Here’s an example of the thin line on which we’re walking. Its spring of 1951 and Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, has just been removed from his position as head of the American Occupation in Japan (after comments made about wanting to use nuclear weapons in the Korean War.) He leaves Japan as a hero to the people, with hundreds of thousands literally in tears as he goes, many wishing him congratulations, and some thinking of him as a god.

At a joint committee of the United States Senate on May 5, discussing what he'd accomplished during his reign in Japan, MacArthur tells congress that the Japanese nation was like a twelve year old child.

If they’d have taken approval ratings in Japan back then, he’d have gone from hero to zero in just one day.

MacArthur is decried in all the Japanese newspapers, those who thought him a god were probably far fewer in number, but he’s made his point to the senate.

This comment wasn’t a personal foible on the part of MacArthur, propaganda during the war had labeled the Japanese as immature, childish, the naughty offspring of Perry’s black ships who stepped into the arena of global warfare a few decades too early. Both sides engaged in dangerous rhetoric that was fueled by generalizations of the opponent’s societies, but we need not get involved into that debate. For our purposes, just recognize that the argument of Japan as childish played a significant role in propaganda.

When we consider what some have called the “Cult of Kawaii” in modern Japan, remarks related to a country of children tend to surface. How else can one explain a society in which salarymen can be seen sporting bulging-eye’d frogs on cell phone straps or grown women who sleep with Hello Kitty bed sheets?

Indeed, I myself have often wanted to resort to this overly simplistic analysis of a childhood obsession for the often-times ludicrous display of kawaii I’ve found as I make my way through this country. But it gets more complicated.

Consider what’s thought of as the widespread Lolita complex found in Japan, where pedophilic manga can be readily purchased, or the ‘prize’ of underage schoolgirls, who have a highly sexualized media image. “Women are meat in this country,” an expat once told me, and the Japanese like their meat as fresh as it can get.

(I’m not even going to get into the analogies of the popularity of raw foods, suffice to say that someone tried to convince me last week to eat raw horse meat. “It’s a delicacy!” my ass.)

One book I read a few years back quoted a Japanese source which stated that perhaps the Lolita complex, and its connected trend of kawaii fashion, were related to an inclination toward living life through nostalgic childhood. (He further complicated the argument by saying that this was due to most Japanese having stressful childhoods because of exams.)

I’d like us to transcend the discussion of Japan and childhood. Don’t fall victim to statements made by fans who try to justify their fandom of Sailor Moon, a children’s show, by making an excuse along the lines of even though we think it’s for children, it’s really not in Japan. That is bullshit. Are there adult Sailor Moon fans in Japan? Yes. Would they be considered odd by the rest of the population? Yes.

In any sweeping generalization there will be situations in which they are incorrect (which is why you shouldn't make them to begin with.) Observations on “Japanese life” are often made on a highly selective assessment of what is charming in Japanese life, which is in turn relative to individuals’ tastes. What’s charming to one person may not be to another.

It is true that- as I said last time- Japanese pop culture, which is infused with the ‘life’ of its origin country, often relies on childish aspects or childhood nostalgia to draw in its readers. Looked through that lens, Japanese life can be seen to hold the charm of childhood. But lenses are not eyes; they show you only what you want to see, and not the whole picture.

There is a danger in anime fandom to have a greener grass syndrome, to believe that on the other side everything is better than it is 'here.' This results in misguided fan believing that Japan is a nerd’s Mecca, where they can sit around and chat with someone on the subway about the latest episode of Pretty Cure or find a girlfriend who’s an even bigger giant robot geek than they are.

I think most of our readers are mature enough to not believe this. But recognize that it’s out there, and it fuels grand misconceptions of Japan among younger people that I’m concerned about. When I was in the states over Christmas break I went to the dentist; when I told him I lived in Japan, he said to me, “My son would probably love to meet you, he’s fascinated with everything Japanese- he thinks it’s the coolest.” That is just one of many examples of this phenomenon.

It’s mainly innocent, but what it’s creating is another generation of stereotypes. During the war years there was the stereotype of the Japanese as immature, as ruthless killers, and as animal people. You may be wondering how such seemingly disparate notions could come together but let me ensure you, it was a most glorious in its absurdity. Then there was the view, after the economic miracle, of the Japanese as cutthroat businessmen who engaged in odd practices. To quote a reporter in a recent Newsweek article that a forums member linked me to, “My head was filled with lingering images from the Japan-bashing 1980s, and Japan was still widely cast in the West as unique and alien.”

The 80s are long over and Japan may currently be basking in its position of having a “culture of cool” but I’m concerned what kind of message the country is sending as the premier exporter of cartoons and comics, of a pop culture shipping either its addicting cuteness or overt violence, depending on which advocacy group is clamoring to the newspapers.

The fact is, the odds of the girl sitting next to you being into giant robots may be slightly better in Japan than in the states, but that’s probably because it’s had more exposure here. It's still miniscule. While you may see advertisements for Evangelion Christmas figures in a train station, that's not necessarily mainstream. Maybe the term is “geek chic.”

Most of us from the 90s generation of global Japanese pop culture, we who grew up on Dragon Ball Z or Sailor Moon, have either gotten over them and stopped caring or continued our interest in Japan and expanded it to stuff like manga. I clearly fall into the latter, and when I think back on Sailor Moon, I still see childhood

But the bombardment of Japanese pop culture didn’t really hit until Pokemon (at which point I was too old.) Things were very different for this generation. They're far more aware of the origin of what they're consuming, and they take in a much greater amount.

10 or 20 years from now, when the dentists’ kid is grown up, how is he going to remember Japan? That magical land of his childhood? That place of dreams, dragons, and pocket monsters? At least the Japan of the 1980/90s was merely exotic- it was strange, but it was real, and I remember it being taught to me that way in school. The new image of Japan is in some ways fictional.

When MacArthur said Japan was like a twelve year old child, although he’d meant to say the country had matured under his help and had a long way to go, it was still considerably derogatory, and we can see that now even if he could not. The new form of Japan as child, in its cartoons and its kawaii, is perhaps more benign but still a double-edged sword, and we’d do well to remember that.