Like one country training "freedom fighting" mojahedins in Afghanistan and another doing the same for Viet Kong?
You're forgetting that the Golden Daggers attacked a YJ Courthouse to rescue some of their own. When gangsters did that in Chicago, the US created 'the Untouchables'. Yu Jing created the Imperial Service out of the old Judiciary. Exactly!
"They will labour for months perfecting the scrollwork on a technologically advanced katana" "Yu Jing citizens" Oh, I don't think so.
You're assuming Yu Jing hasn't coopted Japanese cultural artefacts, possibly in a conscious attempt at destroying the JSA's claim at unique cultural heritage. I mean, that would make sense to write...
Also, wasn't this written pre-Uprising? Japanese citizens may have been second class, but they were still citizens.
Many Japanese are still citizens of the Yu Jing and in the minds of many Yu Jing citizens, even those who lost dearly during the uprising, as per 3rd offensive fluff, the Japanese living in the new Japan are brainwashed/ kidnapped citizens because of the Kudge and their return to the state empire is desired. Imperial Service is an autonomous part that belongs to the Emperor and not the Yu Jing government, Yanjing belong to the military and the government hence they are at best loosely connected to an armed police force. In Infinity all factions have their good and bad side and behave like human societies, great if you happen to fit in, even better if you are on the top of the food chain, not that great if you are not a good fit, abysmal if you are not a fit.
Or maybe the RPG guys just wrote in what is probably one of the most marketable cultural artifact in the entire world to make sure everyone understands that the faction is asian. If I was writing an RPG and wanted to cash in on the katana-obsessed market I would definitely write something like that. I mean, there's technically japanese that still live in Yu Jing (for some reason they haven't been deported, purged, sent to space gulag, replaced with a more loyal population or exterminated), so this isn't invalidated, and I'm not saying its wrong as fluff. I'm saying it's dumb. And funny. But mainly dumb.
You are correct, but I doubt Gutier would allow it to be written in the fluff that "we're cashing in on your samurai fetish" ;)
If you're a helot, Pan O are definitely the bad guys who stole your planet and are mind-controlling your people while using them as cannon fodder and cheap labor. YJ are helpful allies. If you're a benevolent servant of the relatively-benign AI overlord Aleph, the Noamds are criminals bent on ruining civilization's greatest achievements. They're also pirates. If you're a Nomad, Aleph is the implacable menace that is determined to see you wiped out of existence and subverts everything good in the Sphere to its service. If you are an honorable Morat warrior-monk, everyone who likes to hide or do anything but fight you is a bastard. Etc. etc. etc.
Yujing means the sociocultural-cultural joint and mixture of all Asiatic cultures under the Chinese banner. When all the asiatic countries merged in one, their cultures also merged, resulting in a new one. Japanese were seen as the lowest of the Yujingu because when they entered Yujing they cut their own deal and claimed to remain in their own independent culture in feudal-like world under their own control (although supervised). This was seen as arrogance and an insult by Yujingu, but at the beginning they benefit from all the features of being Yujing. Even in that conditions (or maybe just because of it) Tatenokai appeared. The response of yujing was to secure the grip over the Japanese, retiring some of the benefits of Yujing citizenship like cubes. That's why japaneses are considered second class citizens.
There's plenty of background stating that many cultures got to keep a separate identity. I think it's in the first book in the first few pages. In fact I think 3rdO it's mentioned that parts of Paradiso-Yu JIng is Thai, Viets, and other South Asian cultures. But they are all YJ. Keeping their own culture was one of the selling points of joining YJ. The Japanese didn't see that as enough and the Kuge wanted power to go along with that. Though it has been written just how much of the government of YJ is made up of more than Han Chinese like it is today.
You can be a criminal without commiting crimes against the people (in your neighbourhood), just by breaking different/other laws. In Shadowrun the Triads have the same flavor of caring for their neighbours. And you do not have to go as far as Robin Hood, just remember the prohibition - many people were glad to get their drink, but still the smuggling and selling was a crime. Yeah, the RPG is still prior to the uprising.
That would be an interesting take, if it were presented in the fluff. Even so, I'm not sure that PanO doing that wouldn't be presented as just rogue elements within the Hexahedron; meanwhile, the atrocities that the IS commits are on the orders of the Emperor, the single most influential person in their political hierarchy.
Additionally, as long as you keep your criminal activities confined (i.e. only actions against other criminals, low level "protection rackets", etc) and don't go to high, the Imperial Service will leave you alone. The original war against the Triads happened because the Golden Dagger overreached. Again, prior to the Uprising and the (as related by YJ's enemies w/o context) excesses of the Yuandun Division, the Imperial Service was portrayed a merciless, but against active threats only, especially foreign backed ones. And trying to put the Inner Hexahedron and the Imperial Service in the same category is missing the mark. The YJ equivalent of the Inner Hexahedron is the Yanjing, not the Imperial Service, just like the Nomad equivalent is the Black Hand, etc.
There isn't any countervailing perspective on the issues relating to Uprising, and since YJ as a whole rolls over and takes it when PanO/O-12 violates their sovereignty in the story, it's implied they don't have a way to disprove those allegations.
The Hexahedron is like the CIA, PanO's primary intelligence service. The Imperial Service is like the FBI (or maybe the entire US Dept of Justice would be a better comparison, since the Emperor is in charge of the Judiciary). Lots of Americans will accuse the CIA of being a rogue agency. I'm one of them. Nobody accuses the entire DOJ of being rogue, the DOJ is a full third of the government. When there are issues with the DOJ you get the Ferguson riots (or worse). Exactly. The Emperor of YJ is equivalent to the Supreme Court of the US. Imagine the SCOTUS saying "kill all the [ ethnicity ]".
