It hadn't been the only change, as the American mainland had never had the concentration camps that they might have been. The actual "stone" that caused all the changes preceeded the war by a few decades, and it was unlikely that Genma would have known what it was if he could have found it.
Originally Genma had been curious to find out WHY things were so different, but relying on his sketchy knowledge of history had proven that he would likely never figure it out. All the history books he had access to were of THIS history, after all.
As it was, the changes since then were fairly marked. Japan was part of the US, but it was also true that the US was more Japanese than it had been in Genma's original world. More of Japan was designated wilderness area and historical parks, though there were certainly industrial complexes aplenty.
Not that there weren't still those who had problems with the whole concept of the 51st state. The seperationists had slowly dwindled and the current movement was to split Japan into four seperate states (there being a number of benefits to the concept just due to population numbers at this point.)
The martial arts had taken off in the US during the 1950s, with various "tough guy" figures like Marlon Brando popularizing the fighting sports. They'd taken off slightly more during the 1960s and into the 1970s, and were considered a part of "Americana" by the '80s. During the time of Ranma's journey, he had studied martial arts styles like the Serpent Dancer School Of Apache Fighting Arts in the quaintly named city of Medicine Hat. He had learned the specialist art of Black Beret Fu and studied under the mysterious master of Juuken known as the Artful Dodger.
He had eaten at a number of specialist restaurants over the trip as well. Food was an important thing, especially to Genma.
When they'd come to this world, Genma had wandered around completely lost. If it hadn't been for this individual, Genma wouldn't have known what to make of things.
As it was, food and shelter - as well as checking the books available - had gotten Genma a much better idea of what was going on and what changes he had been facing. All on the outskirts of Tokyo in an area that hadn't changed that much since a popular TV sitcom in the '70s ("Family Affair", (dealing with a fairly dysfunctional family running a hot springs inn) which popularized terms like "baka" and "aho" and "dingbat" into the English language) had been set there.
(It had been attributed to one of the characters of that series, the deeply philosophical if clumsy Sam Yamazaki, that "English is not a language which borrows from other languages. It ambushes them in a dark alley and robs them blind.")
"He said he'd meet us here," said Genma, pointing. "You remember this, don't you?"
Ranma blinked as a vague familiarity bubbled within his memory.
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(Posted Tue, 03 Aug 2004 10:07)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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