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It started with a bang, or 2 of them, rather. With the bomb drops over both Hiroshima and Nagasaki done, WWII was ended for Japan, and they were left with a war torn countryside to rebuild, with the aid of the very people that put them in this state. Just how does the country deal with such a tragic, and heavy blow? The way any country involved in war does: by fluffing it up, for mass consumption.

To distract people from their involvements in the Nanjing Massacre, vivisection of humans without anesthesia, and use of comfort women(abducting women, and using them as sex slaves, for their soldiers), on top of their involvement in the many wars to come, things like Hello Kitty were invented with it's cutesy, coquettish look helping ease it's citizens into the new age, all the while watching the line between adulthood and childhood become much more difficult to decipher(in a lot of cases, the children live with their parents their whole lives, including well into adulthood, regardless of the kind of job they have).

Some call this change Japan's method of growing as a nation, and a people, while others say the country is becoming no better than a helpless, dependent child. Either way, cute is king over in Japan, and it's making it's way in a big way onto western coasts. With all that said, what you think of Japan's culture of cute? Do you have a favorite cute thing from the country? What are your thoughts on how it reflect the nation of Japan?