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Manga to promote US-Japan military alliance

Netto Azure

Netto Azure

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    Manga to promote US-Japan military alliance

    [PokeCommunity.com] Manga to promote US-Japan military alliance

    The manga is the first of four explaining the half-century alliance

    The US military is to use manga-style comics to teach Japanese children about the two countries' security alliance.


    Four comics featuring a Japanese girl and a visiting US boy will be posted online, each exploring how US and Japanese troops work together.
    A US spokesman said they were intended as a light-hearted explanation of the history of the alliance.
    The comics, marking 50 years of the security pact, come amid strained ties over US bases in Okinawa.

    The first Japanese-language manga comic, entitled Our Alliance - A Lasting Partnership, will be posted online on Wednesday.
    In it the young girl, Arai Anzu - which sounds like alliance when pronounced by a Japanese person - asks the boy, Usa-kun - a play on USA - why he is protecting her house.
    "Because we have an alliance," he says. "We are 'Important Friends'."
    "It's good to have a friend you can rely on to go with you," the little girl concludes.

    Major Neal Fisher, deputy director of the US forces' public affairs office in Japan, said the manga were intended as a "light-hearted approach to telling the story of the alliance through the eyes of two young people who are learning why the US military are in Japan".
    The manga format was chosen because it was "a very commonly accepted format of media in Japan - it is read as much if not more than newspapers", he added.

    Some paper copies of the comics would also be available at bases, he said.
    Japan hosts some 47,000 US troops in return for security guarantees from the US, under a security pact agreed in 1960. More than half of these troops are based on the southern island of Okinawa.
    Plans to relocate the Futenma airbase from southern to northern Okinawa have caused outrage amongst residents who want the base moved off the island completely.

    The row toppled Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, after he was forced to renege on a pledge to re-evaluate the base relocation deal.
    Click to expand...

    Jeez why not just show episode 50 of the Hetalia Anime while you're at it. :P

    Finally the US military is making propaganda look good. XD
    ​
     
    Hmm, I don't think this is the right step towards getting the rest of the world taking America seriously, especially on military matters. In either case, if getting kids to understand is the issue, I don't think metaphors are going to help since they're not heavily trained to analyze things just yet. It'll probably be taken as a fun children's book, and that's about it.
     
    I want to read this. Hopefully they decide to release this in English at some point. The illustrations look very lovely and the from what I see it looks like it might be a fun read.
     
    ...

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

    wat

    This is... Wow.

    No. The US Military has no business doing this, and... Well...

    Does it cover "Ari Anzu, I beat up your family, so now we're FRIENDS?"
     
    It's clearly propaganda and for that alone I probably wouldn't like it, but since it's "light-hearted" and has children characters I feel like it could possibly be intended for children and if it is that would be... wrong. Children should be allowed to grow up and form their own opinions on something like this.

    The art is cute though.
     
    As long as it's good, I don't really see a problem. I wouldn't want my hypothetical child subjected to terrible writing, though.

    That aside, it seems like it's just an idea for how to explain a complex situation to younger children, and I don't see anything wrong with that.
     
    The relationship between US and Japan is very easy to explain to Americans, and very tricky to explain to the Japanese.

    No points for guessing why.

    I'd be very interested to see how they pull this off without putting the Japanese in a horrible light.
     
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