Marines
The Marine is the World Government's military sea force. It enforces the rule of the World Government from facilities that exist around the world. The World Government maintains a slight military presence in the four Blues by establishing Branch Offices, but focuses the bulk of its assets on the far more dangerous Grand Line.
Marines seem to fall into a few categories:
* Branch Office Marines, who operate from a set base that they identify themselves with. Example: Nezumi of the 16th Branch. * Field Marines, who patrol large areas of the sea. They often operate out of the main Headquarters itself, but may operate far away from it. Example: Hina.
These designations are not official, but are being used here simply for the sake of convenience.
Nomenclature
The Marines in One Piece are the military arm of the World Government; it's possible that an Army exists, but it has not been shown and would be redundant anyway. In the real world, the English word "Marine" is used to describe an army unit who is deployable on land or at sea, while a strictly seafaring force is called a Navy. The Marines of One Piece function more like a Navy than a Marine Corps.
Although the literal roman characters "Marine" are displayed prominently throughout the manga on the hats and uniforms of officers and at military installations, the Japanese word that is used is "海軍" (かいぐん) "kaigun", which translates most closely to "Navy". Interestingly enough, the actual Headquarters itself consistently displays the slogan of 海軍 on a sign rather than the ubiquitous "MARINE". One of the reasons that Navy is the traditional English translation of the word "kaigun" is the close association that the Imperial Japanese Navy had with the British to the extent that bridge commands in the INS were even issued in English until shortly before WWII. As a result, Viz as well as 4kids decided to translate it as "Navy". Viz alters the various "kaigun" kanji to read Navy in English while leaving the word Marine alone on various equipment and personnel. 4Kids, on the other hand, has opted to erase kanji and to change all instances where the word "Marine" appears in the artwork to read "Navy".
However, Arlong Park has chosen to use Marine as our official translation of "海軍" for a number of reasons:
- "Marine" is displayed throughout the manga and anime.
- "Marine" and its variants are much more common to foreign languages.
- "Marine" is not an incorrect description of what the kaigun are.
- "Marine" is not simply a case of Engrish, as its repetition demonstrates.
In Oda's world of One Piece, the "海軍" are called "Marines", so that is what we've chosen to call them as well.
Marines Roster
Below is a list of all the various named Marines that have appeared in the manga so far. Please note that the names of the various Admirals seem to be ceremonial in nature, which might also apply to Sengoku as well. As of yet, we are unaware as to what level this practice begins on; it's possible that even the Vice Admirals might use a pseudonym instead of their real names. The list follows a hierachical order starting at the top and working downwards:
Chief Admiral
Admirals
Vice Admirals
Commodores
Captains
Commanders
Lieutentant Commanders
Lieutenants
Chief Petty Officers
Seamen
Recruit
Odd Jobs
Photography Branch Captain
Unknown Ranks