Please forgive if this thread somehow breaks the forum laws. I dont think there has been another like this.

I read a post on another thread* dealing with Jeong Jeong about real-life history mirroring the history of the Avatar world and got to thinking. When watching Avatar, I can't help but to notice certain similarities between the various regions and real-life nations. Without being racial or anything, I'd like to know what you guy's have noticed and what real-life counterparts the Avatar nationalities remind you of.

*said post: from http://www.tv.com/avatar-the-last-airbender/show/28841/jeong-jeong-speculation/topic/13281-553875/msgs.html?tag=board_topics;title;21

PrimoNation wrote:

One thing I would like to speculate about Jeong Jeong, does anybody else notice he is drawn to have more "japanese" look to him than any other character. I guess this is an interest to me since I am japanese. I'm notice other small little parallels that seem to point to the "fire nation" being symbolic of Japan. Throughout my life, my mother would tell me small parts of Japanese history and how Japan had enslaved the asian region for almost 100 years; kinda like what the Fire Nation is trying to do with the world of Avatar right now. So is it befitting that the islands of the Fire Nation are symbolic of the island of Japan and its surrounding islands. Just look at any map of Japan and mirror it, looks just like the Fire Nation islands. And the fire nation people tend to have more of a japanese look with the Earth Nation having more of a chinese look. And of course, China is the largest land mass of the orient, which by the way has a "wall" around it, and so is the Earth Nation. Now getting back to Jeong Jeong, I find him to parallel the Aniu of Japan, which??by the way, is my japanese heritage. You can look up their history but they tend to stand out because of their deep roots in honor and their tendencies to devout their entire being to their martial arts and disciplines. Keep in mind, some would say that the Aniu were considered outcasts among Japan society.?? I might think I was reading more into the mirroring of the current orient and the lands in Avatar but I doubt it. It is not coincidence that most of the calligraphy and martial arts forms are based on what we would call "ancient ways" or in english terms "old school". Hey, just a thought and nice little history lesson as well!

Each culture is based off a real life culture.

Water Tribe culture borrows heavily from that of the Inuit peoples.

Earth Kingdom is modeled on ancient Korea in terms of architecture and clothing, and China in terms of combat style.

Air Nomads seems to be a mix of the Monks of Tibet and the nomadic Mongols of Mongolia, as well as the warrior monks of the Shaolin Temple.

The Fire Nation is extremely influenced by ancient China (Tang dynasty mostly) and Japan in terms of architecture, clothing, hair, and combat style.

Japan mostly fought wars in their classical era with China and the Koreans over the Korean Peninsula. During the First Sino-Japanese War, and with the Treaty of Shimonoseki Japan forced China to open ports for international trade and ceded the southern portion of China's Liaoning province as well as the island of Taiwan to Japan, and Korea fell into Japan's sphere of influence. However, many of the material gains from this war were lost by Japan due to the Triple Intervention.

In recent times their war with Asia caused much controversy.
Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931, following the Manchuria Incident, in which they claimed to have had territory attacked by the Chinese (a few meters of the South Manchuria Railway was destroyed in a bombing sabotage). By 1937, Japan had annexed territory north of Beijing and, following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, a full-scale invasion of China.

But really other then those major conflicts during Japanese Pre Modern History Japan was more content with warring with itself and isolating them self off from the world for 212 years.

The Ainu of Japan would be more or less the original natives of Japan. They would be what the Native Americans where in the US. The Ainu where never really big on martial arts also, they where just the people of the north and mountains.