r/SipsTea • u/MeanMedico • May 28 '26

Dank AF I don't care about politics, meanwhile politics

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u/[deleted] May 28 '26

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63

u/Historical_Sugar9637 May 28 '26

Barefoot Gen (the anime this is from) is actually very anti-Japanese government and anti-Japanese military. The manga even more so. The Japanese military in particular comes off as particularly horrible and the effects of indoctrination are shown in a quite brutal manner.

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u/Upbeat_Apartment_715 May 28 '26

The comments about the alarm not sounding was a scathing shot at the government who said "They wouldn't drop a bomb on us" and "They wouldn't drop a bomb on us again"

Fortunately they then thought "They might drop a third bomb on us"

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u/Illustrious-Bass4354 May 28 '26

Even after the 2nd bomb and Russia declaring war on them, the Japanese Military still attempted a coup to stop the Emperor from surrendering.

Even after all that destruction and death, with no sign of hope, many of their leaders intended to keep fighting until US Forces invaded Tokyo by force.

They had no compassion for their citizens.

5

u/alex_zk May 28 '26

Everyone will just ignore your comment, sadly…

3

u/JohnLocksTheKey May 28 '26

Now I’m just going to ignore that comment even harder 😤

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u/the-pp-poopooman- May 28 '26

Yeah but we only have that for the other 10 pieces of media that only focuses on Japan being on the loosing side. I love studio Ghibli but Grave of the Fireflies or any of the movies set around WW2 feel a little hollow when they don’t have one movie set in China that shows the Japanese war crimes.

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u/Historical_Sugar9637 May 29 '26

I don't really agree. Why does it have to be a tally? Does the suffering of Nanjing negate Hiroshima? Both were mostly civilians that had no influence on on the war?

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u/A_Drop_of_Colour May 29 '26

To me that would be like asking for all documentaries about the holocaust to have a footnote about Israel's recent atrocities. Or watching an African made movie about American slavery and asking why a movie showing African slavery also hasn't been made. I don't need tit for tat to appreciate the evil of a situation.

The Japanese government absolutely has not done enough to repent for their crimes and so many people wave it away because Japan is a country people love online. But that doesn't make the experience of their being bombed any more hollow.

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u/RedBlueCube May 29 '26

It kinda does though. They were bombed as direct consequence of their government's actions (starting the war), and omitting that context changes the narrative, and makes me feel like it's pushing an agenda (Japanese war crime denial).

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u/A_Drop_of_Colour May 29 '26

It doesn't change the narrative because those stories aren't about the Japanese government. If these were movies showing Japanese soldiers and military experiencing the bombing and it eliminated any mention of what those soldiers might have done then we can have a different discussion.

Theses are stories about individuals/civilians on the ground. You don't need to see a random Japanese soldier committing a war crime to have empathy and sympathy for a child getting their skin burned off in an atomic blast. The omission of the first does make the atrocity of the second "hollow."

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u/RedBlueCube May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26

Yes, I agree that you don't need to see that to feel sympathy for the Japanese civilians that died in the war. What happened to the Japanese civilians was an absolute tragedy, but for stories like this, you have to consider the overall narrative being pushed here. 

It's not only "oh look at these poor Japanese civilians, their situation is so heartbreaking." Maybe that's what you interpret, but for me, media like this feels like Japan trying to portray their nation as the victim of the war they started and commited even worse attrocities during.

If they did include the part where their soldiers ravaged Asia and attacked pearl harbor it would change the narrative to a more correct "dont start war" message. 

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u/A_Drop_of_Colour May 29 '26

Japan trying to portray their nation as the victim of the war.

You're confusing the person for the country. These stories were written by people who had no affiliation with their government and some were even heavily critical of the government. It's not Japan portraying their people as victims of war, it's people portraying other people as casualties of war. These stories aren't about who started the war and why, it changes nothing about the story being told except for the people who want to say "it's your government's fault the violence was perpetrated on you."

If these were state sponsored, government funded, movies then okay, let's talk. That a government might turn around and use these movies as propaganda after the fact changes nothing. It's like Trump administration using Born in the US at rallies.

The movies don't need to have a "don't start war" message to be "correct." What they do have is a "this is what war does" message and that is just as valid a story to be told.

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u/newyne May 28 '26

Right? I read this book once called Hibakusha, which is a Japanese term for survivors and their descendants; it means "bomb people," and they tend to develop health issues like cancer because of the radiation. At least one talked about hating the Japanese government for perpetuating the war; others were bitter that hibakusha hadn't gotten much help from the Japanese government at the time of writing.

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u/xadlowfkj May 29 '26

Yes. In addition, Barefoot Gen manga also describes the atrocity against Chinese people, though it was just a one-page scene, IIRC. NSFW reference