bansama: Hitler isn't really a taboo persona here. He's often the brunt of jokes, impersonations and so forth (for example, see Adachi's Slow Step where the high school principle is guy nicknamed Hitler -- and intentionally dresses and acts the part, right down to the mustache).
And unlike some countries in the West, movies, books and even manga, in this case, are not going to cause mass outrage, they pretty much get released like any other movie and wind up forgotten soon there after. Perhaps it's because Hitler wasn't the enemy here, perhaps it's because the Japanese worry more about the bombs that were dropped on them by the US -- which in their eyes, did far more harm (to Japan) than Hitler.
Sure there are bound to be a lot of people in the West who would be enraged at the thought of this manga, but I bet those people are trying to quantify the actions of Japanese society with the norms for their own society -- a futile task given that societies are not the same.
It just seems bizarre that would be the attitude of a country so ashamed of it's role in the war that
the government censors history textbooks. Oh well, I am not enraged, only concerned.
bansama: The first certainly caused a lot of political outrage when it was released over here. And the second (inferior movie) was politically charged, starting with the destruction of the government building in Shinjuku and going into some rather poorly construed terrorist plot -- to be honest, it bored me so much I stopped paying attention.
I guess I better add that the Battle Royale comment in this post should not be taken too seriously, seeing that the films are set in a fictional alternate reality.
Interesting. That is even more interesting than the movies. They were just so campy that I had not considered cultural subtext.