I’ll second kamo on that Plum Boy bit. I wish I could have tried that at my schools. For now, I will have to content myself with adding it to the story next time my wife reads it to the kids. Maybe I can convince my friend who does a kami-shibai every year at the Sakura Matsuri here to add Plum Boy in. That would really show the hidebound geezers on the Matsuri Yakuinkai.

Plus ca change.

Rajio Taiso has always felt uncomfortably martial to me. But then you Septics have that pledge of allegiance thing in schools as well, which has always seemed a little off. Not that the accommodations we make with our nationalism and history are any healthier in the UK, of course.

Something you may or may not wish to factor into your Yamato analysis was the fact that it was obsolete before it even left the shipyard, the emergence of aircraft carriers that could strike from over the horizon meaning that the Yamato, with guns that to be effective needed to be within visual range, was already a relic. It was a last desperate throw of the dice because Japan knew they couldn’t match the American’s industrial capacity, so figured they may as well just have one or two REALLY BIG ships with REALLY BIG guns. Didn’t work. The plan for its last mission was to run itself aground and act as a firing platform for those guns. Didn’t even get that far…

Your proposed additions to Momotaro are perhaps the funniest thing I’ve ever read regarding education in Japan. I hope it’s a true story, in fact I will continue to believe it’s true even if you tell me otherwise, it’s that good. Bravo.