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Local Mascot Is Back: Disappeared For 3 Months Following Tweets About World War II

Back in August, Manbe-kun, the mascot of the Hokkaido town of Oshamambe stirred up controversy through his Twitter account. The tweets took place during the week marking the anniversary of Japan’s defeat in World War II, a time when many documentaries highlighting the horror and suffering of the war are aired on Japanese TV. It seems that Manbe-kun saw one of these documentaries, and decided to tweet about it.

Here are some translations:

“I watched a TV documentary. Japan back then was just like North Korea today!”

“No matter how you look at it, Japan’s war of aggression started it all. Thank you!”

“Three million Japanese people died. Japan caused the deaths of 20 million people in Asia.”

The tweets pretty much follow the official government and mainstream view of the war in Japan, where public opinion polls have consistently shown that only a small minority of the population does not think that Japan waged a war of aggression.

Nevertheless, it was considered controversial for a town mascot to make such strong statements. Nobody elected him as a political representative of the town’s historical views. The town received a lot of complaints, so they banned Manbe-kun from using his Twitter account and made him take a break from his official duties.

Here’s a news report from 3 months after the incident. It shows Manbe-kun’s first public appearance since the scandal:

When asked to comment about finally being allowed to appear in public again, Manbe-kun expressed no particular feelings about the issue. Looks like they’ve trained him to act like a proper mascot character…

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19 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - December 2, 2011 at 2:14 pm

Categories: Odd / Strange, Politics Tags:

Hamachiman

Very interesting.

But unfortunately the world stereotype still persists that all Japanese are ‘brainwashed’ and ‘whitewashed’ into thinking they were the victims of the war, yada yada yada. And that the government still denies every single thing about the past.

Even with the facts there plain to see, the world only sees the vocal minority that thinks otherwise, and applies it to the whole. What was that saying about repeating something over and over until it becomes the truth for some?

random

What can you say? T
his vocal minority is very good at getting their point across and influencing Japanese politics.
Moreover, everyone like to hear news about the extremities, even if they are a minority of an organization (from Terrorists affiliated with Muslims, to sadists amongst the US army, to pedophile priests within the Roman Catholic Church, or perhaps even Sea Shepherd and friends amongst the anti-Whalers…etc)

yankdownunder

“ Japan back then was just like North Korea today.”
“Japan caused the deaths of 20 million people in Asia”He should have been fired.

Piglet

Do you think these sentences were factually wrong? It is usually considered (except for right-wing extremists) that these sentences reflect the truth.
Of course, it doesn’t mean it was appropriate for a town mascot to write this.

http://fightstart.blogspot.com kamo

This is the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. Thanks for sharing it.

I can’t shake the image of Manbe-kun as some kind of prisoner of conscience, serving his time and only being released once he’s been through his own personal Room 101 and agreed that actually, yes, 2+2 does equal 5.China has Ai Weiwei, Burma has Aung San Suu Kyi, and Japan has a gurning cartoon with a flower on its head. Glorious.
http://twitter.com/lmshea lmshea

The truth hurts don’t it.
Yoplait22

Manbe-kun speaketh the truth. Blessed be the furry one.
Comment

If:

“The tweets pretty much follow the official government and mainstream view of the war in Japan, where public opinion polls have consistently shown that only a small minority of the population does not think that Japan waged a war of aggression.”

then why:

“Nevertheless, it was considered controversial for a town mascot to make such strong statements.”

Who would give a damn? Especially since those aren’t necessarily ‘his’ opinions, ‘he’ was just explaining what he saw on TV. Why are they considered to be such strong statements if, as was pointed out, nearly everyone agrees with them?

Many people pay little if any attention to mascots. If a mascot is parroting what most people think anyway, people would pay even less attention. How is it even possible that this event caused enough controversy that the town received a lot of complaints?

http://www.japanprobe.com James

Because:

- Mascots are just supposed to be cute and promote their localities.
- Mascot characters don’t talk about political issues.
- Mascots aren’t supposed to do things that can anger or alienate people.
- Although a majority of the Japanese population thinks it was an aggressive war, it doesn’t give the mascot the excuse to make statements that would alienate the 15% who don’t share those views.

How is it even possible that this event caused enough controversy that the town received a lot of complaints?

Because the mascot used Twitter.

Comment

It still doesn’t add up, and I’m still not convinced. There is clearly more to this story.

ponta

The fact that dozens or so —don’t know exactly how many, but small numbers anyway—- of complains by the phone or email has stopped the local governments from accepting debris from Tohoku might help you understand it; probably many people are unconcerned about the debris, but the government can’t help ignoring the voice of the minority.
In case of the mascot, he is supposed be liked by everyone.
Besides, in most cases, Japanese young idols avoid talking about politics and taking sides—there is little merit losing fans and spending energy on politics;for, their purpose is not political.

Comment

Many people, correctly or not, have a fear of radiation. Many people pay attention to ‘idols’. Nobody gives a damn about some mascot or what TV show it supposedly watched. Especially, if as James pointed out, all it was really saying was what almost everybody believes anyway.

http://www.japanprobe.com James

Nobody gives a damn about some mascot or what TV show it supposedly watched

Some people did. And they complained.

saying was what almost everybody believes

Not good enough. Mascots shouldn’t be saying anything that could alienate people, even if it’s just 15% of the population.

And, like Ponta pointed out, city governments tend to cave pretty easily once the complaints start coming in. And the city government wouldn’t have had a good excuse not to punish the mascot, since the mascot had no business making political statements in the first place.
Comment

So that 15% is far more important than you initially lead us to believe.
http://www.japanprobe.com James

So that 15% is far more important than you initially lead us to believe.

Not important enough to overturn the national government’s policies of apology, or to make textbooks reflect their ideas.

But, the 15% does have the amazing and incredible power to convince a local government that a mascot character shouldn’t be used to make political statements. A terrifying development. This country is lost. Next step: a fascist coup and the re-conquest of Asia.
Comment

Well, it just seems to me that this
story is really about the 15% of the population that is actively
making the story happen rather than the 85% who are passively not
involved.

This would be like if 15% of the
population of Georgia were part of the KKK, and then some of them got
upset when some insignificant mascot somewhere says something about
black people, but then reporting about how 85% of the population of
Georgia are not part of the KKK. Who cares? That 85% has
little if anything to do with the topic at hand, nobody cares about
the people who did nothing. The 15% who are the active creators
of the story ARE the story, not the 85% who are passive and not
involved.

Or as another example, if 15% of
Canadians were holocaust deniers, and then Tony the Tiger made some
offhand comment about some show he watched last night involving
concentration camps, and then some of the deniers got upset enough to
write to Kellogs. Nobody cares about the 85% of Canadians who are
not involved in any way.

This story really is about the 15%,
some of whom got upset enough about some mascot in a land overrun
with so many mascots that no one gives them a second thought, to
actively do something about some offhand comments it made about some
television show. Yet you made no mention of this 15%. It almost
seemed like you skirted completely around them for some reason,
focusing instead on the 85% who did nothing.

Your throwing out of those silly non
sequiturs almost gives the impression you are getting defensive for
some reason. I’m just making the observation that it is pretty
unusual to ignore the people making the news and talk abut the people
who aren’t.

(And before anyone gets bent out of
shape, the made up examples are just that, examples I made up. Seemed humorous to me at the time. Don’t
bother trying to read any deep meaning into them.)

http://fightstart.blogspot.com kamo

We all know he’s not a real person, right? It’s just a guy in a suit, right? Right?

It probably wasn’t even the same guy who wrote the tweets. Some bored flunky at city hall gets given a job he doesn’t want tweeting in character and decides to see how far he can push it, and the poor guy in the outfit is out of a job for three months. He’s the real victim here.

“the city government wouldn’t have had a good excuse not to punish the mascot, since the mascot had no business making political statements in the first place.”

Punish the mascot. I think you’re tongue is firmly in your cheek here James, but with some of the other comments I’m not so sure, unfortunately…

http://www.japanprobe.com James

We all know he’s not a real person, right? It’s just a guy in a suit, right? Right?

Yes, that’s the whole point, really. Somebody used the mascot representing the town to make statements that could alienate other people.

Some bored flunky at city hall gets given a job he doesn’t want tweeting in character and decides to see how far he can push it, and the poor guy in the outfit is out of a job for three months

I doubt that a small town in Hokkaido hired a person especially for the mascot work. It’s probably just the same flunky, or several flunkies. Probably doing some other menial work during the last three months.

Punish the mascot.

Just a quick way of writing “punish the person responsible and keep the mascot out of the public eye until the incident blows over.”

The original post was written in a tongue in cheek manner, but it really isn’t too hard to understand why the city put an end to the tweeting and took steps to make sure the mascot wouldn’t be used like that in the future.

http://fightstart.blogspot.com kamo

“Just a quick way of writing “punish the person…”

I know. I know you know. I’m just not sure about some of the other conspiracy theorists up there, is all.

Local Mascot Is Back: Disappeared For 3 Months Following Tweets About World War II

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