Here we have an entity that does not communicate and has only one aim - to destroy humanity and then we have the supposed pacifists saying that 'if we disarm, they'll let us go'.
It is never established that the Gauna have destroying humanity as a goal. It could be a coincidence! It is also never stated that it is a single goal. Do Gauna attack only humans? If they encounter other life, do they leave it alone? This has been a deliberate choice of the story, that only getting one side of the story, we can only guess about the Gauna.
As for the pacifists, they were revealed to be not without their reasons. It turned out that they were right about Gauna being attracted to kabi weapons - although that was not the whole story. Also, their original charter/goal was Sidonia as a seed/colonizatiopn vessel. It was >six-hundred years< before they had a single victory against the Gauna! And 100 years prior to the time of the story, Ochiai's experiments in devising Gauna weapons very nearly killed everyone.
None of that makes up for that one stupid old guy with the long hair who was the main street agitator for the pacifists. He was annoying as hell, and had to go!
It makes me wonder if this anime has an agenda to teach the youth of the futility and stupidity of pacifism, by depicting pacifists as mentally retarded.
What indicates how smart a course of action may be depends upon what your goals are. Assuming that violent solutions will always work better is no more clever than assuming pacifism. This is why good-versus-evil, hero-versus-villain stories are usually as dumb as a bag of rocks, because it doesn't reflect reality, but rather human psychology, which usually has a lot of stupid problems.
How can you tell if somebody simply depicting an idea means it's part of their agenda or not? It's easy to tell a story without needing to believe in it yourself. I can just say that people should or shouldn't do something as part of a story, without it directly reflecting my views.
Having read some of the creator's other manga, there is a strong thread of transhumanism running through it. My guess is that the Gauna ARE the rest of humanity, which would put a different spin on the whole "Human versus Gauna" idea. If Gauna are more advanced, should the people of Sidonia even bother trying to eliminate them? And why? There are also other options, such as avoiding them or merging with them.
Japan has long embraced pacifism after WW2, but I wonder if things are changing now.
You shouldn't have to wonder too hard, follow the news!
Japan embraced pacifism after WW2 because they were made to. The US helped to draft their new constitution. The idea was that they could remain a country, but not an empire. That's why instead of a regular military, they have a "self-defense force". Back in the 1970s-1980s the US was scared of Japan's economic and technological growth. But now they want Japan to be more powerful, because they are the US's closest ally who can counter the expansion of China.
But none of this matters very much. International politics are usually at playground-fighting mentaliy. Countries are dinosaurs.
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