Muv Luv's Japanese critique of Americans

Total Eclipse’s narrative is simply a cautionary reminder: sometimes the story the author thinks he is telling is more of a mirror image of his own soul, rather than a window into his subjects (in this case, Americans, Russians, French, etc).

The author of Total Eclipse believes he is writing a “teaching moment” about racism, particularly about the American military strain.

In fact, he’s simply describing a mirror image of his own (Japanese) racism.

I’ve served in Yokosuka aboard the USS Fitzgerald for several years, and being called a racist by the Japanese is akin to being called a racist by a Nazi. I’m not making an emotional insult, it’s a factual statement.

Living and bunking on the USS Fitzgerald (Or any Command in my career) and relocating from the bridge to the Quarterdeck to Aft Steering, you’ll see any number of Americans of different races and mixed race. Neither I nor anybody else gave it much thought because race is about as important as the color of your T-shirt on Liberty weekend in the US Military.

I have shipmates and civilian co-workers who have relatives with different ethnic backgrounds and mixed heritage so convoluted they don’t even bother with it and often don’t care. One of my friend’s uncle and aunt has a pair of adopted kids of Korean extract. They both go to our self-defense lessons, come to Command events and attend school just as any American children with loving parents in the Military would.

It’s perfectly normal for us.

Of course, the above situations are completely alien to the Japanese…and there’s the rub:

The author thinks he is describing a mixed raced person’s alienation and racial discrimination in a typical US Military and American family setting. But in reality, he’s describing what would happen if a mixed race person was placed in a typical JSDF or Japanese family setting.

In that light, it’s forgiveable.

Have you worked with or even SEEN the JSDF? Do you know what would happen if a mixed race person was exposed to a Military service that to this day prides itself on its racial purity? They still talk about the Yamato Master race, which was the equivalent of Nazi Germany’s Aryan Master race in WWII. The Japanese sailors, while our conversations are cordial, are not exactly shy about their racism. For that matter, take a walk down a Japanese street and let me know if you ever run across a white or dark-skinned Japanese citizen. You’ll be walking for a long, long time.

There are horror stories of Japanese ostracization of mixed-race children, some involving sympathetic parents who literally beg the DODEA (it’s our Japan-based school system for military brats) and American institutes in Japan to accept their children (which is easier if you’re in our employment and there’s enough room). If you know anything about the extreme Japanese form of “begging”, then you know that this really puts our superintendants into awkward moments.

But who can blame them? Would YOU send your mixed-race child to a “pure” Japanese school with all the ideological baggage that racial “puriy” and “uniqueness” entails?

In the end, the narrative of Total Eclipse is about Japanese projection more than anything else.

Once you get past that point, you might be able to enjoy the series – maybe even laugh at it a little.

After all, once you’ve lived in Japan for a while, US servicemen generally come to an “understanding” about Japanese racial attitudes, and they’re kinda fun to be around (trust me, they’re not as “reserved” or as stoic as their popular culture makes them out to be).

It could be worse. You could be working in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia or Karachi and dealing with Muslim religious attitudes- and they’re not nearly as much fun, trust me on this.

Araragi93 said:


He's finally understood the way of yamato damashii and become one with his TSF, yay.
Also I guess they mispelled Takemizakuchi, you can read "Takemizakuti" and "TST" in the display when the Takemikazuchi is approaching them.
Maid Tarisa was olev.