I look through my Moleskine, where I have been taking notes on S. A. C. 2nd GIG and feel like I have to write another post about it. The point is that the series has a lot of trivia, which constitute important background for the storyline but seem meaningless or unimportant for us westerners. In episode 19 (Chain Reaction of Symmetry) the refugees move away from Japan to Dejima. They want to proclaim it autonomous region. They need to have a place that would belong to them, a home that they could call their own.
Actually, Dejima, where much of the ensuing action develops, is a very interesting place. Just imagine, it’s a fan-shaped artificial island, built in 1634 in the bay of Nagasaki (the city that would later survive the second world’s atomic bomb attack). The office of Nagasaki Magistrate was on the adjacent hill, and the fan-shape was considered best to allow visual inspection of the island directly from the office. Why the island was built, is even more interesting. During the Edo period, Japan accepted the policy of Sakoku, self-imposed isolation that lasted from 1641 to 1853. The first inhabitants of Dejima were Portugese relocated there in order to stop their missionary efforts. In 1641 the inhabitants of the Dutch trading posts in Hirama were also resettled to Dejima. For the next two centuries, the fan-shaped island was the only gate of Japan to the wide world.
In episode 20 (Confusion at the North End / Fabricate Fog) Section 9 is dispatched to the Etorofu island. Etorofu is the Japanese name of Iturup, the largest of the South Kuril Islands. Since the end of the World War II these islands belong to Russia, but Japan refuses to admit that the occupation of Iturup and other South Kuril Islands by the Soviet Army in 1945 corresponds to World War II agreements. In S. A. C. 2nd GIG Etorofu is pictured as belonging to Japan. Moreover, there is a scene where people in the street kill a Russian shouting: “Death to the occupants!” A grim picture, really.
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Nice catches. Ok now I will have to dig out the set's of movies and T.V. series, and re watch them as it has been to long to remember all the little fact's, parallel's, references, background japans cultural stuff, conflict's, and political analogy's. You are doing a great job at summing some of the series stuff up, but they chalked the anima up with all types of stuff. Part of why I love the ghost in the shell series. They seemed to go to detailed extremes with content in the art, dialogue, history, philosophy, technology, Ect.. Keep up the great post, I'll start watching the series again. As the ghost in the shell series is one of the few thing's I can watch read over and over again. Not much stands up to it in that regard. I'm starting to love your blog for the enlightened separate view on some of what I missed.
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