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NEWS ÜVERVIEW
UnderstandingWorld Events and Trends
Toys
and Violence
T
he toy industry has ended
its late-1970s
disarmament movement, and
the G.l. Joe doll and a host
have invaded toy stores
around the world.
In 1976, when G.l. Joe
only earned $6 million for his
manufacturar. Hasbro
Industries, he was retired
from active duty. But he's
back now and heading up a
band of mercenarias that hit
consumers for about $100
million in 1984.
G.l. Joe's stated enemy is
a group of villains known as
"Cobra." But everyone
knows the real struggle is
between toy companies
fighting for a spot in an
industry that did nearly
$12,000,000,000 worth of
business in the United States
alone in 1984.
G.l. Joe's competition is
headed by the "Go-Bots."
the "Transformers,"
" Voltron" and "Masters of
the Universe" series of toys.
All are featured in television
November / December 1985
cartoon programs lhat
highlight their adventures
and promote sales of the
toys.
These other " action
figures" (lhe industry avoids
the words
war toys)
inhabit
difieren! times and worlds
produce: Much controversy
surrounds them. The toys
and the cartoon shows that
promote them. say
opponents, center around
levels of violence harmful to
children. In !he Transformers
cartoon show. for instance,
some 83 acts of violence
ti:
for children, raising the
catharsis argument-that
acting out violence in play
keeps children from acting it
out in reallife.
Dr. Thomas Radecki,
presiden! of NCTV.
disagrees, citing numerous
studies that he insists
disprove the catharsis
argument. " Children learn
behavior." he says. "These
games and cartoons teach
them that aggression solves
problems. Eventually they act
out these solutions in real
lile."
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Protests about violence
~lJ"!ili::;._j ~
don'! seem lo slow down
j
sales of these kinds of toys.
=~--1ju..___::....___.-¡::;_~....<.J
The Toy Manufacturers of
than G.l. Joe. But with him,
they are expected to
domínate sales during the
holiday buying spree.
Profits aren'! all these toys
Disarmament
Research
lnstitute
l
t was in August of 1945
that Japan became the
first nation in history to
experience an atomic
attack. lt was something
that most people would
prefer to forget-but many
in Japan have decided to
remember . Not, however, in
a spirit of indignation,
self-pity or revenge.
The attacks on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki have placed
Japan in a unique position
for they alone among all the
occur every hour. according
lo the National Coalition on
Television Violence.
Defenders of the toys say
that the violence is not bad
people of the world
know
from firsthand experience
what nuclear war is like.
Some Japanese feel a
special weight of
responsibility to warn the
world to renounce war as a
means of resolving disputes.
Such a person is Tokuma
Utsunomiya, a senior
statesman and a respected
member of the Japanese
Diet. He is also chairman of
the Disarmament Research
lnstitute,
*
an organization
dedicated to informing the
world of the horrors of
atomic bombing. Mr.
•rokuma utsunomva.
Mem:>er ol
The
House
ol
Courdlors,
Nabonal Olel
ol Japan
America predict that 1985
will be another record sales
year . As one toy-industry
publication put it, "War is
sell." •
Utsunomiya remembers the
bombings as an unparalleled
disaster, but he is not
anti-American. He realizes
that the Japanese nation
brought the disaster on
itself.
He reminds his people
that their fathers and
grandfathers allowed
themselves to be led into
the war by militarists. He
makes no excuses. He is
realistic, understanding that
the excesses and atrocities
committed by the Imperial
Japanese army dulled any
edge of compassion that
the enemies may have felt.
Mr. Utsunomiya candidly
admits that Imperial Japan
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