The National Trauma Behind 731. To outsiders, it might seem like making a fuss over nothing or excessive rights-claiming, but it

For Chinese players, '731' doesn't represent 'an enemy that can be defeated,' but a real, anti-human, bloody wound etched into their national memory. To incorporate this history into a game as 'material' is itself an inappropriate consumption of national trauma. There are many ways to remember history—making documentaries, writing historical literature, providing historical education—all of which are respectful to history. But putting 731 into the plot of a romance game, packaging human experimentation as 'test subjects in excellent condition and highly cooperative.' I believe this isn't remembering history; it's consuming suffering. Some Chinese players believe that even if we take a step back and assume it was a coincidence, the developer is still at fault. A top game company using a number in its core plot that happens to be associated with human experimentation and war crimes. Even if it truly is a coincidence, it shows that no one from planning to copywriting to review in the entire production chain was alerted to this sensitive number. Coincidence is coincidence, but dereliction of duty is dereliction of duty. Bad luck isn't an excuse; procedural failure is the problem. Zhu Wei, an associate professor at China University of Political Science and Law, clearly defined it in an interview with 'China Women's News': 'The history related to 731 belongs to the absolute bottom line of untouchable content, a typical taboo of historical nihilism.' China Women's News also explicitly pointed out: 'Anyone with basic historical common sense, reverence, and conscience would never use this sensitive number in a plot involving human drug experiments.' Their official media has made it very clear—it's not a matter of whether it can be used, but that it absolutely cannot be used.