When Genzo asks “why would those men defend our village?”, he is displaying a sentiment shared by most, if not all, oppressed peoples of the world. After being trapped alone & without help for nearly a decade, the entire village has truly lost hope in salvation from the outside and has determined that others must be as selfish and self-centered as the pirates & Marines they have encountered in their lives. The Straw Hats represent something pure & unexpected in society: revolutionaries who truly care about all people & embody the notion that “until we are all free, we are none of us free” (Emma Lazarus). Of course, Luffy does nothing until Nami finally asks him for help, but this echoes a classic Buddhist parable.
The legend goes that a student approached a monastery and knocked on the door and asked to be taught and they told him to leave. He stayed, knocked again, asked again, and was again told to leave. He again stayed, knocked a 3rd time, asked a 3rd time, and they then invited him in to learn. I once experienced this exact tradition at a Hare Krishna temple in Florida, being repeatedly told they had no time to speak to me and leaving me on the porch with a book, but I persevered until after the sun had set and the monk eventually sat with me and helped me better understand our existence. Without using direct language, Luffy makes his desire to help Nami apparent and she rejects him time after time until she accepts his aid, at which point the Straw Hat crew is fully prepared to storm Arlong’s fortress.
Much of this episode explores the reality of corporations uniting with governments to extract wealth and labour from the common people. Arlong & his pirates represent corporations charging exorbitant prices for essential goods & services, and the Marines represent government agencies who aid & abet immoral & often criminal behavior from these corporations. Arlong makes promises to Nami, much like corporate advertising, but works with the Marines behind the scenes to prevent her from achieving her goals, much like government laws, regulations, & enforcement are typically enacted only to protect the capital of the elite and not to help the unwashed masses. Arlong paying tribute bribes to Nezumi is clear lobbying tactics to influence the government to act on his behalf instead of the regular citizens.
Nami begins with a healthy respect for the Marines as her surrogate mother was once enlisted, much like many Americans (& surely other countries) have personal connections to politicians & military veterans. These anecdotal experiences cloud their judgement into thinking these organizations serve the greater good. However, when the truth of their corruption is revealed to her firsthand, she finally grasps the symbiotic relationship between the pirates & the Marines and how they both serve only themselves, much like real world corporations & governments. After this is revealed to the other villagers, they collectively “awaken” as a society pushed too far and revolt against their oppressors without regard for their own personal safety, understanding that they “have nothing to lose but [their] chains” (Marx/Engel).
Last note, watching Nami attempt to cut off her own tattoo is reminiscent of people traumatized by awful situations outside of their control until they are conditioned to blame themselves for these problems and seek self-harm, both to punish themselves for what they perceive are their own mistakes and also to inflict violence against the only individual they feel they can attack. Bordering on mental illness, this self-harm can take many forms, including addiction & self medication, acting with reckless impunity for one’s own safety, wasting money & other resources, pushing away friends & loved ones, and much more, although it is sometimes just inflicting wounds on one’s own physical body. Nami’s trauma informs her actions not only in blaming herself for the fate of Cocoyashi, but also in rejecting help from the other villagers or the Straw Hats because she believes she doesn’t deserve their help. We see this same mentality in many people in the real world today.