Yes, but I was trying to avoid putting too fine a point on it -- which was why in the subsequent clause I crossed out 'culture' and replace with 'earth', for that implication. Not like I didn't go the step further regardless, in mentioning that the Japanese culture has also turned the horrors of the bomb on its head by making themselves into the sacrificial victims, which is what gets replayed and replayed and replayed in every freaking mecha (and other) anime in which big-war-makes-big-peace. It's not a matter of getting justice -- or not only a matter of that -- but also a matter of recognizing their own cultural/historical guilt in the events leading up to that point. Among other things. The animanga/cultural representation of our-pacifism-is-pasted-on-yey is simplistic; not that pop culture usually wanders outside the realm of simplistic treatments, just that this particular strain of bald-faced simplicity seems to be rooted deep.
It's almost a breath of fresh air to come across someone of that cultural background doing something different with genocide as literary trope, for once.
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Date: 27 Jul 2010 07:13 am (UTC)It's almost a breath of fresh air to come across someone of that cultural background doing something different with genocide as literary trope, for once.