newtypenewhalf:lostintrafficlights:reinedecatastrophe:frenchfryempress:officialnordic:We got our fir

newtypenewhalf:lostintrafficlights:reinedecatastrophe:frenchfryempress:officialnordic:We got our first blog hate.Valentine’s Day, 2015Don’t trust the Hetalians we love romanticizing imperialism and war with our stereotypes and crappy humorHoly Christ, okay sit down I’m going to explain something to you.Hetalia isn’t simply “stereotypes and crappy humor”. Hetalia was created by a man who is literally a right-wing nationalist who FULLY believes Asian countries under Japanese Imperialism BENEFITTED from colonialism. I want to give you a rundown of what life was like under the Japanese occupation, because my grandparents suffered under it.Many non-Japanese East and Southeast Asians, under Japanese occupation, were often forced to speak Japanese only and often their native languages were forbidden. They were forced to forsake their own names and take on Japanese ones. Women were often kidnapped and taken as sex slaves (called “comfort women”), many people were taken as slaves and sent to Japan. A lot of their descendants still face discrimination in Japan today and are known as Zainichi. You were literally in danger of being beaten to death or enslaved at any moment for one wrong move. Japan was responsible for a FUCKTON of genocides, including the Rape of Nanjing and the Bataan Death march. (Media that shows what life was like under the Japanese occupation include the films “Ip Man” and “Nanjing! Nanjing!” and the book “When My Name Was Keoko.”)If you’re a Westerner you probably know very little about this and won’t pick up on hints (although to the rest of us Asians it’s incredibly blatant) of nationalism and pro-imperialist propaganda in Hetalia. I’ve explained these things in a previous post but I’m going to just copypasta it here.“South Korea is portrayed as someone who “hates” Japan but it shown as somewhat a closet weeb. I’ll copy something from the bio.Korea claims to hate Japan, but is constantly copying his style and creations, and believes that he has ownership over his breasts. At one point, he wanted to dig a tunnel to connect both their countries. He tried to justify his complicated relationship with the claim that tsundere originated from him.In the original World Conference strip, it is shown that he will go out of his way to disagree with any of Japan’s opinions, preferring to side with America instead - even when Japan and America have already agreed.The first sentence is incredibly reflective of many Japanese people’s belief that Korea wanted to be colonized by Japan and that the colonialism benefited them. Furthermore, “believes that he has ownership over his breasts”? Japan and Korea (as far as I know) are often in disagreement over who owns which land. To put it mildly. And Japan absolutely thinks these lands belong to them. I’m not going to answer further questions about Korea since I’m not Korean and you’re better off discussing this with Korean users such as lostintrafficlightsI am, however, Taiwanese, so yeah, I can be a little more elaborate on Taiwan’s portrayal. (More excerpts from the Hetalia wiki bios.)Most of the time she is very positive and cheerful, and enjoys Japan’s “kawaii” culture very much.Again, other Asian countries TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH JAPAN!! AND ITS CULTURE!!! (And this isn’t to say there aren’t some Asians who are very interested in Japanese culture, but given the context of Hetalia? It’s pretty clear what they’re trying to depict.)She addresses [China] as “teacher” in the drama CD, but calls him a “bastard” in an earlier sketch. An early illustration showed that she cannot stand China, and prefers Japan, ordering China to leave him alone.This description alone is so fucking disgusting I can’t even.Does Taiwan have conflict with China? Yeah. China still thinks we’re a Chinese colony when we are an independent country. (So then why are we called “ROC” on U.S. passports? U.S. is heavily reliant on China and god forbid they give a shit about Chinese politicians fucking over Taiwanese people.)But the Hetalia mangaka completely warps this into “OH TAIWAN IS ON JAPAN’S SIDE BECAUSE WE BOTH HATE CHINA!!!” Just because our current conflicts are with China does not mean we don’t abhor Japan’s occupation. People were enslaved and massacred. We won’t forget this simply in a span of seventy years. My grandparents alive during that time, that’s how recent it was. For the mangaka to completely twist Taiwan’s issues into “OH HOW WE LOVE JAPAN!!! OHHHH JAPAN IS CLEARLY THE SUPERIOR ONE!!!” reeks of nationalism and right-wing beliefs.”This is also why the Rising Sun flag is incredibly insulting in most of East/Southeast Asia, akin to waving the Nazi flag in Jewish communities. Hetalia is literal modern-day propaganda. There are survivors who have never recovered from their trauma, old women who were sex slaves in those days who never received compensation. Oh, and funny thing about that—Japanese schools refuse to teach the horrors of their occupation. They refuse to take down the rising sun flag, and most importantly, Japan has never apologized for its war crimes and the devastation they’ve brought to millions of innocent people. Please take this into account when you see people angry at your fandom for simply dismissing it as silly stereotypes.If you really can’t see why Hetalia is so horrible and imperialist and insulting after all this, I just have no words at your selfishness.I’m going to be petty and add this little detail: this is lyrics from England’s character song"The seven seas are like my back yardRomance and plunderingI manage holiday houses in India and Hong-Kong”YEA!!!!! ENGLAND!!! COLONIZING HALF OF THE WORLD!! imperialism is so cute and something to boast about!!all of you defending this shitty anime are childish af. OHMYGOD WHAT THE FUCK half of it is about ww2 and they never mention the holocaust except as a throwaway gag (italy: “i brought you something” germany: “oh, another jew?”). you should be disgusted by this. -- source link

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