Our website came under heavy attack recently, and I am thankful that we were able to get it up in time for me to make one last post before the elections.
In less than twenty-four hours, this historic election will come to a close.
还有不到24小时，这一历史性的大选就将结束。
I want to end (for now) by giving a heartfelt thank you to all of you. Yes, you, especially you autists from /pol. Thanks for the laughs. Thank you for dropping by – our site’s died to traffic overload more times in these last few months than I care to count. Thank you for your messages, as I am truly, truly impressed by the size and variety and content behind it all. Thank you for spreading our works around and making a few more people grin. Without all of you we wouldn’t have had this much fun making our pieces, and I think we’ve all became a little better because of it. So thank you. Thank you!
You already know where I stand – just take a look at the site. So I won’t be talking any more politics in this post. Before I finish, though, I’ve got one more thing to show before the elections.
We make artbooks. It’s kind of a hobby of ours. Once we’ve gotten everything together, including the election results and maybe a couple more pieces of art, we’ll put everything together and put it online, right here. It goes without saying that the electronic version of 2016 will be released free of charge – just give us some time to compress the thing down from its gigabyte size.
Hey, look. That’s just how we do things. Zero and I believe in doing things the right way, so if you feel like supporting us, keep an eye out for the physical copies if you want, but we do prefer that you know exactly what you’re getting in the tin. If you want to get anything from us, ask to see it first. If I can be proud for a moment – we’ve got the track record to prove it, and we want to be as honest with you as we are with ourselves.
Remember, though, that at the end that this isn’t about us. It’s about this election and it’s about you. Know that each and every one of you played a role in the creation of this book, but more importantly, each one of you is shaping history in your own way. This book, in that sense, is a dedication to that. It’s a dedication to you.
Forgive me for being even less coherent than usual today. I write this with a bit of emotion, since this long election is finally coming to a close at last.
（注：心情有点复杂，所以我感觉我表达能力差了很多。因此还是请原谅了）
Let me start today by bringing out something from the Wall Street Journal.
Take a look at how different the two worlds are, and you will soon understand why this is important. In less than two weeks, one of these two will be president, and the world will change because of it.
As always, I am not trying to convince you to vote for one or the other. That is your right, and that is always your right. What I am trying to do here is just to articulate my own feelings and thoughts, and to document my journey.
Personally, this election has galvanized me in a way I didn’t think would be possible. It gave me impetus and drive to be better than who I am today, and it put to rest my own insecurities about the fate of this country. If I am wrong and America is great already, then it’s up to me to do my best to be worthy of it. If I am right and America is not great, or it has never been great, well, then, it’s never too late to start now, right?
Hey, listen. I vote not because I believe that victory or defeat is imminent. I vote because it is the right thing to do. I vote because whatever direction this country may head towards, I want to be a part of it. I want to take personal responsibility for the fate of this country, and should my candidate turn out to be a poor president, then that’s my fault too, and I’ll proudly bear the price of failure alongside the rest of us.
Look at this very series. I was on the other side. Then like many others I tried not to take sides. I gave the benefit of the doubt. I tried to look the other way. I did my best to willfully ignore all that has happened, and in the end, I can’t do it anymore.
I cannot and will not overlook the extent of which corruption of all forms has strangled this country. The media’s blackout and one-sided coverage, the complete betrayal of our own people by our intellectual class, the artificial creation of realities for only things that suits our own worldviews, and to say nothing of the illicit and immoral practices of Clinton and much of our government.
I can offer platitudes and hang-wringing about how flawed Trump is. Yet at this point, what difference does it make? To me, he’s the only one that wants to make America great for all Americans. His message resonates with me, and I see it as a call to action. Like my profession of choice, he doesn’t mince words. He sees problems like we doctors (okay, I’m not one yet, but I’ll get my letters soon!) would, and he offers a solution because it is necessary. It isn’t easy. It isn’t nice. It’s not even guaranteed to work.
我可以抱怨特朗普。我可以说他多么烂。但现在，What difference does it make? 他是唯一一个想让美国为所有人而更伟大起来。我对他的话语打动，而我个人认为这是一个启动的开始。如同我现实生活的职业一样，这家伙不会说瞎话。他可以如同医生一样看问题，给出答案，因为这些答案是必须的。这些答案不简单，也不顺耳。甚至可以说这些答案并不一定会成功。
But at this point, what have we got to lose?
但我们怕什么呢？我们有什么可输的？
Take a look at who’s opposing him. Party elites from both the left and the right, telling me that the support of this particular candidate is “unAmerican.” The “fact-checking” media that wants to do my thinking for me because they’re afraid I might reach the “wrong” conclusions. The professors and intellectual elites at my university who openly and contemptuously dismiss any opposing viewpoints, claiming it is all in the name of “furthering our education and protecting our intellectual atmosphere.”
They’re all wrong. No matter how heinous the idea might be, there is nothing wrong with other people holding different opinions than you. That is what intellectual diversity is. You change hearts and change minds by presenting a good alternative and answering their contentions vigorously, rather than trying to silencing or cowing the other side into silence.
There will be plenty of opportunities to talk shop and discuss issues, and I welcome your inquires as usual. But this is not the time nor the place for it.
Let me finish up by quoting Mark Twain. I thought it was from Captain America, but as it turned out? I was mistaken. 🙂
For in a republic, who is “the Country”? Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant–merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn’t. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. Who, then, is “the Country”? Is it the newspaper? is it the pulpit? is it the school superintendent? Why, these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it; they have not command, they have only their little share in the command. They are but one in the thousand; it is in the thousand that command is lodged; they must determine what is right and what is wrong; they must decide who is a patriot and who isn’t.
Who are the thousand–that is to say, who are “the Country”? In a monarchy, the king and his family are the country; in a republic it is the common voice of the people. Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. And it is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catch-phrases of politicians. Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man.
To decide it against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country–hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.
(Quick note: we have a English-Chinese translator on board now. 🙂 Thank you Ethan for the Chinese translation.)
What’s that you’ve got there, Yamato?
你拿着啥呢，大和？
Wanna try? It’s not Ramune, if that’s what you’re thinking.
想尝点？这和你想的普通的苏打水可不一样。
*sip* Lemony.
（抿一口）柠檬味的。
Mhm-hmm. Japan’s first and – if I may add – finest soft drink. Come on, dear, do you really think I’d give you something so common as any old 150 yen vendor-ware?
嗯，日本首款，大概也是最好的软饮料。亲，拜托，你真以为我会给你150日元的小店货？
Aw, that’s so nice! I bet you made this, right?
噢，真好喝！我打赌这是你自己做的，对吗？
Mhm-hmm! As much as I hate conforming to “historical” expectations (ugh, I bet if they had their way we’d all be perfect caricatures and I wouldn’t be allowed to drink anything other than lemonade), I am rather fond of these little bottles. They are infinitely reusable, and you have the freedom to bottle anything that you want. Too bad this one isn’t exactly as historical as I would have liked it. In that sense I confess, yes, I am an occasional hypocrite.
I bet you that nobody reading this article right now is looking at the soda bottle when there’s the two of us in cute swimsuits right there on the page.
别忘了咱俩都穿着漂亮泳装，我敢和你打赌，读到这儿时没人眼睛在苏打水瓶上。
Mo! No fourth wall breaking until she says so! Quick, strut a bit and uh… look sexy. Morgane wanted a historical article and we need to get this back on track!
As much as I love writing about Pacific and its alternative world, I’m almost always mindful of the fact that well, I got into all of this because I’m really fond of history. If there’s one thing KanColle managed to get right, it’s the fact that yes, game really can get people interested in things that are more than just cute girls doing cute things.
As the creator, though, I feel like I’m always trying to strike an unusual balance. On one hand, I don’t want to just regurgitate historical tidbits. On the other hand, a lot of the historical tidbits are very interesting and deserves to be mentioned (in part because I don’t see people do that). So while I’m trying to figure out how to write these things, one thing is certain: it’s really fun digging into details and thinking about how I can craft something so that each line contributes to the development and impression of one of our girls.
The particular soft drink that Yamato is speaking of is Mitsuya Cider. Sune and I thought hard about crafting this part of her character, and we thought it made more sense for our Yammy be someone who’s not only keenly aware of her “roots” as a Japanese shipgirl, but also someone who is fiercely proud of her cultural heritage. Going through the groceries that Sune brings home on a regular basis for instance, and you’ll find a lot of “parenthesis: made in Japan” or “parenthesis: sourced in Japan”. It’s from this perspective that we settled on Mitsuya Cider. It makes sense – you’ll see why in a bit, and I think it provides a really good glimpse into history.
We’ve established in Pacific that while the shipgirl’s personalities and characters are fully autonomous from their “historical counterparts,” they will retain memories, experiences, or knowledge that are directly or indirectly connected with their identity. As such, what Yamato would be aware of is the extraordinary rapid change in Japanese dietary habits prior to the Meiji restoration and leading all the way up to the war. She would certainly know, and thereby have a taste for things such as beer and soda – both of which were symbols of industrialization (and to a lesser extent Westernization) and of course, luxury at the time.
The earliest advent of Japanese soft drinks, then, can largely be traced to Japan’s burgeoning beer industry. The limiting factor at the time for soft drink companies weren’t necessarily the lack of market – western drinks such as coca-cola has been positively received since the end of World War I – but rather the difficulties in producing containers that would have been appropriate. Just as the first commercial brewers for beer appeared around the 1870s, Japan’s glass manufacturing rose alongside it. By 1906, three of the largest Japanese brewery and drink companies merged into the Dai Nippon Beer Company, and it paved the way towards many of the standardization capabilities that would enable the production of an entire category of carbonated soft drinks the Japanese refer to as “Cider” (サイダー)
Unlike ciders as we would understand it, the Japanese cider is closer to a mixture between sprite and 7-up. These ciders, including Mitsuya, were colorless and transparent. Almost all of them had a lemon-lime taste to it. Now, I’m not a real historian, but we dug a little bit into what Ramune is supposed to be, and the term is a literal transliteration of the English word “lemonade.” A cursory glance into historical and period-appropriate documents show that unlike Mitsuya Cider, which had a defined brand and a defined recipe, “Ramune” was a catch-all term used to describe these type of drinks. Anything that had sugars and had a sour/lemony taste to it can be rightfully called “Ramune.” Thus, it is no wonder that many IJN vessels had the ability to produce such soft drinks. This was a period of time where such sweet treats were luxuries, and so long as you had an adequate batch of starting materials (sugar or lower grade syrups, lemon juice or various acids), you would certainly have been able to enjoy Ramune on board a ship.
This is what a “Ramune” type drink would have looked like during WW2. This is a bottle taken from Mutsu, and as you can see, it does not have any brands or markings associated with it. The bottles are plain, and it is likely that the taste and flavor would have differed slightly from batch to batch. Nonetheless, any ship that had the ability to carbonate the drink mixture would have been able to make this. (Whether or not there would have been enough for everyone, on the other hand, would be a very tough question to answer. Evidence – what scattered bits we can find – seems to suggest that soft drinks were stolen almost as often as alcohol on IJN ships)
Mitusya Cider, on the other hand, was created as a bona-fide soft drink by a company named Teikoku Kosen. It was Japan’s most popular branded soft drink at the time, and prior to their merger with Dai Nippon in 1933 (and thereby becoming the largest soft-drink producer in wartime Japan), you can already see that it commanded significant segments of the market.
Think about this for a second. A soft-drink company can squeeze itself into Japan’s top 200 industrial firms (rank 108 to 117), in an era where giant corporate-conglomerates (the Zaibatsu) was in full command of the Japanese economy. Is it any wonder that Yamato might be interested in that particular drink, either because she’s remembering it fondly, or perhaps she simply enjoys the taste?
(The picture on the left is a picture of what the Mitsuya Cider production facility looked like – and the machinery it used to make these sodas. The picture on the right is what Mitsuya Cider would have came in – in either green or olive bottles, with the Mitsuya logo emblazoned on the bottle itself. Clearly, as you can see, it does not look anything close to the marble bottles that Ramune as we know it today would come in.)
Now, you only know that Yamato “made” it herself. Did she bottle the Mitsuya Cider herself in a Ramune (marble soda) bottle? After all, it isn’t entirely inconceivable that a shipgirl like her might be living in a place where soda dispensers are available. Did she make the Mitsuya Cider from scratch, trekking to Hirano (平野) – the origin of Mitsuya Cider, where a river of her namesake also happens to run through the prefecture – to gather the materials herself?
That, I think, you’re going to have to ask her. 🙂 Now let’s take a look at the other thing of interest. What’s in Mo’s hand is probably one of the most recognizable things of Americana in the world today: the Coca-Cola.
There’s a lot of stuff that’s known about Coca-Cola already. In fact, in some parts of America (not where I’m from, of course), a “coke” is synonymous with any kind of carbonated soft drink. There are few things that influenced American culture the way Coca-Cola did, but here, I’m going to talk specifically about how it differed from what Yamato’s having.
For starters, while soft drinks were comparatively luxurious (an IJN sailor with frequent access to it would be unlikely to see it nearly as often if he was a civilian) in Japan, the Coca-Cola was widely affordable and drank in gigantic quantities by just about everyone. The Coca-Cola was 5 cents per 6.5oz serving. At a time where other fountain drinks hovered around seven or eight cents, this was not only affordable, but it was something that made Coca-Cola unique. For nearly seventy years or so, anyone could get a coke for just a nickel. This was a policy that endured throughout two world wars and the great depression, and the vintage advertisement shown below is just one of the many examples that contributed to Coca-Cola’s success.
Of course, when America went to war, Coca-Cola followed. To say that it was popular was again, an understatement. Always masters of advertising, Coca-Cola was more than just a delicious drink. It was also a morale booster, and a reminder to the millions of men on the frontlines of what home was. For the record, they definitely weren’t shying away from using cute girls to get their message across!
Yes, no matter where America went, Coca-Cola followed. Cynics may very well point out that Coca-Cola saw a huge business opportunity, and they are certainly not wrong in that regard – it was one of the few American companies that not only did business in Nazi Germany, but actually thrived in it as well. We can discuss the ethics in another post, but what I’d like to highlight is the impressive way in which Coca-Cola was associated with America. Soldiers frequently remarked on how Coca-Cola reminded them of home. Look at the Coca-Cola ads from the time, think about how it has been a part of American life and culture for decades even prior to the war, and you’ll quickly understand why Coca-Cola was an important morale booster for troops fighting on the front lines.
From naval officers of FTC Dam Neck (the source from which the previous passage came from) to fountains on US navy ships, Coca-Cola was ubiquitously popular in World War 2 as well. Though, again, unlike the IJN, the US had plenty of supplies to spare. Recollection from my great uncle who served on an aircraft carrier during WW2 mentions that he remember having both bottled Coca-Cola and “fountain” cokes, the latter of which he could have as much as the mess paid for and the former were readily available in the ship’s canteen.
So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t think Mo needs any particular reason to like Coca-Cola. In fact, it would be a little stranger if she didn’t. 🙂
所以，我猜我想说的是，密她喜欢可乐不需要什么特别的理由。实际上，她不喜欢可乐才奇怪呢 🙂
Alright, I think that’s enough words for today. See you guys next time.
A word from – depending on time of day – the commander or the executive officer of Pacific, Zeroblaze.
Dear friends and readers of Pacific,
Those of you who have been following me on various forms of social media (including weibo) should know that I’ve been arranging to hand over the physical distribution of the Chinese Pacific books over to a professional store. That process is now complete.
To me, this has always been a conflicting topic. I have always believed that part of what we do as doujin creators is the fact that we create and distribute our own books. It’s tough, but it’s a necessary part of life as a part of this hobby.
However, as the readership of Pacific steadily increase, this is no longer a viable option. Longterm followers of our team will realize that we are only a few people, scattered around the globe, and that under our current levels of productivity and activity, I cannot manage our own Taobao store at any degree of efficiency. Recently, This is getting to the point where delays in shipping and customer service is becoming consistent.
Furthermore, this is something I must do on my own, as after careful deliberation, pulling in additional resources from the team to assist me with distribution would mean we pull away valuable time from the creation of Pacific. This would result in the classical definition of lose-lose, especially if it hampers our creativity.
No matter what, any creation of harm for our readers is unacceptable.
Thus, as of today, there will be two doujin stores handling our physical Chinese distribution. You can find our books at Gensoukyou, and I will announce our second affiliate in due time.
Thank you for all your support. We will do our best in the future as well.
So does anything change?
No.
Well, maybe Pacific books will have an increase of 50 cents (3 RMB or so, I’m not entirely sure on how Taobao works but I’ve seen the totebag version at both 50 RMB and 53 RMB) in terms of its pricing, as we are still going to be doing everything on our own, minus the distribution. None of us is doing anything differently. Zero’ll still be trekking over to the conventions himself. I’m still going to be doing what I’m doing. November and Sima and everyone else, same thing.
We’re a small team, and we’re proud of the fact that we’ve gotten stuff done. We’re only doing this because we believe it’s best for our readers in the long run. So here’s to you. 🙂
