Slide 5 was me when I finally started looking into Harry Potter's treatment of Asian people. I never read HP, I've always been annoyed by it and then the annoyance was justified when JKR unmasked as an outright racist queerphobe. But back on topic, I'm mad that not only is the singular Asian magic school in Japan, it's on a tiny island right next to Iwo Jima. The entirety of Iwo Jima is considered a WWII memorial because of the sheer bloodbath that happened on that island because of the American push into the Pacific Theater and their allyship with local Filipino populations. Among the horrors committed were the mass deployment (every American platoon had one) of flamethrowers to clear out Japanese hiding spots, many of which were interconnected like anthills and were cemented over to prevent more soldiers from emerging. It's debated whether or not the battles were a scare tactic by American forces to turn Iwo Jima into a show of strength, especially since the image of soldiers pushing up an American flag is one of the most famous from WWII. After the war ended, Iwo Jima was 'gifted' back to Japan by the US but the people who used to live there were never allowed back. My dad is retired military who researched Iwo Jima as part of our history as Filipinos and it upsets me to no end that there's a super secret magic school for kids right next to Iwo Jima as the only option for magic Asian kids, along with conflating every Asian ethnicity as one. I know HP plays around with dark fantasy concepts but this is like building an art school besides an extermination camp. I don't know how British people are taught about world history but I can't imagine looking at Iwo Jima and thinking it's the singular best option to put a school for every Asian child ever.
TL;DR: I'm passionate about history and JKR has an insane amout of disregard for recent Asian history by making the sole Asian magic school be a fictional location next to an island that is a whole memorial to WWII because of the 25,000+ people who died there under horrific conditions.
There is absolutely no chance that thought was put into it beyond "I should put a magic school in Japan and it'll go over here" as a dart is thrown at a map. She's malicious in other ways but being this wound up at a perceived slight against Asians is insane.
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u/FriedChickenCheezits 5h ago
Slide 5 was me when I finally started looking into Harry Potter's treatment of Asian people. I never read HP, I've always been annoyed by it and then the annoyance was justified when JKR unmasked as an outright racist queerphobe. But back on topic, I'm mad that not only is the singular Asian magic school in Japan, it's on a tiny island right next to Iwo Jima. The entirety of Iwo Jima is considered a WWII memorial because of the sheer bloodbath that happened on that island because of the American push into the Pacific Theater and their allyship with local Filipino populations. Among the horrors committed were the mass deployment (every American platoon had one) of flamethrowers to clear out Japanese hiding spots, many of which were interconnected like anthills and were cemented over to prevent more soldiers from emerging. It's debated whether or not the battles were a scare tactic by American forces to turn Iwo Jima into a show of strength, especially since the image of soldiers pushing up an American flag is one of the most famous from WWII. After the war ended, Iwo Jima was 'gifted' back to Japan by the US but the people who used to live there were never allowed back. My dad is retired military who researched Iwo Jima as part of our history as Filipinos and it upsets me to no end that there's a super secret magic school for kids right next to Iwo Jima as the only option for magic Asian kids, along with conflating every Asian ethnicity as one. I know HP plays around with dark fantasy concepts but this is like building an art school besides an extermination camp. I don't know how British people are taught about world history but I can't imagine looking at Iwo Jima and thinking it's the singular best option to put a school for every Asian child ever.