Abstract

The butterfly effect is defined as “The phenomenon whereby a minute localized change in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere”. One example of this effect is the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, which eventually led to the creation of tentacle hentai. This complicated series of events that link what at first glance would be an isolated event to another vastly different occurrence fully demonstrates the principle meaning of the butterfly effect. The paper analyzes and demonstrates the effects of the butterfly effect permeating from the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and its related events. The paper concludes by finalizing the proof by which Ferdinand’s assassination at the hands of Gavrilo Princip led to the genesis of hentai.

Keywords: *butterfly effect, world history, Franz Ferdinand, hentai, analysis*

 The Butterfly Effect: Demonstrated in World History

On Sunday, 28 June 1914, at about 10:45 am, Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The perpetrator was 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, a member of Young Bosnia and one of a group of assassins organized and armed by the Black Hand (Johnson, 2014). The assassinations, along with the arms race, nationalism, imperialism, militarism, and the alliance system all contributed to the origins of World War I, which began a month after Franz Ferdinand’s death, with Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war against Serbia (Johnson, 2014). The assassination of Ferdinand is considered the most immediate cause of World War I (McDermott, 2018). Austria-Hungary was furious at the assassination of the heir to the throne, and, with Germany’s support, declared war on Serbia on July 28. Entangled alliances meant that within days, Germany declared war on Russia—Serbia’s ally—and invaded France via Belgium, which then caused Britain to declare war on Germany. The powder keg that is World War I, the third bloodiest war in the history of mankind, had just been ignited.

By July 1914, the great powers of Europe were divided into two coalitions: the Triple Entente—consisting of France, Russia, and Britain—and the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. It should be noted that “The Triple Alliance was only defensive in nature, allowing Italy to stay out of the war until April 1915, when it joined the Allied Powers after its relations with Austria-Hungary deteriorated,” (Seymour 1916). World War I was a significant turning point in the political, cultural, economic, and social climate of the world. The war and its immediate aftermath sparked numerous revolutions and uprisings. The Big Four (Britain, France, the United States, and Italy) imposed their terms on the defeated powers in a series of treaties agreed at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, the most well known being the German peace treaty—the Treaty of Versailles (Gerwath, 2016). Ultimately, as a result of the war the Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Russian Empires ceased to exist, with numerous new states created from their remains. However, despite the conclusive Allied victory (and the creation of the League of Nations during the Peace Conference, intended to prevent future wars), a second world war would follow just over twenty years later.

The Germans hated the Treaty of Versailles because they had not been allowed to take part in the Conference. They thought they had been tricked and betrayed, and they hated the Treaty. Similarly, the Germans hated Clause 231 (which blamed Germany for causing the war), because it was the excuse for all the harsh clauses of the Treaty, and because they thought Russia was to blame for starting the war. Germany’s military power was reduced, and it was not allowed any troops in the Rhineland. Germans said this left them powerless against even the tiny countries. Yet at the same time, Germany was not allowed to join the League of Nations – an insult. Germany had to pay £6,600 million ‘reparations’, a huge sum which Germans felt was just designed to destroy their economy and starve their children. Finally, Germans hated the loss of land. Alsace-Lorraine was given back to France – a national humiliation. Germany’s colonies were given to France or Britain, which Germans saw as empire-building. Worst of all, huge areas of Germany were given to countries like Poland, and Germany was not allowed to unite with Austria. The Germans thought this was unfair, because other nations were given self determination – but many Germans lost the right to be part of Germany (Clare, n.d.). This resentment towards the Treaty of Versailles and at the Allies for their harsh reparations and blame would be used by Hitler to help gain support and allowed him to gain power.

Rising to power in an economically and politically unstable Germany, Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party rearmed the nation and signed strategic treaties with Italy and Japan to further his ambitions of world domination. Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 drove Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany, and World War II had begun. Over the next six years, the conflict would take more lives and destroy more land and property around the globe than any previous war (History, n.d.). In the mid-1930s, he began the rearmament of Germany, secretly and in violation of the Versailles Treaty. After signing alliances with Italy and Japan against the Soviet Union, Hitler sent troops to occupy Austria in 1938 and the following year annexed Czechoslovakia (History, n.d.). Japanese expansion in East Asia began in 1931 with the invasion of Manchuria and continued in 1937 with a brutal attack on China. On September 27, 1940, Japan signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy, thus joining the Axis Powers (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2015).

Heavy casualties sustained in the campaigns at Iwo Jima (February 1945) and Okinawa (April-June 1945), and fears of the even costlier land invasion of Japan led Truman to authorize the use of a new and devastating weapon. Developed during a top secret operation code-named The Manhattan Project, the atomic bomb was unleashed on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August. On August 15, the Japanese government issued a statement declaring they would accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, and on September 2, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur accepted Japan’s formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. (History, n.d.). After Japan agreed to surrender on August 14, 1945, American forces began to occupy Japan. Japan formally surrendered to the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union on September 2, 1945 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2015).

This foreign presence marks the only time in Japan’s history that it has been occupied by a foreign power (Heilbrunn 2009). During this occupation, many comic books, cartoons, and other Western media made its way into Japan via the U.S. soldiers stationed there. These mediums stayed behind long after the U.S. occupation of Japan, which would cause Japan to impose strict censorship laws on such articles to remove Western influence, which would come to include pornographic material as well. The sale and distribution of obscene materials in Japan is restricted under Article 175 of the Criminal Code, which states the following: “A person who distributes, sells or displays in public an obscene document, drawing or other objects shall be punished by imprisonment with work for not more than 2 years, a fine of not more than 2,500,000 yen or a petty fine. The same shall apply to a person who possesses the same for the purpose of sale,” (Japanese Ministry of Justice, 1907).

Later on, with the intent to keep these newfound Western goods and ideas, Japanese fans retaliated by drawing comics with women having sexual intercourse with vaguely phallic objects such as tentacles to exploit loopholes in Article 175 of the Criminal Code. Infact, even after the laws were relaxed and the restrictions loosened, the style of tentacle hentai remained a fetish. Historically the law has been interpreted in different ways—recently it has been interpreted to mean that all pornography must be at least partly censored; however, there have been very few arrests based on this law (Natsui, 2011). The genre is popular enough in Japan that it is the subject of parody. In the 21st century, Japanese films of this genre have become more common in the United States and Europe, although it still remains a small, fetish-oriented part of the adult film industry.

And thus, this narrative analysis comes to a close. This series of events testifies to the overall strength and reach of the butterfly effect. Through close analysis of historical trends and facts, it can be proven that he assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, would eventually lead to the creation of tentacle hentai. This singular, localized event, when viewed through the lens of the greater historical context, and consequently narrowed down to the many pathways upon which time flows, allows one to see the large and seemingly unconnected points converge to mean something greater.