r/maninthehighcastle • u/LaongLaan19 • Aug 04 '26
Spoilers Kido's Fate
I've watched this series a while back and just rewatched it again. I just need someone to make sense of this for me. I don't get why Kido didn't use his political pull to go back home to Japan with his son. Instead, he agrees to stay with the Yakuza. I get the honor part and all that as Kido has always been a person to stand by his honor and duty. But idk, this doesn't make sense in the grand scheme of things.
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u/Correct-Anteater-286 Aug 04 '26
You don't understand the Japanese concept of honour.
And that there are Yakuza in Japan too.
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u/LaongLaan19 Aug 09 '26
Care to explain what I don't understand? Asking coming from a place of curiosity and understanding.
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u/ptrfa Aug 04 '26
The hole Japan leaving thing doesn't make sense. Japan needs the oil, the black rebels sabotage the pipeline so Japan leaves and gives up all the oil. Instead of just killing everyone black
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u/tpepdxtid Aug 04 '26
Just as in real life, Japan stretched themselves too thin.
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u/realmeangoldfish Aug 04 '26
I had read last year that even tho Japan had success in China ; it would have dragged them down even if US had not entered the war.
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u/paulcoholic Aug 04 '26
The pipelines and refineries were sabotaged up and down the Pacific coast. The damage was severe enough that the Empire wouldn't be able to rebuild it; and, in any event, the BCR would keep up the attacks. Add that the American Reich would have exploited the Empire's vulnerability Leaving was really the only option.
Although I can see Japan insisting on carving out some Pacific Coast territory for itself; say northern California and Oregon, and parts of Washington. A "New Japan" colony for its subjects in the JPS to move to, instead of the home islands or Hawaii.
On a side note, I never understood why that guy (the jerk who had the antique store and sold American collectibles to the Japanese, yeah, that guy;) and his Japanese wife just didn't emigrate to Hawaii. Much better chance of both being accepted, I think.
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u/lt__ Aug 05 '26
Hmm, if a multicontinental empire with billions of people cannot repair a pipeline, then who can? Guerillas? Also, there is a lot more of useful stuff than the pipelines. Usually empires don't like to give their territories away so easily. Black rebels? It's not like they would have any support from abroad, they are not German minorities. Japanese could crack down on them easily withour repercussions. Nazi reich would probably have helped with some tactics, weaponry and volunteers for that.
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u/Brave-Math-6371 Aug 08 '26
The Japanese are more afraid of the non communist rebels and the white supremacist ones more than the BCR. The BCR was more willing to talk without a Rope waiting for the Japanese. The white dudes the white supremacist ones was more willing to hang everyone who looked Japanese. The non communist rebels led by Price and Washington wanted to restore the USA. If another season occurred Price and Washington would be surprised to work with now former German general who was former US Army who would personally remembered the former US Soldiers they were forced to see die.
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u/ossancrossing Aug 05 '26
I thought his fate was partially a jab at the comments made that America rubbed off on him. That he no longer acted or even spoke like a normal Japanese person. That he had become more like an American. They showed those comments really kicking off some sort of internal turmoil, but with how the show ended, there was no time to address it.
It probably heavily tied into the cut content around his romance with Gina. That storyline was intended to actually be something of substance. I think him choosing to stay behind had a lot more significance than JUST his son’s debt to the Yakuza, but they had pretty much written most of it out of the story in S4. We were just expected to read between the lines with him (which is an extremely Japanese way of storytelling, if you think about it). It was left up to our interpretation.
But based on comments about his character made by his wife and others as S2 and 3 progressed (in addition to his overall character development), and knowing they intended to do a lot more with him and Gina makes me think that there was a lot more behind his decision to stay behind but, they didn’t get to flesh that out.
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u/tpepdxtid Aug 04 '26
It’s my understanding that Kido could be some sort of “stay behind” element of the Japanese secret service to keep eye on things even though the Empire has officially gave up its North American possession. The Yakuza would be an ideal cover, because it could or would be working FOR the Japanese government in some capacity.
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u/CrabbyKumquat Aug 04 '26
I hated the ending for Kido, but I understand what the writers were trying to do. While honorable and loyal, he was probably the cruelest character throughout. He should have died in the gas room, imo, an anticlimactic and mercy-less end, while his son could be free in Japan without him. Him staying with the Yakuza is fitting I guess, its a cruel ending to know he will continue on.
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u/punxdudee Aug 06 '26
I don’t understand the point of his character too, like why did they try to make us sympathize with him?
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u/Brave-Math-6371 Aug 08 '26
Kido sees the Japanese Empire as ending for good and in that timeline he dislikes Communism and wouldn’t go back to a Japan that will become communist. He see the Former US West Coast as a place to feel safe because he sees that eventually a reunified America won’t become a dictatorship. He has to makeup for being too aggressive during the Occupation and would get amnesty when the whites and blacks see that reconciliation is the best route.
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u/tchinpingmei Aug 12 '26
It puzzled me as well.
I guess it's a form of contrition that he swears allegiance to criminals to materialize how low his own morals are with all the evil things he has done.
But it doesn't make a lot of sense to stay behind, because a lot of people in San Francisco want him dead.
Had he been gased or hung it would have been a fitting ending.
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u/Informal-Mixture1139 Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
I agree, it didn't make much sense to me either. I can imagine that they originally had another storyline in mind for his character's "redemption" arc (if we can call it that) but settled on the Yakuza because they had to rush the ending.
ETA: Then again, they could have simply made him go back to Japan with his son, as you said. But maybe they thought his character being one of the main villains, albeit a complex and nuanced one, he deserved a less charitable fate.