Anti US Protest in Japan

crobato said:

True, but its not the first and only anime I've watched in Adult Swim that seems to reflect a negative view on the US, at least on the US government and military. Like in Blood+, US bases in Okinawa are being used to conduct inhuman genetic experiments which ended up making a meal of the local population. It all seems to be a trend going around.

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I think that a lot of Japanese do indeed resent or have mixed attitudes towards the US presence in their country. But I would just like to point out that an out of control military, military experiments gone wrong, a military that is interested in provoking conflict etc. are prevalent themes in American pop culture and movies as well. So I don't know if that illustrates a real sustainable base of opinion for political real-world action, I think it just shows that writers everywhere realize that involving the US government and military makes for a good conspiracy theory story.

Kongo said:

Anime being used to indicate Japanese views of the US :roll: Maybe because what anime portrays suit what you guys think? Or has anime become reality for some here? Let me introduce this board to something called 'opinion polls'.

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Anime still draws on underlying cultural and social elements (such as the infamous Neon Genesis Evangelion), even if it isn't necessarily realistic, so one can see such elements in presentation despite not being immediately topical.

Finn McCool said:

I think that a lot of Japanese do indeed resent or have mixed attitudes towards the US presence in their country. But I would just like to point out that an out of control military, military experiments gone wrong, a military that is interested in provoking conflict etc. are prevalent themes in American pop culture and movies as well. So I don't know if that illustrates a real sustainable base of opinion for political real-world action, I think it just shows that writers everywhere realize that involving the US government and military makes for a good conspiracy theory story.

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Well that's Hollywood for you which tends to bend against the establishment and Americans for the most part are inherently rebellious and disbelieving of their own establishments especially when such establishments grow too big and powerful. But outside of the US, writers everywhere don't exactly involve the US government in some sort of evil conspiracy, though in Europe, there is a tendency to portray the US government as arrogant, imperial, and insensitive but that's another issue. For conspiracies and bad guys, far more the culprit is a monolithic, nearly omnipotent mega-corporation that has no national boundaries, and though those who run such corporations seem to be your ultra-greedy Wall Street types, conspiring with Asians that seem connected with the Yakuza or Triads. Sort of like Umbrella Corporation in the RE series or the Alliance in the Firefly TV series.

The two examples I brought up is quite interesting because GiTS Stand Alone Complex is illustrating some serious social themes (Japan's issue with immigrants, racism, nationalism, terrorism, even a war in the continent) and in the second season of that show, it got an American nuclear sub ready to loose a nuclear weapon on Japanese soil in order to control a refugee revolution that was actually manipulated by right wing elements. In the end, Japan declares its neutrality from the American Empire as the US is actually called. On the second, conspiracies are one thing, but situating it in Okinawa where you got a million other places to put the story in and where the real life friction are already hot seems like beyond the call of fiction. But of course, such works are the opinions of their respective authors.

Japanese version of NIMBYs in the UK ("not-in-my-backyard"). They're less concerned about the Japan-US alliance and more about the nuclear aircraft carrier that's arriving. I think a majority of Japanese support military co-operation with the US.

US Nuclear carriers have a perfect safety record on nuclear issues. So they don't have much to worry about when it comes to radiation or a possible meltdown or any other such issues.

Finn McCool said:

US Nuclear carriers have a perfect safety record on nuclear issues. So they don't have much to worry about when it comes to radiation or a possible meltdown or any other such issues.

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The problem is that Japan is a little sensitive regarding the use of nuclear technology for military uses... let's just say they had a bad experience with it...

Pointblank said:

The problem is that Japan is a little sensitive regarding the use of nuclear technology for military uses... let's just say they had a bad experience with it...

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Indeed. But it's also true that people will get upset over nuclear matters regardless of safety records. UK nuclear power stations have been quite safe but people here always object - thats why they're called NIMBYs (they don't care where it is so long as it's not near them).

The worst nuclear accident in the US was the Three Mile Island incident, which lead to the downfall of US domestic nuclear power for almost 3 decades. In 1960s the US estimated that there would be over 1,000 reactors operating by 2000. Today there's about 100 commercial reactors running (excluding research reactors & military). It wasn't until very recently that new reactor construction had a resurgence.

Japan is in a tough situation where they need to utilize nuclear power to reduce reliance on import oil, but their domestic safety record has been iffy. They had a string of accidents, and back in 2002 they shut down 17 Tokyo Electrics reactors for inspection, and found that 13 had cracks in the reactor vessel shrouds. The Tokyo Electric officials had falsified inspection records (!).

The protest against USN nuclear-powered naval ships is not just about foreign military presence, but partly supported by local opposition to nuclear power (and weapons). This is an issue to USN due to USN's reliance on nuclear power. There are many other ports and even entire countries opposed to docking or passing of nuclear-powered vessels within its ocean territory:

crobato said:

Its reflected in newspaper articles and opinions, in internet blogs even to anime and manga. In one show, a popular series called Ghost in the Shell, the US is called "Imperial America" whose economy is bankrupt. It seemed to be a perception in other places too---I saw a British SF show that showed a similar description.

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Code Geass series also depicts America (through strong British culture ironically) very negatively.

US military presence in Japan are not there only to defend them, it's afterall a result of the japanese military defeat of WW2, it's there also to confine and control Japan, to keep it tightened to US, but as long as China are there and rising, Japan will accept this. at least for now, noone knows what will happen when China continuies to develop into something maybe twice as powerful than US or even more, but as of today, Japan seems stil want to compete with China for influence, this will of competition from Japan is doomed to fail if u look at how things have turned out and changed the past 20years.