Our Man in Japan -- War of the Samurai
DeanRaker - Columns - Comments - 08/22/04
The image that dominates my mind is the "fight for my country" style of loyalty, the military honor of belonging to a group. Can there be honor in that? I would try to be open-minded and say yes, but it's hard for me to think that way. The closest you'd get is Metal Slug. And take a look at how seriously that game is rendered. In Spy Fiction or Metal Gear Solid, you play as special operatives, but they're meant to be characters who just happen to be in that position; the fact that they're part of the organization isn't emphasized. In this summer's Psi-Ops, a stand-out action title, I find myself thinking, "Ops? Does that mean I'm considered part of some military? Man, I hope not."
So much effort has been spent disowning what happened in World War II that the Japanese are turned off by modern military concepts. At the same time, we've wanted to find something to be proud of our country. We look to our past traditions to help.
So while there is a Yamato Man in Mega Man 6, he's a joke. Ha ha, here's this robot who's got a patriotic hard-on. I don't think the Japanese have a concept of all the world's military as raging jingoists ready to nuke the world, but it's far from a positive image. Shortly after his inauguration, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi set off a huge controversy when he visited a shrine known for deifying war criminals. His continued interest in rewriting the clause in our constitution that allows for military actions has a lot of Japanese concerned. Anything that comes close to opening that old wound is too close to home to be called entertainment. Some gamers even argue that the government policies have helped foreign games with military themes thrive here. The thinking is that those who agree with the government have gained more of an appetite for not only the Self Defense Force, but for all military subjects.
Whichever it is, EA's recent small success over here with the Medal of Honor series and the expanding niche of localized versions of SOCOM and Silent Storm may actually help banish the ghost that still haunts generations who had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor, Midway, and Hiroshima. Indeed, Japan briefly overcame this prejudice against military themes during the Bubble Economy, when there was a great demand for all things American. And in Japan, American meant Platoon, Apocalypse Now, or Rambo (rambo is the Japanese word for violent). Nintendo's Metroid, Konami's Contra, Capcom's 194x shooters, and SNK's classic Ikari Warriors are products of this demand. But the interest in American militarism faded and in its place, ironically, inspired a look toward German sources of history and culture for war themes. Ever wonder why there are German words in the names of some Japanese games? It's not a huge fad in the same way as a chart-topping album in the late 80s by boy band Kansas with a song called Song for America. But perhaps it's a way of soul searching.
The soul of Japan will probably be just fine no matter what happens in the future. There's an international community ready to slap our hands should we get that whole bratty Yamato thang goin' on again. And really, in a country whose greatest obsession is what happens to baseball athletes when they go overseas, a slip into dangerous militarism seems far away. Although games like Sony's SOCOM: US Navy SEALs might force Japanese to evaluate that part of our psyche, for now, Mega Man is a lone ranger.
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