Japan Has The Cutest Army In The World - Using Cartoon Animals To Help Expand It's Military

When most country's military release an educational video about their army, you can pretty much be sure it isn't filled with cute cartoon characters. Not so with the Japanese Ministry of Defense who a few weeks ago released a video claiming to be an ABC of Self-Defense Forces.

Since the end of the Second World War Japan hasn't really had a military per se, instead what they have is the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF). It's not that they don't have an airforce or navy, it's that they're not allowed to use it outside their country, as per Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution which outlaws them engaging in war to settle international disputes.

But with neighboring China, who have never really forgiven Japan for the atrocities committed against them in WWII, building up its army and increasingly claiming territory in the South China Sea, plus Kim Jong-un—another neighbor who just so happens to be pursuing a nuclear missile program—Japan is looking to expand its military.

However, an internal political struggle both for and against expansion is taking place.

And this film is part of the pro-expansion propaganda, a way to persuade the nation that they really do need to enlarge the Japan Self-Defense Forces.

It just so happens that the film, called Bo-Emon's Defense Lecture (Bo-Emon is a talking bird) uses ridiculously cute and cheerful anime animals plus doe-eyed children (and children's voices) to convey that message.

'War is hell' (at least as far as William Tecumseh Sherman was concerned in his famous speech during the American Civil War), but it seems that we've come a long way since then. If he were alive today he might be saying "Kill em' with cuteness."