No, now you're setting up a strawman. Context is paramount, indeed, and that's what I've been writing about Kempei all the time. Set up the wrong context and you're treading in humanity's murkier waters. But, to return to the original question, why do you find it important to question people's motives for finding Kempei distasteful when you know what and who the Kempei were?
Because I fail to see the relevance of who and what the Kempei really were, when they are something different in the material we are discussing. More to the point: Is using the name distasteful in itself, even if CB are not commenting the deeds of the real-world reference in the slightest? I find it interesting to see what people drives and what turns them off, especially if their reasons are grounded in misconceptions.
If they're not commenting on it, then absolutely it's distasteful. If anything from an artistic point of view "You called your work 'Stalin Does Pushups' but it has nothing to do with Stalin or the Soviet era Communism?! It's literally just a teapot and a pear!" There can be reasons for using the name. Be it to associate the Kempei closer with the history of the real thing (see Bashibazouk) or for a commentary on how far the JSA society has fallen into revisionism. To not comment on it or to downplay those aspects is... well, artistic weakness at the very least.
How about using the name as an analog to represent their function within the Japanese military? The name, first and foremost, is just that, a military denomination.
Artistic weakness at best. An insult to the reader's intellect isn't even the worst criticism you'd be able to level at it then.
Didn't expect this to be my first post on the new forums, but couldn't resist the topic. I think the problem with deciding whether the name "Kempetai" is insensitive or not is that the words "Kenpei", "Kenpeidan" and "Kempeitai" are common nouns in Japanese that were / are used in Japan throughout history to describe a military police / police of the police type of organizations. They would be translated as "Military Police / Executive Soldiers", "Military Police / Executive Soldier Group" and "Military Police / Executive Soldier Unit", which are in strong contrast with organization / unit names that have rather unique names like the Gestapo or the SS. In Asia of course the "Imperial Japanese Army Kenpeitai" is probable to evoke unpleasant feelings, like the SS and Gestapo do in Europe, and I think an alternate naming might be considered. If the idea of the "Kenpei" is to be expressed strongly (as it really fits the models rules), than maybe just "Kenpei" would be fine (although it seems the common name for the Kempeitai in Chinese is "Japanese Kenpei", as in both languages the same Kanjis are used to describe them). If a more vague naming is preferred, that I'm sure some mythical creature's or charachter's name can be fished out from Japanese mythology.
That depends on whether "Kenpei" simply means "Military Police", or whether it is specific noun used to designate the Imperial Japanese Army Military Police in the readers native language or not.
I wouldn't go so far as to call CB's story writers incompetent and historically illeterate, but you do you.
No joke but I can across a coffee shop in London that was named exactly this. I don’t think they gave a hoot about the name or context
Isn't the fluff for JSA that they rediscover the works of Yukio Mishima? If it feels like JSA is a lot like pre-WWII Japan politically, there's plenty of reasons for it. It's no more or less insensitive than fielding a Nazi army in a WWII game .
Not really - maybe they just speak or research the Japanese language very well! (although お鎧 should really finally be changed to 大鎧）;)
Pre Anexation, yes. Somehitng about the Emperor being the soul of Japan and how mad they are that the Party took away his titles. So they are basically ultranationalistic right wingers. Actually, HSN3 quotes right and far right groups as the most opposed to anexation (I wonder why, maybe they were afraid of COMMUNISM?)
I think the symbol of a rising sun as a whole faction's symbol is way more questionable than naming a unit Kempeitai. Glorifying a nationalistic symbol that caused a lot of suffering as opposed to drawing from history for one unit name. As much as I don't want to admit it, I think we can't ignore that Kempeitai causes more problems than , say, Teutonic knights because it is more recent history, but once more time passes the world may not feel that way. The bottom line is that because we live in a global market, it is in CB's best interest to consider that there may be consequences to whatever fluff choices they make. The consequences will be financial if they make a bad call. I won't stop playing Infinity over Kempeitai, but I may not buy JSA. Granted I am American so most of these references don't really offend me personally, but my fiance is part Chinese and would probably feel super uncomfortable with me throwing some rising suns on my army bag.
Is the word kempeitai offensive? Yes, if you feel offended, or if you make the word offensive. It’s interesting that people feel a subject like this is worth discussing in a sci-fi game forum. In essence the game is a fantasy where you live out/re-enact battles with your friends, rolling dice, perhaps having a beer and enjoying your company. Which begs the question, is killing people offensive? Are the Druze portrayed as disgusting Mercs killing for profit? Isn’t the entire idea of acting out battles where fictive people die pretty gruesome in essence? Or perhaps it’s about the real-world ties to the real kempeitai that sticks out like a sore thumb to people? I can understand this part, I can understand that people get offended. It is your right to become offended, however that does not mean that the rest of the world have to appease to your whims. Life will offend you, education will offend you, this is a fact. My personal thoughts about this “issue” are split in two: I think it’s great they’re named kempeitai, because a lot of people might not have known about their place in history before. But now they google the name, and they learn about history, gruesome history. That’s the only way to not repeat mistakes. I would like one Japanese player to raise their hand and tell me their view on this, and tell me their story about kempeitai. Because someone from the western world speculating if a Japanese name in a sci-fi game feeling offended on someone else’s behalf is simply the definition of the word absurd. Take care, all of you.
WELL. I'm surprised too. even as Asian player I am, I didn't feel offence about names that much. and also their fluff goes shit like old history. so i just thought 'oh this dumbasses do this shit in even far future. LOL' I know our country invaded Japan imperialists but come on. this is not history lesson. it's just game playing with your friends. If someone feel bad about naming or marks, okay. I can understand that. but I just want to playing games with my friends without disturbing.
I personally find its less about the name and more about thier portrayal. I come from historical wargaming, mainly FoW where I played SS. I do so fully aware that they are bad guys, and when units are described the company is very careful to point out the horrible things they did. Contrary to this Corvus has written ther fluff as these are the leaders of the peasants in the revolution against tyranny, doing whatever it takes aka nelson mandella style. They could emphisize the brutal nature of the unit against innocent civilians like the historical namesake, but instead they chose the 'good guy' route. If we had msv 2 hitler liberating Nca from the oppresive boot of the pano interacial government you would clearly see the issue.
The thing is, some words or names are heavily connoted, and you might have a hard time convincing people that a dog is called a cat just because you want to. Kempeitai is one of such name, so it's no surprise that a misuse of it may raise some eyebrows. In infinity's fluff they're a pragmatic group that infiltrated yu-jing's military to protect japanese soldier from abusive officiers and fight the yu-jing's regime from the inside, but won't touch civilian (they even scorn the Tatenokai for being so indiscriminate with their action). So even though they're said to be cold blooded murderers it doesn't change the fact that they're portrayed as "heroes who are willing to do bad things to protect their people against a tyranical regime so it's kinda justified when you think about it isn't it?", which definitely is a misuse of the name. If they were anywhere close to their historical counterparts they would basically be japanese ISS, probably even worse. Long story short, names and words have a meaning, often for a reason, and any attempt to diminished this meaning (intentionnal or not) might be seen at best as insensitive, or at worst as an attempt to deny history.
