“You Don’t Play, You Volunteer”:
Narrative Public Memory
Construction In Medal Of Honor:
Rising Sun
Written by: Aaron Hess
Presented by Tomas Rincon
Background
• In 2003 Medal of Honor: Rising Sun released allowing
gamers to relive moments of World War II
• “The memory of World War II , however, is tainted with a
selective retelling of events that not only glamorizes the
war, but constructs an Orientalist image of the Japanese
Empire, as narrative and ludologic analyses of the game will
show” (339).
• Other games also ‘glamorize war’, but in addition, MOH:
Rising Sun provides a more realistic portrayal that is
seemingly more educational
Public Memory
• Public Memory is the way society views an historical
event. – Wikipedia
• “Policy directions are derived from popular expression
concerning recent or historical events, and the use of
public memory assists in the process” (340).
• Hess argues, “that the use of narrative memorializing
in interactive space creates an experience of public
memory, giving video game players an active but
private (in the home) role in memory-making” (341).
Digital Interactive Media
• “The use of digital interactive media, then, highlights
an exceptional location of public memory, whereby the
creation of memory via a public artifact is experienced
in private spaces” (341).
• “What happens to public memory when it is
experienced away from public spaces and in private
homes” (341)?
• “How do uses of digital memory draw from traditional
uses of memory” (341)?
• “What medium-specific strategies do users of digital
technologies employ” (341)?
Narratives
• History narrated through commemoration
• Narratives constructed “selectively draw upon
interpretations of past events” (341)
• “Scholars who investigate historical narration pay
attention to the ideological function of historicizing
and memorializing; they question claims of ‘truth’ in
official stories” (341).
• Fictional depictions can be taken as historically fact
• “Construction of public memory in fictional historicized
forms affects the vernacular sense-making of grand
historic events” (342).
Arguments
• Hess cites Biesecker
“In exposing us to countless trembling, perspiring,
gagging, punctured, drowning and bleeding bodies […]
before informing us of their individual histories,
Spielberg’s Omaha Beach scene effectively promotes our
patriotic identification with all of them while blocking our
subjective identification with any one of them” (Biesecker
as cited in Hess, 342).
• Hess extends this argument into video games, “players
not only see the images of history but also play them
out, I highlight how interactive memory in the private
sphere entices players to begin their ‘privatized
patriotism’ (342).
MOH: Rising Sun
• Protagonist U.S. MarineJoseph Griffin (Player
Character)
• Starts in Pearl Harbor
• Others missions take him through jungles, riverboats,
and enemy aircraft carriers as he searches for his MIA
brother and battles the Japanese Empire
• Commended for being ‘realistic’ and ‘educational’
• Treatment of the game as educational and accurate
give credence to the public acceptance as a
“documentary of public history and memory regarding
the events of World War II” (343).
Ludological Analysis
• Immersion the player is persuaded by the graphics and
presentation to feel that they are taken to the historical event.
• Uses both a meta-narrative and personal narrative
• “meta-narrative sets up the larger scope of the personal
narrative and its interaction with history” (345)
• News reels of WWII footage
• Interviews with veterans
Analysis Cont.
• Blurring of historical images and gameplay enables
gamers to , “enact a type of personal historic
retribution. Gamers can help end slave-labor working
conditions and capture the fortune stolen by a
tyrannical government” (345).
• Veteran interviews, “utilizing a vernacular perspective
on the war, narrate the official” story of the war with
the games images and the newsreel footage is used to
support their stories
• Uses of historically accurate weapons adds to realism
and connection to veterans who refer to it
Analysis Cont.
• Personal letters used to elucidate personal connection
to player character
• Mary, Griffin’s sister discusses domestic events but
leaves out events that might seem negative (Japanese
internment camps, effects of rationing on the poor and
discrimination)
• Meta-narrative constructs a them of nationalistic
courage
• Personal narrative constructs a them of family pride
• Nuclear weapons omitted
• “Sense of pride without problems” (347)
Character
• Constructed as ‘self’ and ‘other’
• Orientalism (other)- Japanese constructed as ruthless
despots who torture willingly
• Self constructed in three forms:
• Self as Player character
•
•
•
•
Victim of surprise attack
Hero who saves trapped and injured soldiers
War is personal and political to you
Constructed as direct opposition to Japanese
Self as a Soldier
• Self as a Soldier
• Constructed as a Marine with all corresponding
responsibilities and duties
• Personal responsibility outweighs personal commitment
• Marine training to remain silent and never give up
information
• Duty is more important than family
• CO directs appropriate behavior for Marines
Self as Nation
• Nation is constructed as a victim (newsreel footage and
veteran interviews)
• Sense that America was forced into war and were
initially neutral
• Naval blockades of Japan left out
• USA as a savior to the Pacific rim
• Identified through technological superiority
“Other”
• Constructed as crafty enemy and as “Oriental”
• Only 3 or 4 personas used as enemies
• Despotic and Barbaric
• Technologically inferior use of samurai swords and
bayonets
• Japanese language
• Use of ‘Japs’ –racial slur; accurate but reifies superiority
• Japanese-American soldier is killed by Japan sacrificing
his life for American war effort (dichotomy to Japanese
internment camps)
Implications
• “Gamers are directed to seek revenge for both the
destruction of Pearl Harbor and the disappearance of
the central character’s brother” (353).
• Gamers become involved on a personal, role-specific,
and national level
• Gamers led to believe it is historically accurate
• Participatory function personalizes and privatizes the
public memory
• Immersion helps to authenticate
• “gamers come for entertainment, and walk away with
selective memory of past conflicts” (354).