When Commies Were Worse Than Jerks...

In episode 8 of the Pachinko TV series, we get introduced to villains worse than the Japanese fascists who want to turn Japan into a warmongering rogue state administered by a tyrannical regime that has friendly relations with the Hitler-Mussolini Axis responsible for World War 2, and the Japanese upper class who, by being arrogant jerks, may have been the inspiration for Ash Ketchum's original nemesis Gary Oak. We're talking about the Japanese communists. They wanted voters to vote for them in elections, and they influenced Koreans in Japan to join their cause. It just so happens that Isak was arrested for allegedly sympathizing with both Japanese and Korean communists, both of whom are classified as severe threats to Japan in the 1930s. While Russian and Chinese communists did contribute to the bitter division of the Korean Peninsula that continues to this day, we must not forget that Japanese communists influenced Korean communism as well.