I would. It's grim but at least you're free from cultural oppression. That shìt would drive me crazy after a while, having to bow and scrape and be treated like dirt unless you conformed.
shareYou wouldn't necessarily be "free" for long; sooner or later someone will impose rule on it. If not the Nazis or the Japanese then local crime lords will do it. It wouldn't surprise me if the yakuza were all over that place.
shareBased on the behavior of the Marshall in Season 1 the Neutral Zone is hardly livable for independent people. You can be sure if the Marshall had been shot by a rebel an army of soldiers would wipe out the entire entire area in reprisal as an object lesson. Which soldiers? Maybe Nazi, Maybe Japanese, or maybe from the neutral zone government. They have an interest in rooting out trouble makers.
shareWhat neutral zone government? We've seen no suggestion of such.
Truth is someone like the marshal or casual, lightly armed incursions by police or military units of either occupying force would be met and destroyed by stiff opposition.
Why?
The north american NZ shown on the show is a huge region - large enough to be a viable national economy - a formidable country - all on its own even though land-locked. And, it controls the headwaters of at least three rivers that the Pacific States would need water from (primarily the Colorado) if the Pacific States are to be as productive and support anywhere near the population that the modern West does now (or did in the early 60s).
It is a region into which refugees from targeted groups (and the just plain scared), retreating military units, government officials, maybe even whole factories (ala the Russians during Operation Barbarossa), and important national assets (gold and silver reserves and whatever elements of an atomic bomb project may have existed at war's end) from the East and West would have poured - in the US and Canada.
We can plausibly theorize that the NZ wasn't reduced and those retreated units destroyed because both the German and Japanese war machines had to have been taxed beyond their limits after successfully conquering eurasia and reducing the USSR. They may have considered joint operations to do so in the 50s but growing dislike and suspicion of the other may have caused such plans to be shelved. And, as tensions increased over the years, the Zone(s) would serve to keep the two empires "de-conflicted" - for a while anyway. Additionally, especially in the early occupation, the occupiers on both coasts may have rationalized the NZ as a dump into which potential trouble-makers and "racial inferiors" would be allowed to flee. They may have thought that the region would be overwhelmed and become a charnel house of starvation and infighting.
Maybe. Or maybe not.
Left to their own devices in the vastness of the intermountain West in the US and the Canadian Rockies to the North, the survivors over the years since the end of the war (1947 in the story) to the story's present of 1962 could have gotten themselves shaken out and organized, dug themselves in, built or rebuilt factories (maybe critical one's underground), and rearmed. All the elements of a supporting economy would have grown up as well.
By the time the occupiers might overcome the arrogance and blinkered viewpoint caused by winner's disease and come to understand the extent of what's grown up in the mountains - the time for quick joint action will have passed. And, given the growing war worries between the two imperial superpowers - neither side has much stomach or trust for heavy joint action. A new country will have grown up over the years. Maybe even one with Uranium fission bombs.
The same would probably have happened in the Eurasian NZ we briefly saw on a map.
So, the two superpowers nervously eye each other. While two shadow states bide their time supporting vast insurgencies and underground intelligence networks - and wait for the day the nukes fly and the two scorpions in a bottle sting each other to death.
And, then the shadow states hidden militaries will march out into the terrible dawn to claim what belongs to them. And deal with collaborators and traitors.
It's been 40 years since I read the book but IIRC it wasn't called the Neutral Zone there but the Rocky Mountain States of America, meaning there was some kind of central authority in place. I agree with you, a state of apparent anarchy wouldn't persist, some kind of organization would emerge.
shareUnless I was definitely on the list for death, imprisonment or torture, I'd stay out of the Neutral Zone.
If I had to get away for the sake of keeping my sanity, the independent Latin American states and the non-fascist neutral states in Europe (Sweden, Switzerland and Ireland--Spain would be too similar to the Reich as would Portugal, too, probably) would be preferable.
But yea, if it's a choice between the gas chamber and going down in a gunfight with the Marshall, I'd choose the latter.
I would definitely go to Latin America first, too. I am just saying if I had to choose among the three options in the USA? I'd go with the Japanese-controlled area first, but if I got in their crosshairs, I would go to the NZ before the Nazi areas. Nazis just kill Jews, sick people, the disabled, etc. That terrifies me. If I got into a car accident they'd probably just euthanize me on my hospital bed. It's chilling,
sharelol what ware you talking about? why would the nazis euthanize car crash victims?
they only targeted the mentally ill for euthanasia. people with genetic problems were sterilized. injured people went to the hospital.
They talked about "eaters" in the show. These are people that take from society but don't contribute, in the view of the state. These could include a person who was injured in an accident and can no longer work or fight.
The kid with MD is given a death sentence. In the world of the show it seems the Nazis have expanded who they target for extermination.
In terms of the pacific states, I would REALLY hate the Japanese. I mean, just watching this I was like *beep* the Japanese! *beep* them right in their slanted a$$holes!" So that would get to me after a while. Looking at the Reich and that crazy physical exam Juliana went through and scored poorly on, I doubt I would pass. Even though I'm mostly Irish with a good deal of French primarily, I'm also 5'6 and have steel plating in my arm, not to mention a history of psychological issues. The neutral zone looks like a complete sh!thole, but, wait...
They have rock n' roll? SOLD!
Basically if you're a Jew living anywhere in the USA you'd be *beep* Apart from that, other races were allowed to live freely working with no restrictions put on them.
shareApart from that, other races were allowed to live freely working with no restrictions put on them.
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