You know the saying "old wounds never heal" that applies to the relationship between China and Japan, if the dev team start using historically accurate names on IJN ahips the party might go nuts because the IJN was also heavily involved in China but the IJA is reportedly to be heavily be more hated. Another thing its also in the same reason why the current JSDF ships no longer use kanji names for their ships (this is more of a quirk with the peace treaty that Japan signed on their surrender)
When World of Warships launched in China, all IJN ships were renamed. BBs were named after aquatic animals(e.g. Yamato->"Whale", Nagato->"Shark"), CAs/CLs were named after terrestrial animals(e.g. Zao->"Elephant"), DDs were named after plants(e.g. Shimakaze->"awn") while CVs were named after birds(interestingly, Shoukaku was still named as "crane", Hiryuu as "Dragon" and Taiho as "Phoenix").
In WOWS, Atago was renamed as "Dog"(犬), which is pronounced as "gou"in Chinese. So Chinese players started to make jokes about Atago, giving her nicknames like "爱大狗"(Loving big dogs,"Ai-da-gou"), which sounds alike Atago in Japanese. Soon after, many games including IJN ships applied censorship as well, like Azur Line, in which Atago still named as "dog".
Might be nitpicking too :D, but Takao was named after 高雄山 in Kyoto, not after particular 打狗港 (or the city).
NNescio said:
Is Takao called 打狗 like her namesake city?
Thanks for pointing out my mistake, NNescio. Like ArdWar said, Takao was named after Takao mountain in Kyoto, Japan. But she had a connection with Kaoshiung City, which Hoklo immigrants to the area during the 16th and 17th centuries called it Takau (Chinese: 打狗; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tá-káu). The surface meaning of the associated Chinese characters was "beat the dog".
From wikipedia:
The name of "Takau" was restored in the late 1670s, when the town expanded dramatically with immigrants from mainland China, and was kept through Taiwan's cession to the Japanese Empire in 1895. In his 1903 general history of Taiwan, US Consul to Formosa (1898–1904) James W. Davidson relates that "Takow" was already a well-known name in English.[5] However, in 1920, the name was changed to Takao (Japanese: 高雄, after Takao (Kyoto) (ja)) and administered the area under Takao Prefecture. While the new name had quite a different surface meaning, its pronunciation in Japanese sounded more or less the same as the old name spoken in Hokkien.
After Taiwan was handed to the Republic of China, the name did not change, but the official romanization became "Kaohsiung" (pinyin: Gāoxióng) after the Standard Chinese pronunciation of 高雄.
The name Takau remains the official name of the city in Austronesian languages of Taiwan such as Rukai, although these are not widely spoken in the city. The name also remains popular locally in the naming of businesses, associations, and events.
Hello Admiral, my name is Atago Dog.Sit!Woof~
Woof~No, I'm not dog, my name is AtagoDog.You really are a dog...You're called Dog?Noooooooo! Just forget that!Why does it sound like Dog?