Fallujah war crimes as ‘entertainment’

This video says about itself:

Japanese independent journalist, Toshikuni Doi, shares his look at the siege on the Iraqi city of Falluja by the US Armed Forces.

From TechRadar UK, 8 April 2009:

Japanese videogame giant Konami has controversially announced a new game based on the recent conflict in Iraq called Six Days In Fallujah. …

But is it really ‘just a game’?

“The massacre carried out by American and British forces in Fallujah in 2004 is amongst the worst of the war crimes carried out in an illegal and immoral war,” Stop The War Coalition spokesperson Tansy E Hoskins told TechRadar, upon reading the first reports of Six Days In Fallujah.

“It is estimated that up to 1,000 civilians died in the bombardment and house to house raids carried out by invading troops. So many people were killed in Fallujah that the town’s football stadium had to be turned into a cemetery to cope with all the dead bodies.

“The American led assault on Fallujah pretended there were no civilians left in the city. Although 60,000 refugees were able to flee, over 50,000 people remained in their homes and took the brunt of the violence and chemical weapons. Months of aerial bombardments, the use of thermobaric weapons and the probable use of white phosphorus turned Fallujah into fields of rubble,” she added.

“There is nothing to celebrate in the death of people resisting an unjust and bloody occupation. To make a game out of a war crime and to capitalise on the death and injury of thousands is sick. There will never be a time when it is appropriate for people to ‘play’ at committing atrocities. The massacre in Fallujah should be remembered with shame and horror not glamorised and glossed over for entertainment.”

Military training sim

Ethical questions over whether or not recent theatres of wars are acceptable fodder for interactive entertainment aside, there are also reports that Atomic Games is planning on using material from the game to create a military training simulation.

From the British (Conservative) Daily Mail:

[Anti war activist] Reg Keys, whose son Thomas was a Red Cap killed by an Iraqi mob in June 2003, added: ‘Considering the enormous loss of life in the Iraq War, glorifying it in a video game demonstrates very poor judgement and bad taste.

‘It is particularly crass when you consider what actually happened in Fallujah.

‘These horrific events should be confined to the annuls of history, not trivialised and rendered for thrill-seekers to play out, over and over again, for ever more.’

Gold Star Families Speak Out Expresses Outrage at Video Game Based on Deadly Battle in Iraq: here.

What will this Japanese corporation make next? A “very entertaining” game about the massacre of Nanjing in China by the imperial Japanese army? Or a still more “funny” game about how the SS troops of Adolf Hitler, imperial Japan’s World War II ally, massacred the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw? After all, they may think, if someone from a family with a World War II war crimes past can become Prime Minister of Japan now …

This is a Steve Bell cartoon on Obama’s Iraq visit.

28 April 2009.

From Asahi Shimbun in Japan:

Under criticism, Konami ditches realistic “Fallujah” videogame …

“Six Days in Fallujah,” developed by U.S. company Atomic Games, was showcased earlier this month at an event in the United States for magazines specializing in the videogame industry.

Konami had planned to put the game on sale in or after 2010.

However, bereaved families of soldiers, retired troops and citizens’ groups in the United States and Europe criticized the game as in poor taste and insensitive.

The fighting in Fallujah in November 2004 was among the most intense after the U.S.-led war against Iraq‘s regular forces ended in 2003. More than 2,000 people, including many citizens, were killed in the street battles over several weeks. …

The reporter [Jamin Brophy-Warren of the Wall Street Journal] also said several thousand photos, including satellite images classified by the U.S. military, were used in the production of “Six Days in Fallujah.”

“We think Atomic Games used a network (to produce the game),” the Konami official said. “But we don’t know the connection (between the company and U.S. military forces).”

Death toll in Iraq: here.

Robert Fisk on the Iraq war: here.

An iPhone game in which users act as an “all-powerful god that rules over the primitive islanders” has caused a stir: here.

Based on a popular toy and cartoon franchise, GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra is a film that does little more than glorify militarism and war: here.