ensure greater diversity and development of fanworks.
 * The actual nature of what a ship girl is has never been concretely defined, and differs from work to work. In Kagero, the gist of things is that normal girls can train to become ship girls (it is not clear whether the titular character is literally a Kagero-class ship or they just happen to be named after IJN ships). As I have discussed previously in other blogposts, in Kakuyoku, they are explicitly stated to be humanized spirits of warships. In our game, depending on which interview you're looking at, they're either girls rescued from the abyssal fleet, or they're summoned in a fashion similar to that described in Kakuyoku.
 * The Abyssal fleet is for all intent and purposes, actual alien invaders. Kakuyoku addresses this the best conceptually. It is true that they use USN gun gauges and many ships refer to USN armaments and technology, but think about this for a second. KanColle ban all non-Japanese IPs, so this game was only meant to be played by Japanese players. If this game was really meant to "promote IJN militarism" they probably would have stated it outright - Kadokawa publishing have been accused by many groups of skewing towards conservatism.
 * In my opinion, there is no reason for them to be discreet about it. Works such as Zipang or Konpeki no Kantai comes to mind. There are plenty of works that are far more obvious in their depiction of allied forces and the gloriousness of the IJN.

"But Morgane," you ask. "Why are so many KanColle doujin works showing the Americans as the bad guys? Or, As shown in this interview here, Tanaka's original intent is for players to remember these ships that once served in WWII. Isn't that basically promoting militarism?"

Firstly, that's a very, very small segment of the population. Trust me, most folks are more interested in anything but the history or the implications of historical references. However, inevitably, it is the more controversial subjects (dismantling, sinking, modernization, and history are four of the more sensitive areas within the community) that gets picked up.

This goes back to the education thing I was talking about. WWII is glossed over with scant details paid to it. Unlike Germany, Japan does not cover this particular part of its past in significant detail at all. Germany chooses to remember and have its students engage in dialogue. Japan, at least in my experience, doesn't. On one hand, people would rather say they don't know or don't remember. On the other hand, the damage done by the atomic bomb and how Japan was subsequently wronged by the Americans (and the world) is given a lot more spotlight than you'd realize.

For the vast majority of people that I could consider my peers, I think the reality of the situation is that we get a one-sided version of the story, and we typically never break out of that bubble to look at things any other way. I hesitate to use the word "we" because, full disclosure, owing to my half-breed status, I identify (legally or otherwise) as American first and foremost. I do not reject my ancestry or my origins, but after seeing the entirety of the picture, let's just say, "we screwed up" is putting it extremely mildly. Nobody should be able to say, I didn't know anything about the treatment of POWs or the invasion of Asia or any number of atrocities that were committed. Yet to recognize the whole picture would imply that we take in both what our ancestors did right and did wrong at the same time. I simply don't think Japan is ready for that.

If you know, do not talk about it. If you know nothing, do not seek. Obey and do not question. That is unfortunately what it was a decade ago. Having not participated in pre-secondary education recently, I confess I do not know what things are like now, but I think until Japan can face its past like Germany did, it will forever remain a haunting shadow in my culture's past. Japan has never had problems with trying to motivate people into being proud of being Japanese. Modern media such as anime play a large role in promoting national pride, and Kantai Collection is no exception to the rule.

So, is anyone really surprised by the factual observation that in a game set with IJN warships as the backdrop, in Japan's current economic recession and uncertainty, there are some small fraction of artists and writers harkening back to the "good old days" where Japan was a force to be reckoned with and feared across the globe?

... Bearing in mind, in the vast majority of these "militant" works, the attitude is more one of longing and regret for some perceived long-lost value (e.g. fairness in battle being a common one, despite all of us knowing that it was more or less a post-war invention)? One day I will likely comment on the concept of theネトゲ廃人, but that's a topic better left covered on its own.

Secondly, and more importantly, I need to explain a little about post-war Japan and how (and why) such military works are popular.

Japan has never been a powerful country, despite having dreams of becoming as grand as China in as early as the Sengoku period. When Matthew Perry blew open the ports of the Tokugawa shogunate, it was like a slap to the face, and Japan woke up. Unlike its Chinese neighbor, Japan went through rapid industrialization and within decades became a regional power ready to becoming a mover of worlds. What happened was nothing short of a miracle, and people were rightfully proud of what had happened. Yet pride always came before the fall. Japan was arrogant, capricious, and frankly, stupid. It was hubris and an extremely misguided sense of national (and racial) superiority, justified by philosophical elements such as re-branded Buddhism, that lead to the events of WWI and WWII. If there can be a definition of evil, then I'd say we were evil. There is no way around that topic no matter how we'd like to spin it.

And just like that, everything came crashing down. Japan was functionally reduced to rubble. To reconstruct civil order and to rebuild a national identity was on everyone's mind, and it is through this rebuilding process that we now see the "elements" of "militarism" we see today. I speak, of course, of Space Battleship Yamato. Yamato's symbolism is apparent, but the themes present in that particular anime is reflective of Japan's own re-establishment of its national identity. When Yamato (the spaceship) reappeared from beneath the ground, it was a moment of resurrection for hundreds of thousands of viewers who's managed to survive through WWII. Other media of the 70s showed a similar pattern of thought, where the emphasis was on the collective good, peace, and the futility of war.

Fast forward ten years, where Japan's economy has recovered, and you begin to see a different trend. The emphasis becomes personal. Protagonists and characters become younger and younger to reflect upon the newer generation growing up. Romanticism and romantic ideals regarding the "glory" of war became the norm, and the depth in which earlier works are replaced by more contemporary issues that would better cater to the tastes to that generation.

Then, we get into the early 2000s, and moe becomes king. The modern otaku really doesn't give a damn about anything unless it's cute so they can fap to it (to borrow a term I have recently learned). Thus, the development of Kantai Collection is reflective of yet another trend. So long as something can be turned into a cute girl, it will be done. The only difference here is the source material. No deeper reason is usually given for why war occurs or why the protagonist joins into battle, and this decrease in perceived complexity is actually a topic of complaint among many older anime fans.

Which leads to today. As a whole, in anime, Japan likes to ponder and think about what happened. However, as I have discussed above, there is a great reluctance to actually take the responsibility for what we did during WWII. A common theme - including that found in KanColle - is that those involved are fighting for the sake of fighting, and militarism was a move that was meant to happen regardless of personal opinions. This is really a way for us to escape from what we actually did. The idea that perhaps people knew they were committing grave injustices but still following orders because of some higher ideal or value such as loyalty offers a path of psychological comfort.

At the same time, there is an active degree of repression. Deep down inside, I think all of us know what we did was wrong. However, to openly discuss it? To openly acknowledge it? Japan doesn't and hasn't worked that way for a long time. This is why I think there is an overt attempt to whitewash anything that could be negative when it comes to IJN/IJA military imperialism. If you drown out the bad stuff with peace, love, and cute girls, then maybe it'd be ok to be proud of the past again. It doesn't mean that people agreed with what happened or thought what happened was right, but like a small child hiding a broken dish from parents, it's just something that they'd rather not think about.

In a sense, the goal - to make sure something terrible like this doesn't happen again - is the same. However, the way Japan goes about doing it is horribly alienating to non-Japanese because of its complete disregard for responsibility. When framed in such a perspective, idealizing values (commonly associated with the military) such as loyalty or honor suddenly seems far less innocent then they actually may be. I think this is again, a sign of the internal conflicts that goes on within modern Japanese culture as a whole, and the roots of it remains simply: we have yet to come to terms with our own past. Could learn quite a bit from Germany in that regard.

So, again, if someone chooses to interpret the work in such a way, I think they'd be free to do that. But I don't think it means that the work itself is inherently promoting anything. If anything, the company really just want your time and money.

On a personal level, I think KanColle provides an interesting combination of feelings. Yes, I cringe whenever I see fanart like Kongou dealing opium to the Chinese to fund her tea habits or the Kido Butai bombing Pearl Harbor with demonic grins on their faces, but in the end, I do diffuse the ship girls from their history based on the background provided in works such as Kakuyoku. That's not to say that I'm ignoring history. In fact, I hope that I've convinced you that it's just the opposite with this post.

In a game set in a controversial time period, Kadokawa has done its best to remain reasonably objective. Characters like KTKM react negatively in-game towards the application of suicide weapons like Kaiten. As a whole, As players, I think it is only fair that we face history. Nazism is evil, but that's no reason to not play WWII-based games or to not learn about WWII history. The same sort of logic applies here.

And for those of us living within the shadows of our ancestry, I think an occasional reminder about what terrible crimes are committed in war is not bad at all.

Each character in Kantai Collection, to be honest, is heavily linked to a plethora of historical details. For a game with this many characters, it's a testament to the devs that every single character (yes, even Fubuki) has devoted fans. History reflects a rich background that provides the design and personalities of these characters, but beyond that, it's up to each of us to interpret what these characters are and tell their own story via gameplay, writing, or art.

Personally, I would love to see Kadokawa expand this world and tell us exactly how ship girls from other countries are faring (it is strongly hinted that foreign girls are summoned to battle elsewhere in what the alternate "earth" may be). Given the profit-driven nature of how DMM operates, we'll see. If and when they decide it'd be profitable to open up the Royal Navy or the USN, Prince of Wales or Enterprise might have to fight my Nagato for the flagship spot.

Thanks for reading. I promise I'll bring lore next time instead of a mildly controversial topic. :)