I am currently working on a paper detailing the history of Nintendo for a class. specifically, I wanted to talk about major events in Japan’s economic history using Nintendo as a vehicle. I can not find any information on what the company did during the second world war. I know they produced Hanafuda cards, but I read that some companies were forced by the imperial government to produce propaganda.
According to [this article](http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/World_War_II_propaganda) “In October of 1943, Nintendo released a Backgammon board intended for kids that featured several images that promoted Japan’s involvement in the war. All of the images were of different types of animals dressed up as soldiers. Perhaps the most interesting image is of a bunny rabbit and a turtle waving the Japanese flag on a gun with torn up American and British flags laying down at the bottom of the hill they’re standing on.”
The article doesn’t cite any sources, and the link it provides for the supposed backgammon board doesn’t go anywhere, so as of right now I wont include this information in my paper. However, if there is some grain of truth to it, or perhaps some other propaganda projects, I’d really be interested in learning about them.
by colemacgrath
10 Comments
Heres a Wikipedia page:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Nintendo#1972%E2%80%93present:_Electronic_games
[removed]
[removed]
Not sure how I can help with linking a source but it sounds like an interesting paper. Would you consider sharing it once you’re done?
Not exactly what you’re looking for, but related. At the end of WWII, [Kyoto was considered as a target for the atomic bomb](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33755182), which was also the home of Nintendo. It wasn’t until July 24, less than a month before the mission, that they switched the target to Nagasaki. Secretary of War Harry Stimson appealed directly to President Truman, arguing that Kyoto was too culturally important to be destroyed. If Stimson hadn’t visited the city in the 1920s, we might not have Nintendo now.
Oh wow, this is a really interesting idea!
I have nothing of value to add, but I do hope you’ll share the paper when you’re done!
This honestly might be worth contacting Nintendo directly over, to see if they have anything they would be willing to talk about. Might well not yield anything, both because Nintendo of America (which presumably would be the specific point of Nintendo you contact) didn’t exist at the time, and also because Japan and the US were belligerents at the time, and so it might not be the sort of thing they jump at sharing history over. But still, might be worth just asking the source directly.
You could try getting in contact with nintendo, maybe through support or social media.
I feel like Nintendo probably intentionally did their best to bury any info about that, like Disney tried to bury their war cartoons. It’s bad PR, especially when you’re trying to present a kid friendly image.
[http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/World_War_II_propaganda](http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/World_War_II_propaganda)
I have a friend who’s a historian and he took on this exact same research project and, sorry to say, he also wasn’t able to turn up anything, and he did some serious digging too. Whatever Nintendo was doing during WWII, they seem pretty keen to make sure we don’t find out about it.