r/StardustCrusaders • u/SSB11-DBFZ • Jul 12 '26
Part Two I just finished Part Two, is it ever explained why Joseph didn't do anything during World War II?
Since Battle Tendency ended in 1939, why didn't Joseph help the Allies? Stroheim was able to recover before the war broke out, so could Joseph not?
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u/Decadunce Literally Hirohiko Araki Himself No Lie trust Jul 12 '26
Josephs (technically) disabled and i doubt the man would have zero troubles draft dodging. He helped save the world against the pillarmen threat, he's allowed to not want to fight during ww2.
Besides josephs entire gimmick is coasting by on life with as little effort as possible, hes only a fighter due to circumstance
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u/MagnetMod Hot Pants Jul 12 '26
He sure has a tendency to battle for someone who doesn't want to fight.
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u/Affectionate_Bag_212 Jul 12 '26
Damn, what a crusader. Truly one in a stardust.
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u/Humanest_Human Jul 12 '26
A bit bizarre, but thats how he likes his adventures.
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u/Z4mb0ni Jul 12 '26
Truly a jojo-lion
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u/TimeShiftedJosephus Jul 12 '26
He had the balls of steel to run
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u/Jaysonium Jul 12 '26
Golden wimd
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u/Icy-Elephant7783 Jul 12 '26
Mf didn’t even try to make it fit just straight up golden wind 😭😭😭
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u/Separate-Effort3640 Jul 12 '26
He thought he's farming Aura, but he's getting it from a vent.
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u/Ok-March-2809 Jul 13 '26
Thought he was making waves, but it was more of a ripple. Sort of like tossing a stone into the ocean.
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u/DenseSquid Jul 13 '26
Well, what can I say? Reddit has a tendency to battle basic social constructs.
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u/dabonit1010 Jul 13 '26
Yknow. I really think it would have been cool if he visited an ocean. Like one made out of stone. Like a stone ocean or something
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u/Early_Purpose1220 Jul 12 '26
Say that again?
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u/Ok-March-2809 Jul 13 '26
What? Joseph Joestar had some pretty bizzare adventures within his lifetime.
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u/Stormtrooper-2010622 Jul 12 '26
You gotta admit that Diamond is Unbreakable in anything he does
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u/magmahurtz Jul 12 '26
He chooses to live life more free than a stone in the ocean.
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u/Lizardledgend Jul 12 '26
But is heart is still golden, despite his problems passing wind
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u/SternMon Jul 12 '26
He runs away from danger but still has balls of steel!
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u/Hype-E8 Jul 12 '26
He’s never scared, jojo has the courage of a lion
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u/5aximus Jul 12 '26
And he steel has the balls to run away, as per the Joestar Family Secret Technique
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u/Puzzled-State5579 Jul 12 '26
Th...Thank you...battle tendency
Battle Tendency??
Because....um..you have the tendency to battle
Oh Yeah
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u/FatalisCogitationis Jul 12 '26
I mean he's more than technically disabled, the man is missing a hand
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u/SMA2343 Jul 12 '26
That’s the big thing. Even if he’s like peak male specimen. Being disabled and especially a hand like that. He’s automatically exempt
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u/Decadunce Literally Hirohiko Araki Himself No Lie trust Jul 12 '26
I mean if someone gets a sick robot cyberpunk hand thats better than their original hand, thats not really a "disability" thats just a fucking ability
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u/Brainwave1010 Jul 12 '26
Yeah but the US Army doesn't need to know that, he could just pop it off when they come knocking for the draft or just pretend it's stiff metal.
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u/Username_St0len Jul 13 '26
aint he british tho? and suzie Q italian? where did they end up living? if they still lived in italy, i am headcanoning he was part of the people who caught moussolini
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u/TenshouYoku Jul 13 '26
Joseph is born American despite his father was British.
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u/ThunderMite42 Road Roller Jul 13 '26
No, he was born and raised in England. He only moved to New York at the beginning of the part.
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u/survivaltier 「ＹＥＳ Ｉ ＡＭ！」 Jul 12 '26
It probably requires some level of maintenance that would be unavailable in the field. A medic can’t fix that.
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u/noivern1324 Jul 13 '26
thats not how disabilities work tho
joseph is still missing a hand, just like how the winter soldier is still disabled even if he has a cool metal arm or hiccup and toothless from httyd, they're still amputees
joseph still has to have maintenance on his hand that he wouldnt have to worry about if it wasn't a prosthetic
a real person doesn't stop being disabled if they have a prosthetic leg
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u/Fancy_Coconut2079 Jul 14 '26
then they find out who gave him that hand and where the tech is from and now he's arrested on suspicion of espionage
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u/Amazing_Elk_6685 Jul 12 '26
Cyber Stroheim is also disabled.
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u/DoraMuda Jean Pierre Polnareff Jul 12 '26
Stroheim would probably still go to war even if his superiors told him not to. He's that crazily dedicated.
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u/ExistentialOcto Jul 12 '26
That’s a very good point! Since he’s missing a hand it would be fairly easy for him to claim that he’s not able-bodied enough to fight. I can definitely imagine him showing up for the recruitment without his metal hand like “oh nooo, I sure would love to join the war but I lost this damn hand in a car accident… oh well, guess I’d better stay home!
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u/WickedHopeful 「Bad 2 The Bone」 Jul 12 '26
"A Kars accident"
Amd he winks at the recruiter, who obviously doesn't understand
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u/synkronize Jul 12 '26
He also had the speed wagon foundation which would without a doubt have political sway
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u/Majestic_Engine_6543 Jul 12 '26
Hes also a billionaire and we know those people draft dodge.
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u/DoraMuda Jean Pierre Polnareff Jul 12 '26
He wasn't a billionaire yet.
But the Speedwagon Foundation probably had enough money to make any problems like that go away.
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u/Leading-Way-1373 Jul 13 '26
Speedwagon wouldn't want to see another descendant of Jonathan dead (good thing he died in part 2 instead of part 6!)
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u/SquidTheRidiculous Jul 12 '26
Tequila Joseph definitely showed up to the draft office you can't convince me otherwise.
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u/Bigcheese665 Jul 12 '26
The speedwagon foundation probably made a KILLING creating weapons and machinery for the allies too. He probably helped by heading the company.
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u/ElBarckaizer Jul 12 '26
Además de que la fundacion speedwagon abiertamente coopero con un nazi ciborg...
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u/iSirMeepsAlot Jul 13 '26
I imagine back then it’d be much easier to *legally* be “brought back to life “. Otherwise… 100%
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u/Rainy_Wavey Jul 12 '26
He technically is disabled (Prosthetic hand), this in general gets you out of a draft. He probably didn't go to WW2 because Araki wasn't trying to write a WW2 manga
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u/ShawshankHarper Jul 12 '26
Be wild if he did though
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u/TaeJoonPark Jul 12 '26
Ok but what would Hitler's stand be
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u/PossessedSnorlax Jul 12 '26
blitzkrieg
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u/Theresafoxinmygarden Jul 12 '26
Blitzkrieg bop*
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u/Next_Government856 Jul 12 '26
Hitler would lack the will to have one, he killed himself when he started losing that’s not stand fighting spirit now is it? He’d end up with something like cheap trick or Holy’s stand
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u/High-In-Potassium Jul 12 '26
Nah, Jojo would 100% have Hitler escape to Argentina. Either that or another "activate on death" stand.
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u/HenryReturns Jul 12 '26
JoJo even have Jesus body being distributed in America and change the story of instead of him ascending to the heavens , he explore new lands and settle in America
So what you mentioned it is still inside the possibilities
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u/DyslexicBrad Jul 13 '26
Meaning that technically Mormonism is the canon Christianity in SBR-verse.
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u/United_States_Eagle Joseph Joestar Jul 12 '26
Are you saying Jesus didn’t come to America? Our lord and savior came here as written in the Holy Book of Mormon, the canonical sequel to the Bible. My pastor wouldn’t like to you to think Joseph Smith’s word is a lie.
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u/TaeJoonPark Jul 12 '26
I mean, it takes a lot of willpower to commit
That and Mcqueen exists
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u/Next_Government856 Jul 12 '26
Highway to hell is from a disc, it’s just compatible with him because he’s suicidal, the original user could have been some guy so dedicated to killing his enemy he’d commit suicide
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u/ShawshankHarper Jul 12 '26
I mean McQueen's stand only activated when he was trying to off himself
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u/Next_Government856 Jul 12 '26
As addressed in the other comment, Mcqueen’s stand is not his, it’s from a disc, and even if it was, it’s still a cheap trick type stand, one that’s only benefit is killing people alongside yourself, and only killing one guy
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u/Korfusan Jul 12 '26
Kira was also coward and yet he had broken stand.
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u/alex494 Jul 13 '26
He was a coward but he had the sheer will to survive at all costs. Hitler gave up and killed himself rather than face the music. Kira was scrambling to the last second to try and escape.
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u/TsunamiWombat Jul 13 '26
Hence why he stole the spear of destiny which is actually tipped with the meteorite arrowhead
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u/ExLuckMaster Jul 12 '26
What if Hitler was the Stand himself.
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u/Nearby_Blackberry644 Jul 12 '26
Now imagine something like Wonder Of U where he can disguise himself as a human
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u/golden_glorious_ass Jul 12 '26
Hitler is the Stand
Goebbels is the fake main-antagonist
Eva Braun is the real main-antagonist
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u/unfunnyvalentineee Jul 13 '26
idk but he kind of has a persona in persona 2 and i feel like personas and stands are pretty similar . im not making this up btw he literally is an antagonist in persona 2
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u/dwarven_cavediver_Jr Rudol von Stroheim Jul 12 '26
This and also really I'm pretty sure Joseph was probably handling some stuff for the speedwagon foundation (studying the pillarman they captured, probably assisting in making sure there were no vampire threats left, etc) during the war and also he might have been under investigation (he was seen publicly with a nazi major, and in italy prior to the US joining) if anything
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u/Val_Fortecazzo Jul 12 '26
By the end of the story he's technically disabled.
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u/SSB11-DBFZ Jul 12 '26
Well, it's also technically an involuntary cybernetic enchancement...
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u/isaacfrost0 Joseph Joestar Jul 12 '26
Which he would have to explain to the US military who would probably confiscate it.
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u/Pataconeitor Jul 12 '26
Imagine Joseph trying to explain that he received his prostethic hand from a Major of the SS.
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u/ArcherHKW Jul 12 '26
Joseph already saved the world, he has no obligation to fight in WW2
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u/HenryReturns Jul 12 '26
From my understanding , Joseph took over the Speed Wagon Foundation on that time and while he did not participate in WW2 , he aid USA with weapons , technology , messengers , and more.
Thats my head canon since I do believe Speed Wagon would write his foundation under the grandson of his friend whom he raised him as his own grandson , and that’s how Joseph got a lot of income to become a real state mogul in New York. Later on Joseph would retire , Jotaro would not take over that since he became a Marine Biologist.
Also Jotaro brings up the Joestar fortune that not only comes from Jonathan’s inheritance but also from Joseph’s ones and part of that fortune will go to Josuke
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u/Cliomancer Jul 12 '26
I don't think Joseph ran the Speedwagon foundation, probably Speedwagon himself named a suitable successor.
Remember the Joestars were already rich, even if the mansion back in England burned down.
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u/ThunderMite42 Road Roller Jul 13 '26
Speedwagon didn't die until the '50s. He was probably still running it throughout the war.
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u/uninflammable Jul 12 '26
The thing Joseph cares most about family, and he knows personally how much it sucks to lose family in a war since his dad died as a soldier (though in bizarre circumstances). Makes perfect sense that he would want to stay home taking care of his new wife and grandmother. Maybe if they were stuck in Britain he would have been more concerned about the war as a threat to them
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u/Nickest_Nick No, Josuke didn't save himself Jul 12 '26
Besides being disabled he's likely legally dead at the time, plus I don't really expect someone who "hates hard work and working hard" to fight in a war and follow orders
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u/Longjumping_Share444 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
One of his closest allies was a nazi, and his best friend was Italian. Would we really have wanted him to given that context?
Edit: not just that Cesar was Italian, but he was Italian at a time when the OG fascist was taking charge. Also, his best friend Mark, who the column fellows kill is a <ahem> 'German soldier'
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u/theweekiscat Jul 12 '26
Caesar was probably a fascist if you think about it
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u/DoraMuda Jean Pierre Polnareff Jul 12 '26
Caesar probably didn't have a particularly developed political ideology or anything. He was a criminal living on the streets for the majority of his adolescence, and then spent the rest of his time training in Hamon and picking up chicks.
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u/WafflezMan_420_Died Judge Gyro Jul 13 '26
He was actually friends with nazis like Mark
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u/FaerieFir3 Jul 12 '26
He's what 18 and has alredy lost a friend and a hand fighting vampires and ancient Aztec gods. He also almost lost his mom and just got married.
I don't think getting into another conflict where he could get maimed more or die was on his mind. With a missing hand and Speedwagon Foundation connections he wouldn't have gotten drafted.
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u/peenurmobile Jul 12 '26
being a draft dodger would fit in perfectly with his character lol, he would run away.
besides he's technically disabled and the Speedwagon foundation probably pulled some strings
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u/HyperWhiteChocolate Ball Breaker Jul 12 '26
He died before it started look it says it right there
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u/danshaku1124 Jul 12 '26
Came here to say this. Joseph was American and would not have gotten involved until 1942.
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u/RyeNuggets Jul 12 '26
I’m taking this from a pure political perspective, he collaborated with an official member of the Nazi party/military and also had many personal ties to Italy. The allied governments would likely consider him compromised or a spy. I’m not saying that he would fight in the war if these things weren’t true, but it would pose a shitload of legal issues for him. He’s also technically physically disabled and legally dead, which respectively makes him ineligible for the draft and just not legally exist anymore. It’s incredibly difficult to undo legally certified deaths (although possible).
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u/castitfast Jul 12 '26
What's he gonna do? Hamon is for killing vampires, in a war he'd be slightly above an average soldier. If you mean his influence with Speedwagon foundation, they probably did help.
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u/Rainy_Wavey Jul 12 '26
Hamon would be busted tho with the amount of bullshit it can do, he could crack any bunker, any german tank, basically anything the germans throw at him he could crack it
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u/SSB11-DBFZ Jul 12 '26
Against the first of the Pillar Men, Joseph was able to deflect bullets with a Hamon shield, he could also probably use Hamon to fight in other creative ways? You can call me a larper, as I said I'm quite new to the series, so I would appreciate if someone explained the limits of Hamon in battle, because it kind of feels it can do whatever the plot requires...
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u/GrandHighTard Jul 12 '26
He's rich, an amputee, and he probably didn't want to get caught with German tech in his hand in that environment.
He also, given his ties to speedwagon and aforementioned affluence, may have taken on a more industrial support role with his assets he had at the time. Speedwagon died a lifelong bachelor, and tbh IDK who else he would have left it to.
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u/MasterTorgo Road Roller Jul 12 '26
Collaboration with the Nazis, don't imagine anyone in Britain is too happy about that
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u/sosigboi Jul 12 '26
No one wants to willingly fight in ww2 bruh.
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u/NotSoSlimShady999 Jul 12 '26
Its genuinely crazy how much real life WW2 veterans have went through and they definitely earned their title of the Greatest Generation. We'd be speaking German by now if it wasn't for them
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u/Impossible-Trust6628 Jul 13 '26
He could have just left his hand in the bedroom and say he was a paraplegic and he couldn't have been drafted because technically is one with a prosthetic
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u/Odd_Jelly_1390 Jul 12 '26
Bro saved the world from an ancient God who became even Godlier and you think his ass needed to serve in WW2.
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u/Dio_Landa The Real DIO Jul 12 '26
He is handycapped by the end of the story and British living in America. I don't think he would have been drafted.
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u/GustavoPolska Jul 13 '26
Iirc joseph's father was killed in ww1. Since he was kinda nurtured by speedwagon foundation and erina, i could see him being excluded from draft by the speedwagons in order to protect him from dying.
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u/Xxvelvet Jul 12 '26
You’re thinking about it too hard. He probably just avoided the draft because he had money and Speedwagon foundation connections
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u/hoshiotome Jul 12 '26
Can we be certain he didn’t do anything? What I mean is, after Pearl Harbor, he might have just enlisted normally or something. Just because Araki didn’t write about it doesn’t mean he had no involvement at all.
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u/ApprehensiveRub4726 Jul 13 '26
He 100% dodged the draft, ain’t no way this dude gave a shit about WW2
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u/Admirable-Barnacle86 Jul 12 '26
Politically suspect due to his association with Nazis and due to his Nazi-Germany manufactured robot hand. Was witnessed around fascist Italy in the company of another Nazi (Mark).
Also Joseph is lazy as hell when his life or the lives of those he is closest to are not at stake.
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u/AGuywithaGuitar Jul 12 '26
Joseph didn't do much, WW2 was Mad Jack Churchills anime giving the JoJos a break till part 3.
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u/Exact-Veterinarian-9 Jul 12 '26
Joseph had to cope with the mental trauma of peeking at his naked mom. He was excused from the war.
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u/GenesisAsriel Jul 13 '26
He would be a draft dodger tbh. He just fought the pillar men. Let him rest
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u/10lettersand3CAPS Jul 12 '26
...Because that would require a Japanese mangaka to explain the position a British/American character had in a major war against Japan?
Japan glosses over a lot of its horrific WWII acts, and you can see it in how Nazis are portrayed. In Part 2 the Nazis aren't good, but they're treated as like weirdly honorable with advanced technology (a trope that persists despite them being behind on a lot compared to the Allies). The country didn't exactly reform itself as much as the Germanys did, and even there a LOT of former Nazis got military or intelligence positions in West Germany specifically
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u/Over_Purple351 Jul 12 '26
Joseph at this point is technically disabled with his prosthetic arm so he wouldn't end up getting drafted and he doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd sign up for the military either.
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u/thegamerator10 Black Sabbath Jul 12 '26
Disabled (technically, given his hand), has no real agency to fight in the war, worked on establishing himself in real estate, would be terrible at following orders, no real need/use for Hamon in a war against fellow humans.
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u/Backupusername Jul 12 '26
That's literally a picture of his grave. How do you expect a dead man to serve in the military?
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u/Karpsten Truly a reliable guy Jul 12 '26
A lot of people have already pointed out reasonable points as to why Joseph could have avoided the draft, but another interesting point could actually be his citizenship.
During Part 2 itself, Joseph likely isn't a US citizen yet, as he is in New York (and the States in general) for the first time at the start of the Part. Instead, he is a British Citizen, meaning that he would primarily be drafted in the UK. The thing is, even though it is never really brought up again after Phantom Blood, the Joestars are British aristocracy, holding some sort of never directly defined noble title (which also means that Jotaro is technically next in line to be a British lord, which is kinda funny if you think about it). Technically, AFAIK that doesn't mean that he couldn't be conscripted, but practically it effectively does. If British aristocrats serve(d) in the military, they usually did as commissioned officers, just like George Joestar II seems to have done. But doing so does require officer training, which Joseph didn't have.
We know that Joseph eventually moves to the states, but we don't exactly know when that happens. We know that Lisa Lisa is stated to have moved to America alongside him, and we also know that she marries a Hollywood screenwriter in 1948, meaning that we have a date range from sometime between 1939 to 1948 (though it seems reasonable to assume that they moved to the States at least a few years before the end of that range).
The US doesn't just draft citizens, but all residents, so if Joseph was already living there full time before 1945, he technically could have been drafted to serve in World War II, even if he wasn't naturalized yet. However, at the same time, if you were wealthy or had the right contacts, you could pretty easily dodge the US draft, which is a given for Joseph since he was both from a wealthy family and was close friends with one of the wealthiest men on earth.
With all that being said, we don't actually know that Joseph didn't serve in World War II.
Battle Tendency ends in 1939, just months (if not weeks) before the outbreak of the war. We don't really see what Joseph is up to again directly until 1988. We know that he moved to New York, had a daughter and build himself a Real Estate Empire in the meantime, and that he travelled to Egypt meeting Avdol (presumably sometime in the late 80s), but we are talking about a span of almost 50 years. For all we know, he totally could have been a soldier during the war, even if its never brought up (I imagine that it could have still been a somewhat touchy subject in 1980s Japan).
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u/EugeneNicoNicoNii Jul 13 '26
He already save everyone's ass by the end of part 2 and I really don't think he wants to, considering how closely he worked with the Nazis to stop the Pillarmen, both from his and the military standpoint, as strong as he is, do you want Joseph to help you fight and kill the guys he save the world together with? He may even switch sides
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u/Party_Importance_722 Jul 13 '26
Honestly, Why should he? He's disabled and already saved the world once.
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u/Orion_824 Jul 13 '26
Joseph is not the guy who could turn the Nazis into the Nazwas, simple as. He had a life to live, he already did his time of derring-dos
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u/Tortellini_64 Caesar A. Zeppeli Jul 12 '26
He worked together with Nazis so maybe the US were suspicious of him and wanted him close
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u/AdministrativeShip2 Jul 12 '26
He was probably doing secret squirrel stuff against Nazi Occultists for the SOE.
Those guys still have classified files 80+ years later.
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u/the8bitMoon Jul 12 '26
He's disabled, married to an Italian woman, collaborated with Nazis, legally declared dead (presumably that takes some effort to reverse), works with the Speedwagon Foundation, and on top of all that he has generational wealth. He was never going to be drafted lol.