Suikoden Urgent and Informational Knowledge Old Xperience

Suikox Home | The Speculation Shelter | Tablet of Stars | Suikoden Timeline | Suikoden Geography |Legacies
Features
Community
Speculation
FAQ

Suiko Facts
Character List:
A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J
K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T
U|V|W|X|Y|Z
Relics & Lore:
A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J
K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T
U|V|W|X|Y|Z
Timeline
Tablet of Stars Pronunciation Archive
Suikoden Geograhy
Legacies
Credits
Racial Diversity in Suikoden

General Hauser is one of the few black character in the entire Suikoden series.
Race is an issue that is brought up repeatedly within the Suikoden series. In Suikoden 1, the conflicts between the human, kobold, dwarven, and elven races was a dramatic representation of racial division, stereotyping, and conflict in the real world. Similarly, in Suikoden 2, we saw the conflict between humans, kobolds, and the winghorde in Two River. Even in Suikoden 3, racial/ethnic conflict existed between Zexen and the Grasslanders--reconciliation between these different races was one of the central themes of Suikoden.

However, there are often those who object to the lack of racial diversity among the main characters of Suikoden. The claim is that there is a severe shortage of black people within the 108 stars, possibly making Suikoden a "racist" game. It is fact that Suikoden features very few black characters within the 108 stars. In fact, Hauser from Suikoden 2 is the only black person (Bob dresses "Jamaican" and may possibly be black, Lucia is debatable), which indeed showcases a lack of racial diversity. In contrast, there are many white characters, in fact, there are more white characters than there are asian-looking characters. This means that one can't justify this by saying that the creators of Konami made the game this way because the game is made by Japanese people. Does this make the Japanese creators of Suikoden racist?

Looking at other Japanese-made RPGs and other games, you would notice that many of the characters are white. The few blacks there are tend to be stereotypical (ie. Barret from Final Fantasy 7). To a person sensitive to racial diversity, this tendency may be disturbing, and in fact turn them off towards purchasing games made in Japan. Games made in the USA tend to be a lot more sensitive to racial diversity, which may have halped in capturing a wider market--even cultivating niche markets.

As a Japanese person, I have thought of the reasons behind this huge gap in perception. Here are some reasons I have come up with using my over-worked noodle:

  • World War II: Japan got creamed in WWII. Their tiny island was reduced to a pile of straw and bamboo after being bombed continuously for years, with a dramatic finish at Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th, 1945, respectively. Emperor Hirohito's radio announcement on Japan's surrender in August 15th, 1945 sent shockwaves across Japan, a nation that has never surrendered to a foreign power. Until then, Japan's culture was inward and narcissistic. Japaneseness was glorfied, and foreign things were ridiculed and shunned. This all changed after General MacArthur stepped onto Japanese soil off his airplane, with his sunglasses and pipe in his mouth. It was then that Japan recognized thay have been defeated by the "white man." In fact, the defeat in 1945 unleashed Japan's desire to learn all things foreign so that they can rebuild itself and hopefully advance towards a better future. This meant they had to learn from those who defeated them, namely the USA. Back then, segragation was still widespread within the USA, this was before civil rights and the 1960's, so it was a very different world in the USA. Thus, most all soldiers who were stationed in Japan were white men.

    This lead to Japan nearly deifying white people. To the Japanese, these tall, fair-skinned men from the west with superior technology and industry prevailed over them. Then, what happened next was the Marshall Plan--soldiers handed out food and water to hungry Japanese people and helped rebuild the nation. Many children tasted their first chocolate from an American soldier. All these culminated in transforming Japan's thick morality. The defeat became a root-metaphore from which the "white man" can not be separated from.

    To this day, American things are considered "cool" in Japan. This can be seen by how young people are teeming in the "American Villages" in major cities, where people can purchase American merchandise. Same with music and other forms of entertainment, such as movies and TV--even McDonalds has been very successful in Japan. Another side-effect of this situation was that this adoration of white people didn't stop with Americans--the adoration was directed towards any white person. This is probably why we have meny characters and placenames that have German, French, and Italian etymological roots.

  • Lack of Exposure to Black People: Japan is a very monogenous society--it is rare to see obvious foreigners in Japan. However, even rareer among those foreigners are people with black skin. While I lived in Kyoto Japan (a major tourist city) for 16 years of my life, I saw black people twice. That is how rare they are. Another reason is there is very limited exposure of blacks in the media--it is only in the last decade that black artists are seen in Japanese MTV as well as black martial artists. This means Japanese people just aren't exposed enough to black people to even think about them. This may be one reason why there are so few blacks in Japanese games.

  • Fantasy Genre Cliche: Even in western fantasy novels and movies, it is rare to find black people, especially in title roles. You'll probably see more of them as villains, as seen with Thulsa Doom and Bombata in the Conan the Barbarian movies. If not, they will likely be killed during the course of the movie, such as seen with Snails in the Dungeons & Dragons movie. Looking at novels, there are no black people among the good guys in the Lord of the Rings, the Narnian Sagas. Suikoden may simply be following this cliche. In fact, having even one black character who has an official role and doesn't die actually shows that Suikoden is more sensitive to racial diversity.

    That's all I can come up with, but I do not think the creators of Suikoden are being racist at all. I know for a fact that the original creator of the series, Murayama, drew his material heavily from Elric Saga along from ancient Chinese stories. I think this is simply the case where the creators didn't even think there was an issue, and skin color is merely cosmetic. In fact, Hauser's rough sketch depicted a old white man and white hair, but the designer changed it on whim. There was no intention to "have a black character." The fact that they named a white farmer in Suikoden 1 as "blackman" shows great naivette on part of the suikoden team. But of course, if they would consider the senstive nature of this sublect in the USA market, they may fare better in terms of sales! At the time of this writing, Suikoden 4 has showed no black characters. Although I doubt this would cause an outrage, it's something to think about for Konami of America.


    Discussion Thread for This Topic

    Written by SARSadmin
    March 18th, 2004