Toshokan Sensō – Media Transparency
I’ve just finished watching it and I think this anime is rather amusing since no one could really tell where would our socio-cultural evolution would lead us to. This is why I don’t think these ideas are preposterous. Who knows, after few decades? After all, wild ideas these days may not be so wild for the forthcoming years.
Even so, even if that time is yet to come, I think it is already applicable to our present situation, although it is not that extreme compared to the censorship the anime is showing.
Disclaimer: The subsequent information I’ll be writing doesn’t have a solid proof so please don’t hold back on correcting me if it is wrong in any case. It’s just what I’ve heard and my opinion regarding on it.
I’m still a college student, and I just remembered this lecture from my Asian History professor. But, before that, I think everyone is aware of what role Japan played during the WWII — and I don’t intend to focus on that. My country,(which is Philippines) is one of the countries which was ravaged during the war, which is why many issues and conspiracies stirred up from the said matter. It involves having the Japan being forced to proclaim a public apology to Philippines regarding that matter.(Well, if you’d like to really know the reason, then I must tell you that, Japanese men, during the WWII desecrated many Filipina women, if you know what I mean, and of course, not just women, but everyone because of the massacres and all those unwanted events during the war.)
As far as I’ve remembered, Japan already proclaimed a public apology to the Philippines but, there is still one more demand our country wants from Japan and that is to publish these events and doings by the Japanese during the WWII. As far as I believe from what my professor said, Japan still hasn’t fulfilled this demand yet since they’ve filtered the content of the history books of what really did happened during the WWII.
And so, those were all just a handed down version of what really is the truth or rubbish. Then again, if this is in fact the truth, then this anime is a slap right off the face of Japan because they themselves are guilty of media censorship.
The topic here isn’t about what’s up with both of the countries, or the people of the countries, but this issue regarding the publication of educational materials regarding the “historical truth” of what happened during the WWII. Even though Japanese government has a “good” intention on censoring the content of their history books, it doesn’t change the fact that it is indeed a political censorship — which I think still violates our freedom of expression/information since we still do have the right to know the truth, whether it is favorable or not for those who will witness it.
Even though one should not underestimate the power of media and on how it influences the way of thinking of the society and even the norms, government should still never dictate what we should learn from school since it could be interpreted as dictating us on what way and how we should think. Which is why, I think even though we’ve got freedom of speech, it won’t still be enough if in return, the information we took hold is still maneuvered by someone else’s.
Toshokan Senso is rather not realistic as of what’s the situation nowadays regarding the media transparency. Even so, the more people don’t care, the more other people would exploit our little to none involvement regarding this topic. Maybe the idea of fighting over a pile of books these days is ridiculous; we’re just taking these issues for granted these days but who knows what the future holds for our freedom of expression? After all, we humans tend to think just for the short term and not the long term effects of our decisions, which is why many things from the past have already backfired on us.
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image credits: pixiv user いしだんごむし
Yeah. I always wondered why a part of history has only been told when there are so much info and history that we are not taught in school or anywhere else unless we go there directly to learn.
It´s a shame that humans feel the need to work themselves out to be better than others. The victors write the history and that is a bit off if you ask me. History should be written down as it is, not anything else.
Exactly, there are so much information about several events but there are always part of it that is being concealed for some purposes. I don’t know if there is a certain organization that filters/edits the history books but, I think these authors of the books are so hypocrite of trying to be objective because I really doubt any of those books weren’t subjective enough and was edited just to suit their purposes. Well, that is specially recognizable whenever the history book was written by the victors.
This is why, I really refer to our history mainly by the books written by authors of my own nationality — But this has its own flaws as well. Whenever history books are written by those of different perspective, it really changes the content and message delivered to the reader. So yeah, I hope history would be written as it is as well. — But this is still rather difficult to attain as of the present situation. For now, what we can really do is to compare and contrast the parallel content of the history books and try to assess which one should we believe in.
lol anti-spam quiz. Thing would limit most elementary and junior high (and some high school) students 10^0 !!! lol.
Anyhow, it’s obvious this history is something to be terribly ashamed of, for two major reason imo. The first being IT HAPPENED! The second being IT WAS ALLOWED TO HAPPEN! Now the second is more important in this case (although it’s totally off-topic). Military is about order and hierarchy, and when soldiers are allowed to terrorize civilians we see not only a direct loss of moral value, but also a loss of military control (the higher-ups did not prevent such things).
I think the general consensus is that soldiers are to follow orders and do nothing outside those boundaries. When they disgrace their own military by terrorizing civilians they should be punished by their own. Because things went on, and nothing was done… it is sheer disgrace imo.
This doesn’t just apply to the Japanese WWII military, but even today civilians are exploited in the plight of war. It’s happened for centuries, it’s nothing new, but it is the military’s responsibility to keep soldiers in line. When the military allows such actions, it has lost all moral value; exploitation of situational power = F.
So anyway, modern generations will get over things after years and years, but it’s much easier when the party who was wrong can admit openly that they failed. :/
Read Fahrenheit 451, I found Library War slightly related, but it gives a nice introspect to the civilian life of a censored society (note: it wasn’t a global thing in F451).
Yes, they totally fail. Military represents the moral value and the tower of strength of a certain country. Military is supposed to be the one that preserves or promotes peace and yet they are the ones exploiting the innocent victims of the selfish decisions of those who instigated the war.
Maybe, this couldn’t really be avoided because it can’t be denied that certain people from the military ranks did join the ranks in order to have that “power”. Because of this, I really think military should not just let in anyone who wants to join the military just because they are in dire need of individuals who would fight. They should also consider the values of that person, if he is indeed capable of wielding the rifle in the manner the military exists for, which is to preserve the peace, and not to wreak more havoc to enemies.
@spam quiz — it’s very easy! that’s being taught on elementary already right??? (as far as i remember XD )
Fahrenheit 451 was actually the book referred to as the “The Book of Prophecy” at the anime right? I’ve been also curious about the book so I’ll check it out.
IIRC Japan also has some beef with the Rape of Nanking thing. There are some ultranationalists to this day who argue that Japan fought a defensive war in WWII, hence justifying the “atrocities” it committed, etc.
At any rate, yes, it is one black mark in their history and they’d rather not talk about it, at the expense of those whom they’ve wronged.
oh well, of course all of us has different perspectives of how and why the battle was fought but, I don’t think it does really matter now, because the fact that they did those “atrocities” you’ve mentioned, they chose to do it and thus, they must carry the responsibility as well of telling the truth — plus, they said it was for “defense” then why not talk about how they did that “defense” then.
That’s just dodgy, reasoning it out simply as a defense…
Well, yeah, I agree with you. I don’t see any point on the fact that there are so many thing governments want to control or it’s already controlling.
That just shows the cowardice of the people at the upper ranks because they want the people to know not anything of their suspicious deeds.