Note: This post does not make any light or justification of the
atrocities that took place during WW2. What I am attempting to do is prove how
a historical, social, and political context can be situated without glorifying
the accompanying violence and horrid ideology of the time.
What this post will prove is how Hetalia doesn’t promote
Nazism and Fascism. Instead, it is a series that promotes peace, friendship,
and consolidation, rather than the racist and imperialist ideologies that it is
often lumped with due to the time period that the manga originally took place.
Historical Situation
vs Promoting a Horrid Ideology
I’ll be blunt and show the strips first before unpacking
them.
Swastikas are, in fact, shown in the manga.
A Swastika is shown on a voting poll when Germany holds a
vote in Austria to see how many Austrians were in favor of being annexed [x].
A Swastika is shown in the background as Germany and Austria
watch their troops head off for war at the beginning of WW2 [x].
All right. The crucial point that I want to stress here is
the difference between situating a historical context and promoting a horrid
ideology – in this case Fascism and Nazism.
Just by showing the Swastika, the series isn’t inherently
pro-Nazi. This is no different than Hollywood blockbuster movies that depict
Nazi war officers in their uniforms, insignia and all. It’s to be historically
accurate. Showing the symbol versus promoting what it represents as political propaganda
are two vastly different things.
It’s a slippery slope to assume that just because Nazi
insignia is shown in Hetalia that it automatically supports their ideology.
This couldn’t be any farther from the truth. The Swastika’s purpose here is
that it acts as a symbol for the German gov’t of the time – not to be confused
with the German people in whole.
Not only that, but Hetalia purposefully avoids covering the
monstrous atrocities committed in WW2. It’s too controversial of a subject to
depict, and Himaruya stays far away from it, only dropping vague hints here and
there.
In later volumes, likely because of the younger demographic
the printed manga was targeted at, the Swastika doesn’t show up again. The
series also has a habit of depicting generic battles and war fronts rather than
the nuanced and sensitive subject of the domestic situation at home. Again,
showing these symbols isn’t inherently wrong in itself. It’s how and why the
symbols were presented that matters. In this case, they were drawn for
historical accuracy, NOT to promote what they stood for under the Nazi regime.
What does the manga cover?
Because the manga avoids certain subjects, there is only so
much that it can cover. In this case, the manga only situates the motivating
reason why the Germans went to war – namely, the high debt, inflation, and
lowered standard of living that the German people shouldered as a result of the
financial compensation they owed after the first world war.
Ex: Germany grows poor after WW1 and is stuck making cuckoo
clocks for France.
The Treaty of Versailles left a bitter taste in the mouths
of the German people.
Hitler promised to change that, and he did. In the strip
above, we see the people cheering because they had just come out of a massive
economic recession. Hitler promised that the war would better their country.
What the manga does not cover is the racialization, ostracization, discrimination
and scapegoating of the Jewish people that also occurred during this time. All that’s
shown is the people’s hope that the war will better their circumstances.
Ex: This strip here also situates why the Germans went to
war [x].
“Because UK, France, and America had colonies, they somehow managed to get past the worst.
But Germany, Italy, and Japan, being without colonies, got damaged rather harshly to the point where even their marrow was being gnawed upon.
Germany had to pay for the daunting compensation of World War I. Italy was impoverished due to the fact that he could not adapt to the changing times and industrialize fast enough. And Japan is suffering from a second bought of SUPER ECONOMIC SLUMP.
These three nations were pretty deeply hurt.”
And from this appeared Italy and Germany�s bosses. The overture of this crisis will become rather (;�∀�)”
Notice how Himaruya trails off after mentioning the crisis
that propelled the rise of Fascism. People who are at their worst will turn in
desperation to people who promise them the best. Unfortunately, these leaders who
promised the best only made things [way] worse. Point is, the manga doesn’t
tackle any subject matter past this and doesn’t cover it in detail.
Lastly, in the scene where the crowds are cheering, notice
what the topic of discussion is. It has nothing to do with glorifying Fascism,
nationalism or the German government. Instead, it shows a worried and fearful
Italy tearing up as he gets Germany and Austria to promise him that they won’t
get hurt during the war.
This brings me to my next point. The manga purposefully characterizes
the nations in a way that differentiates them from the actions of their
government. Let’s go over that.
Germany and WW2:
As stated in chapter 1 of World Stars, the nations are often
forced to comply with their bosses’ orders [x]. A full, more detailed post on this
can be found here [x].
Evidence of this for Germany and his relationship with
Hitler in particular is made to be very clear.
Ex: Germany is forced to annex Austria against his will [x].
Ex: Germany forms an alliance with Russia not because he
wants to, but because it’s his duty [x].
Ex: Germany is screamed at when he’s given orders [x].
Ex: Germany is noted to have boss troubles – “strange” is a purposefully
vague euphemism for how awful Hitler was.
Ex: While initially joking at first, Finland hints at the
real possibility of Hitler being capable of imprisoning Germany should he
complain about him too much.
More importantly, I want to point out again that the nations
exist because of their people in whole, not because of their government [x].
They
exist to represent their citizens; the government is a small minority of what
they represent. The irony in the series is that while the nations exist as
representations of their citizens, the fact that they’re forced to obey
government orders often results in them not representing/ serving their people
well politically.
As stated in “In just 2 minutes, you can grasp the exterior of
the European economy,” we learn that when a nation’s politics and/ or economy
is unstable, they become unwell [x]. For the purpose of this post, I’ll be talking
about domestic political struggles and civilian unrest.
Ex: External political struggles and infighting among groups within his population
causes China’s body to ache in pain [x] [x].
Nationality is nationality – it doesn’t discriminate across
groups. A German is a German, regardless of their ethnicity, culture, or
religion. It’s for this reason that I believe Germany is canonically described
to tolerate his days through pain during WW2 [x].
German Jews were still German. They were still Germany’s
people. In addition, in the later years of the war, the constant bombings, the
terror of the Gestapo, and the suppression of those Germans who fought against
and criticized the Nazi regime all amalgamated into a messy domestic situation.
Germany felt the pain of his people, all of them.
Perhaps this is why when he’s captured as a prisoner of war,
he cites that in comparison to his daily life, torture is nothing more than a
mosquito bite to him.
Promotion of Peace:
While there are many admittedly wrong and controversial
tropes in older characterizations and strips in the series, promoting Fascism,
war, and Nazism is something that Hetalia has never done.
You also have to remember that the nations themselves are
people in their own right. They grew up together, and while their formal interactions
with each other are indeed affected by their current political relations, their personal
relationships are more so defined by their past. It’s for this reason that you’ll often
see nations drop their political personas and treat each other as fellow humans
and friends during times of war.
Ex: When the Axis and Allies get shipwrecked, political
masks are dropped when Italy asks not to pick a fight.
Ex: Italy’s first reaction when he’s shipwrecked is joy over
not having to fight anymore.
Ex: When America occupies Rome, he treats the Italy brothers
as friends and politely asks for them to make him authentic Italian food [x].
Ex: In another shipwrecked strip, Italy calls forth Santa –
Finland – to temporarily stop the fighting.
Ex: Enemy nations have been shown to share their rations
with each other when they’re not on the battlefield [x].
Ex: England and Germany in another Christmas strip agree not
to fight and play soccer together.
In conclusion, Hetalia doesn’t promote Nazism, Fascism, and
war. What it did was situate the historical context by depicting historically
accurate details. At the same time, it avoided getting into the complicated
nuances of the controversial ideologies and unforgivable atrocities committed
during this period. If anything, it is a series that promotes peace, friendship,
and cooperation.
Very well said and put together.
To back up your argument re: historical accurracy, I’d like to point out that the background in this panel
is, in fact, the Old City Hall (Altes Rathaus) of Linz, the place where Hitler promoted the Anschluss (annexation of Austria) in March 1938 from its balcony. Here’s a photo of the original (from Wikimedia Commons, bless Thomas Ledl who took a photo with a fat rainbow flag over its balcony):
Also (just trivia), I’m pretty sure “looking for the Holy Grail” in the following panel
is an Indiana Jones reference (to the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade).
Awesome addition, thank you so much!
I believe the Holy Grail is a reference to conspiracy theories that claim that Hitler was into Occultism.
Note: This post
will focus exclusively on the logic and reasoning in the strips. The reason for
this is that there might be an inconsistency across different mediums.
I’ve seen this with some of the card games, but as
pointed out, in one video game, Finland mentions that it’s impossible for the
nations to die. Unless Finland is simply referring to natural causes of death
that only humans are susceptible to (he mentions drowning), then the
information I’m about to show you demonstrates the opposite. So, for the sake
of clarity and causing less confusion, I’ll only be referring to the strips.
Chapter 1 of World Stars lays out the groundwork for the nations’
existence. Simply put, they can last for as long as several centuries, or as
short as a day. Out of nowhere, they can disappear, and likewise, they can
reappear by someone’s sudden memory with a completely different personality
than before.
From what I’ve seen, there’s two types of deaths in the series.
There’s true death, which involves the nation fading away. This is seen with
Grandpa Rome and the other Ancients, as they remain in heaven now.
This notion of ‘true death’ can be overturned via a rebirth
of some kind. Said logic is what I assume Hima has put in place to explain Holy
Rome’s connection to Germany, although we haven’t had any confirmation and it
all remains speculation at this point (no matter how obvious).
The other type of death is temporary. Throughout the strips,
the nations have been shown to die and presumably regenerate. It’s not true death,
because their nation still exists. Rather, it’s a death of their physical body.
It doesn’t seem to be natural (human) causes that allows their
bodies to die temporarily; it’s either a wound inflicted by another nation, or a
damaging domestic situation. They’re stronger than mortals and aren’t injured
as easily.
Here, Russia asks Latvia why he shakes and trembles so much.
Latvia is too scared to respond. Russia’s oblivious and brilliant solution is
to then snap Latvia’s neck in the hopes that it’ll get the trembling to stop.
Interpret it how you want, but to me that clearly looks like
Latvia’s spirit is leaving his body.
The nations have even been shown to recognize the physical
weakness and vulnerability of their bodies. Remember that they’re not fully immortal.
In this strip, Lithuania has just been beaten up by Russia,
and experiences a flashback. There, Poland informs a very injured Lithuania
that if Russia comes again, that Lithuania will “die for sure.”
Again, you see how it’s possible for their physical bodies
to die. On the other hand, Lithuania does mention disappearing. It’s left open-ended whether it means fading away or dying temporarily. Either way, neither the Lithuanian state nor Lithuanian identity has been eradicated, so my best bet is the latter option.
Moreover, economic recessions are also stated to affect the nations’ well-being, causing them to experience colds.
Spain almost dies from an economic recession, claiming that
he isn’t able to hold on any longer. Romano recognizes this too, but Spain nonetheless survives
in the end. What’s unclear is the hypothetical question of what would happen if
Spain did die as a result of the recession.
Would he regenerate and come back once the recession had
ended? Both his people and government didn’t cease to exist, so I would assume
this to be the case.
Perhaps one of the most obvious – and graphic – forms of potential death in the series occurs during
the Christmas 2007 event. France is asked to take an embarrassing photo of Switzerland,
and well, he gets shot for it. Using the same reasoning as before, if it’s a fatal
wound inflicted by another nation, it’s likely to kill the assaulted nation in
question.
That said, the nations do appear to experience death in the
series. What makes things so dark is that the death isn’t necessarily permanent,
and that it may be something that’s been experienced regularly. Given how old
some of the nations are, as well as how many wars they’ve fought in, one has to
wonder just how many times they’ve possibly died.
A wonderful theory as always! I have just one personal theory to add 😉
It concerns the ‘disappearing’ Lithuania mentions. And that is, while he didn’t actually disappear, he was talking more about a possibility than a definite outcome. Lithuania was being attacked by Russia several times, if I understood that right (correct me if I’m wrong), and Lithuania could have been worried that, if this continued, he might be actually taken over by Russia (or another nation that attacked him) and bound to fade away in time because people would start thinking of themselves as part of the other nation in time.
So, I think nations would be able to disappear because of being attacked by other nations – just not from a one-time thing (usually) but if the land is actually conquered and integrated into the other country, it might be an actual possibility, over time at least. People can change their opinion on where they belong to in a few centuries time, after all.
Let me know what you think of this! 🙂
That’s definitely a possibility. I guess it’s easy to look back on things with a bias of having known what already happens. It was really clever of you to situate Lithuania’s thoughts at the present time of when the panel took place 🙂
The only thing I have to add is that nations have been shown to be taken over by other nations for long periods of time without disappearing. The Soviet Union is a perfect example of that (especially with Poland and the Baltic states prior to its formation as well). Lithuania’s concern seems to be more immediate.
Ellawritesficssometimes 