BEGINNING   PILOT   GIRL   PHOTOS   ENDGAME 

being japanese is being free

When Britannia took control of Japan every person in the small nation had their rights taken away and became second class citizens who were no longer known as "Japanese" but "Elevens". Because the nation was taken over so quickly, the Japanese people refused to accept that they were suddenly worthless. The people of Japan were forced to live in ghettos while Britannians lived in luxury. Much of what once characterized Japan was destroyed.

The Tokyo Tower, or the Britannian Victory Memorial Center was a museum built from the remains of one of Japan's most famous landmarks as a symbol that would characterize all aspects of Japan's defeat and glorify Britannia. Britannia, a nation built as an absolute monarchy (a monarchy in which the ruler is only second to god, or whatever religious figure the nation turned to), claimed it was the natural order of things and spent no time building colonies and tearing down everything that Japan was known for, much as they did with the Tokyo Tower. Britannia also set to turning the once unified nation against itself by recruiting Japanese people to become "Honorary Britannians" pretty much a fancy word to describe anyone who was willing to be enslaved by Britannia and work in their military or otherwise serving them, as street vendors or the like, rather than forcing them to live in the unpopulated ghettos.

Kallen was greatly affected by the transfer of power, her family was destroyed and her brother died. Kallen sees the people who serve Britannia everyday and rejects their way of life. She believes that they're weak to just roll over for the Britannians. She refuses to live as a Britannian because being Japanese is something that her brother fought and died for, it's also something that took away her mother's freedom. Kallen rejects her Britannian heritage even though she realizes she may never be able to live a life outside of being a rebel.