B.P. Suverkropp (bastiaan@HAWAII.EDU)
Fri, 5 Mar 1999 16:25:49 -1000
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01-C-MACOS8 (Macintosh; I; PPC) Message-ID: <36E0921C.69D6@hawaii.edu> Date: Fri, 5 Mar 1999 16:25:49 -1000 From: "B.P. Suverkropp" <bastiaan@HAWAII.EDU> Subject: Nationalism in Sakura Taisen
>Sakura Taisen and Sakura Taisen 2 both have a lot of stress on Japanese
>national pride and the Imperial roots and power. The Kamikaze-style attack
>that Yoneda leads on Satan's weapon towards the end of Sakura 1 also
>reflects this history, and it's a very "nationalistic" story in its own
>right.
>
>It's improper, and incorrect (IMHO), to expect a Japanese product and story
>to conform to Western culture and a Western idea of "Political Correctness".
The time in which the story is set was actually one of intense
nationalism in Japan, although it had not reached the militairistic and
xenophobic excesses of the 1930's and 1940's. Not to portray this would
indeed be unrealistic.
-- Bas P. Suverkropp email: bastiaan@hawaii.edu