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kyuudere wrote:

Though I don't see any problems with it. If """people""" being so angry that these girls wear costume that almost resemble German's military outfit during WW2, perhaps they should be angry to any kind of military outfit cosplay. Every militaries has their own problem with crime against human rights, I believe. In Indonesia, our military forces killed about half a million people during 1965, and nobody in the western even raises eyebrows. Hell, even until now our government won't apologize for it and proud of what they did (remove Commie from SE Asia as big brother USA told us Laughing ).

World War II is so heavily romanticized that people think there was actually an objectively evil and good side. Give it a few generations and it'll hopefully go into the public domain with things like Roman centurian outfits, Colonial attire, and any other outfit worn by people who did bad things which, spoiler warning, is most of them.

"It's just a costume"

An outfit you threw together at the last minute before a Halloween party might be "just a costume." But outfits that cost thousands of dollars to design and make, intended to be seen before tens of thousands of people - those are made to evoke a specific reaction in the viewers. Just like the lighting and choreography on the stage and the lyrics and beats in the songs. It's understandable that people be concerned about what message this group is supposed to be promoting.

Someone created these costumes with a concept in mind. Looking at these, some might think that the concept was "Nazis were cool."

Now, there's a chance that the designer is young and saw a random picture in their "History of Military Costumes" book, and designed it without being aware of who actually wore the outfits, and wasn't low-key praising Nazis. But that's their problem for being ignorant. And now hopefully they've learned from the backlash.

If the United States can have Hogan's Heroes in the Sixties and Seventies, a Japanese Idol group can wear military cloaks in 2016. Japan doesn't have to bow down to America's neo PC culture.

The costumes have no Swastikas and other then the coloring and some styling are the same style costumes found in countless other anime series... Chillax!

On the flip side... These things need to happen more often.. Drudge it back up and MAKE people remember. Nazi's are not funny, cute or Moe.. What they represent and what they did need to continuously be rehashed. Less we forget and sugarcoat, I for one am firmly against the belief that we should bury any and all examples just so people feel better. Forgetting just leads to a repeat of the events of WW2 Germany.

I'm not NatSoc, but I'm fascist. And as a fascist, I loved it.

Japan should stay away from politically correct.

Stampeed Valkyrie wrote:

On the flip side... These things need to happen more often.. Drudge it back up and MAKE people remember. Nazi's are not funny, cute or Moe.. What they represent and what they did need to continuously be rehashed..

Well, I think nazis can be funny, cute and moe. Laughing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH-rw6XZdlw

My family is russian and all my great-uncles and great-aunt was murdered by JEWISH COMMUNISM (the murder was Genrikh Yagoda). And yet, I am not offended by communist symbols.

Stampeed Valkyrie wrote:

The costumes have no Swastikas and other then the coloring and some styling are the same style costumes found in countless other anime series... Chillax!

On the flip side... These things need to happen more often.. Drudge it back up and MAKE people remember. Nazi's are not funny, cute or Moe.. What they represent and what they did need to continuously be rehashed. Less we forget and sugarcoat, I for one am firmly against the belief that we should bury any and all examples just so people feel better. Forgetting just leads to a repeat of the events of WW2 Germany.

There's a Nazi eagle on the hat ...

There are plenty of examples of things where we take political correctness too far. Getting offended when people use Nazi symbolism really isn't one of them. No one is sugarcoating anything. Accepting that it's not appropriate to casually use nazi symbolism is not an exercise in burying the past; it shows that we are well aware of the problems caused by the ideology associated with it.

Zweitestshall wrote:

My family is russian and all my great-uncles and great-aunt was murdered by JEWISH COMMUNISM (the murder was Genrikh Yagoda). And yet, I am not offended by communist symbols.

Good for you? I'm sure there are plenty victims of the same tragedy that feel differently.

It's a statement of fashion more than ideology. For Japanese and other Asians the Nazis are not the symbol and embodiment of evil that they are for Westerners.

Asians have their own culturally-informed symbols of evil - people like Pol Pot, Chairman Mao, and the Kim family of North Korea.

Without the moral baggage that the West attaches to Nazis and their imagery Asians are left simply admiring the beauty of their uniforms and accessories, because appearance dominates substance here. Witness the popularity of Nazi-themed advertising in Thailand.

I know a tailor in Tokyo who displays 1940s-era SS and Wehrmacht uniforms in his shop window, not because he is a Nazi sympathizer so much as because he is boasting about his tailoring skills.

You can teach history, but the people will be more interested in their own history than in European history, and once again tend to cast Asians as the faces of evil rather than Caucasian Europeans. But I could be wrong.

I think the problem is that it doesn't look as cutesy as their other outfits or other military uniform depictions in anime so people are more likely to draw that conclusion. I think the dress by itself is pretty cute and harmless, maybe add some frills and a little color, but they should definitely ditch the cloak and cap.

Are they trying to go for a different image here? It looks less AKB and more Babymetal.

In the discussion of this topic,there have been good and not-so-good statements. Many of them that could be considered ignorant. First,I'd like to discuss Zweitestshall's statement about "Jewish" communism. While it is true that there were some Jews that were involved with communism,that doesn't mean that the rest of the Russian Jewish population wasn't affected by it. In fact,Judaism was among the religions banned under the myriad of Communist regimes that were around in Eastern Europe. Jews were forbidden from practicing their religion under Communism and were often discriminated against. So,if there were Jews who thought that things might improve under Communism,those illusions were quickly shattered.
On the whole,Communism was just as bad as Nazism and Fascism. People's basic rights were trampled on and if they ran afoul of the law,their own lives were in peril. In the league of vicious tyrants,Joseph Stalin and Chairman Mao deserve the same scorn as Hitler and Mussolini do. The lives these ideologies extinguished was immense and that shouldn't be forgotten. In fact,those like Putin,ISIS,Assad,and the vicious rulers of Iran are the successors of those like Stalin,Hitler,Mao,and those like them. All of them should be remembered as vicious tyrants who obliterated the lives of millions of innocent people. That shouldn't be forgotten by anyone.

Im just gunna say I hope anyone who found this just so offensive and "How could you not know it was Nazi uniform" and say its unforgivable even if you did not realize it. anyone saying that I hope they also say that about Gundam (where do I even start with its Nazi references all over the place) and Kantai collection German ships, The Buddhist symbol use of the swastika in japan and elsewhere. ( even though Hitler stole it from them most dont even know that) The US Military still uses symbols that are close if not the same ones. The eagle used by Hitler reverse it and there you go lots of military units around the world use that. Not to mention the "Bad guys" in countless US films, cartoons, and even Anime are so similar if not direct rip offs of Nazi uniforms, people, weapons etc etc. we literally see Nazi references and symbols all over our media but most never realize it.

My question is is this is so offensive and wrong then why is it wrong? because the evil doings of the holocaust? right? then why does our world see Nazi freak out as if they never want the holocaust to happen again but literally as im writing this comment mini holocaust are happened around the world. But no one will say or do anything because it doesn't involve Nazi killing the Jewish. So why blow up if your only gonna protect only Jewish not human life in general?

Mr. Oshawott wrote:

It seems that even in Japan, Nazi-themed uniforms are virtually taboo, albeit for reasons understandable...

It was no big deal until SocJus elements now start creeping and seeping in Japan

TarsTarkas wrote:

If the United States can have Hogan's Heroes in the Sixties and Seventies, a Japanese Idol group can wear military cloaks in 2016. Japan doesn't have to bow down to America's neo PC culture.

Hogan's Heroes was a comedy that deliberately made the Nazis look buffoonish and mocked them. Most of the significant Nazi characters were played by Jews. I see not even rudimentary satiric intent or any awareness at all here, which is why I err toward unease.

And cut it out with the asinine moaning about, "PC culture." The only problem there ever truly is with 'PC' is that it's not your politics. It's a line of rhetoric that frequently depends upon the unexamined assumptions of those making it.

I have never felt entirely comfortable with the contemporary social justice movement, which I believe is terrible at promoting its message and more susceptible to human vices of 'them' versus 'us' than its adherents appreciate, but my distaste for it is mitigated I am reminded of what's on the other side.

Well, speaking of which...

Fey Fey wrote:

But no one will say or do anything because it doesn't involve Nazi killing the Jewish. So why blow up if your only gonna protect only Jewish not human life in general?

Zweitestshall wrote:

I'm not NatSoc, but I'm fascist. And as a fascist, I loved it.

Japan should stay away from politically correct.

Zweitestshall wrote:

My family is russian and all my great-uncles and great-aunt was murdered by JEWISH COMMUNISM (the murder was Genrikh Yagoda). And yet, I am not offended by communist symbols.

Further reasons, which seem to be more popular these days, to err toward unease.

Snomaster1, my current views about refugees is absolutely fueled by my understanding of history, including my own family's history of the Holocaust. America in the '30's and '40's was incredibly paranoid and refused to take in thousands of refugees, often claiming they might be spies for Germany or the Communists, ultimately condemning thousands of innocents to death. Activists who went to Europe to try to help people were accused of being in line with the Communists, too. And at home, Japanese-Americans, including young children born in the United States, were interned in concentration camps, right in our great country. Because we thought they might be dangerous spies as well.

We claim that times are different now, that we are not as biased as we were back then, but we would still refuse to help hundreds of thousands of innocent children, women, and yes, men, who are desperate enough to risk drowning in the Mediterranean to escape the very terrorists we claim to be fighting.
I don't think it's acceptable to reject hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women, and children who's lives are at risk because we are afraid of a minority who would cling to the ideology of the terrorists the rest are rightfully escaping from. Risk? Look at all the risks Americans are willing to take in the name of their convenience and freedom: from spending money on infrastructure that supports more deadly (but more independent) cars over safer public transportation, to refusing to put limits on gun ownership despite the fact that the most common type of terrorist attack in this country is still most often committed by young *American* men armed with semi-automatic firearms.

And if you notice my original post called out the United States for not accepting refugees from Iraq and Afghanistan especially. If you start a war in a country, be prepared for the consequences. At the very least, be willing to take in the translators and other natives who willingly worked with the American army!

But this is all totally off topic. On topic is that these uniforms may not be in the best taste, but they are probably not meant to evoke Nazis specifically either.

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INTEREST: Keyakizaka46 Idol Group Members' Nazi-Like Costumes Raise Eyebrows