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Hedgehog vs. Bear
Aug. 12th, 2025 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steepholmMy friend Rei sent me a photo of herself taking part in an academic panel on international defence at the Osaka Expo. My eye was drawn (as how could it not be?) to that fact that the panelists were sitting beside a large cut-out cartoon hedgehog - which seemed incongruous in a such a serious setting.
Rei tells me that this is in fact a mascot used by NATO for mass communication purposes. In which case, how come I've never seen it?
On looking into the matter, however, I find that the hedgehog was indeed in use during the Cold War, as a formidable beast whose spines were, nevertheless, defensive in nature. (The other picture dates from 1959, and shows 15 hedgehogs, representing the 15 then-members, seeing off a Russian bear. I wonder which is the USA?)
This article from the NATO website suggests that the symbol was dropped in the 1980s, but it has clearly made a comeback - at least in Japan, where no organisation is complete without its mascot character, any more than Lyra without her daemon.
Rei tells me that this is in fact a mascot used by NATO for mass communication purposes. In which case, how come I've never seen it?
On looking into the matter, however, I find that the hedgehog was indeed in use during the Cold War, as a formidable beast whose spines were, nevertheless, defensive in nature. (The other picture dates from 1959, and shows 15 hedgehogs, representing the 15 then-members, seeing off a Russian bear. I wonder which is the USA?)
This article from the NATO website suggests that the symbol was dropped in the 1980s, but it has clearly made a comeback - at least in Japan, where no organisation is complete without its mascot character, any more than Lyra without her daemon.