Imperial Japanese Navy and the UK
You know, Kiku wears Imperial Japanese navy's uniform all the time in Hetalia.
These days I've watched a Tv drama series and read some books mostly about the Russo-Japanse War and knew what Imperial Japanese Navy was like a bit more.
And I thought... " What!? They were quite anglophiles even till the end of WW2!"
When Imperial Japanese Navy Academy was established, Japan invited british teachers for the Naval Education, so called the Douglas Mission. And they taught modern navigation and such there, plus Mr. Douglas also taught the ways of the public school he went to and it had been always done after he left Japan too. (So, a while after WW2 ended, a Japanese who had been the student went to enter Oxford university in Britain, as what he had been taught was the same as Oxford, a fellow British student was surprised so much, "why you know that much of our ways, when you just came here today!?", lol.) Incidentally, also Mr.Douglas was the first to introduce modern football to Japan.
Every teacher and student were speaking English in the navy academy all the time, so when Japan entered WW2, the higher-ups told them to stop using English because it was the enemy's language (well, it was most mainly America, though), but the principal there was just flatly "NO!" and rejected the order XD (But Imperial Japanese army stopped it.)
It's famous that people in Imperial Japanese navy respected the UK very much and saw it as their sensei always, so when they had to fight with the British navy, they were like "oh no, don't wanna fight them since they were our sensei ;_; ", lol.
So I think it's likely that Kiku can understand English quite well and respects England so much.
On the other hand, the army at first adopted French way for quite a while, and afterwards Prussian one. But the Navy did British one all the time. (Although Japan originally were very good at sailing and had always the equivalents of navy since it's an island nation.)
Also, I suppose why Japanese like the UK very much is partly because they helped us a lot to defeat Russia in Russo-Japanese war. Russia was always the most fearful country to Japan. It seems it was more than America. Japanese people were afraid of Russia invading Japan any time soon, at all times. (But on another note, Japanese tend to like Russian literature and Russian dishes very much, and find Russian people nice.)
And, after Japan lost WW2, a person who had lived in the UK for years and was able to speak perfect British English negatiated with Americans over a new constitution for Japan and such, he did a really good job for them and was called "only one Japanese who's no pushover" by Americans. He also respected the UK very much and by that I liked it more.
I rambled too much and I don't know where I'm going now, so I'll shut up here... XD
These days I've watched a Tv drama series and read some books mostly about the Russo-Japanse War and knew what Imperial Japanese Navy was like a bit more.
And I thought... " What!? They were quite anglophiles even till the end of WW2!"
When Imperial Japanese Navy Academy was established, Japan invited british teachers for the Naval Education, so called the Douglas Mission. And they taught modern navigation and such there, plus Mr. Douglas also taught the ways of the public school he went to and it had been always done after he left Japan too. (So, a while after WW2 ended, a Japanese who had been the student went to enter Oxford university in Britain, as what he had been taught was the same as Oxford, a fellow British student was surprised so much, "why you know that much of our ways, when you just came here today!?", lol.) Incidentally, also Mr.Douglas was the first to introduce modern football to Japan.
Every teacher and student were speaking English in the navy academy all the time, so when Japan entered WW2, the higher-ups told them to stop using English because it was the enemy's language (well, it was most mainly America, though), but the principal there was just flatly "NO!" and rejected the order XD (But Imperial Japanese army stopped it.)
It's famous that people in Imperial Japanese navy respected the UK very much and saw it as their sensei always, so when they had to fight with the British navy, they were like "oh no, don't wanna fight them since they were our sensei ;_; ", lol.
So I think it's likely that Kiku can understand English quite well and respects England so much.
On the other hand, the army at first adopted French way for quite a while, and afterwards Prussian one. But the Navy did British one all the time. (Although Japan originally were very good at sailing and had always the equivalents of navy since it's an island nation.)
Also, I suppose why Japanese like the UK very much is partly because they helped us a lot to defeat Russia in Russo-Japanese war. Russia was always the most fearful country to Japan. It seems it was more than America. Japanese people were afraid of Russia invading Japan any time soon, at all times. (But on another note, Japanese tend to like Russian literature and Russian dishes very much, and find Russian people nice.)
And, after Japan lost WW2, a person who had lived in the UK for years and was able to speak perfect British English negatiated with Americans over a new constitution for Japan and such, he did a really good job for them and was called "only one Japanese who's no pushover" by Americans. He also respected the UK very much and by that I liked it more.
I rambled too much and I don't know where I'm going now, so I'll shut up here... XD