Lessons in Racism from Popular Anime
When flipping through the well-thumbed pages of history, it is difficult to find a more recognizable symbol of militant fascism than the Nazis. Their reign of terror as served as an example of what will inevitably happen when nationalistic fervor and notions of racial superiority are mixed together.
When I first started writing Iron Storm, it was really just a backseat project to another story I was writing, that one being an alternate history piece about the victorious Axis powers. All I really knew about my fanfic was that I wanted it to serve as a turning point for both Yzak and Dearka. As they were probably two of the most racist characters in the series, I wanted this fic to be a chance for them to once and for all abandon their concepts of racial superiority.
My alternate history story was going nowhere and what little work I got done I didn't really like. So, I decided to scrap what I had and start over. This is when it occurred to me that the subject of alternate history could help me with my fanfic.
At the time, I was stuck trying to figure just how I could change the pair's thinking. When Hitler was brought into the equation, the answer was obvious: confront them with the consequences of racism running rampant and out of control. So, I picked the most well-known example of institutionalized racism and military expansionism, Nazi Germany.
In my mind, only after Yzak and Dearka could see the ultimate consequences of racism as a motivation for military action, they could finally abandon it.