About Campaign China '37

[tokiedian]

As I translated notes of scenarios and campaigns, I felt embarrassed to User Campaign China '37, as a Japanese. While I just read the note of the entire campaign, I'll point out something embarrassing:
Who is Takomata and Sei Motsuma. I never heard any Japanese persons whose name of Takomata, though Kagawa is one of popular Japanese surnames. As for Sei Motsuma, I can't image such a Japanese name. Who is Sei Motsuma? Is he native American??
As to Bushido. I thought Japanese soldiers in the age aren't likely to say bushido but "okuni no tame", which means "for the empire(Japanese Empire)". A Leap from Japan to bushido is not good. It's a stereotype, not reality.
As the above, I put the question whether the campaign is firmly based on the historical actions or include something hypothetical. If the latter, I'll respect it originality. However, If the former, we should revise the campaign, by deleting anything inaccurate and editing them correctly historical and real.

[jivemi]

Those are interesting observations tokiedian and personally I wouldn't know how to resolve them. Obviously someone from a different culture can make mistakes over names (a US mystery writer I knew thought the Russian name "Sasha" was feminine) but your comments go deeper than that. What I suspect you're objecting to is the perception that foreigners--in this case "Westerners"--have concerning Japan's wartime actions and the military code its troops (presumably[?]) lived by.

Here's what Wikipedia says: "Bushido, a modern term rather than a historical one, originates from the samurai moral values, most commonly stressing some combination of frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honor unto death...During pre-World War II and World War II Shōwa Japan, bushido was pressed into use for militarism, to present war as purifying, and death a duty." Whether true or not, this view is prevalent in the West, and it's doubtful you'll be able to convince very many that it's "inaccurate."

Likewise, SPWW2 is described as "a combined arms tactical level World War 2 historical wargame" in the game manual's introduction. However--and I hope I'm not taking too many liberties here--that doesn't necessarily mean that campaigns or scenarios BASED ON historical events are perfectly "historical and real." In many cases time has been compressed, forces reduced, troop dispositions altered or presumed, etc., in order to create contests that are playable and challenging.

So please don't take the errors you cite too seriously. The point, after all, is to play Steel Panthers, not to "correct" campaign or scenario designers according to personal or cultural views of reality. Besides, if you don't like campaigns or scenarios the way they are, you're perfectly free to design your own, any way you like.

Thanks for your kind attention, and happy gaming!