The moment I was posted to this base, I was awestruck at how young the members of the fleet seemed. I was told that these young girls were being sent into grim battles at the front lines. Despite High Command's orders, I could not stop to think, "is sending these shipgirls off into battle morally justified?"

Before we even step foot onto the battlefield, we must address the creation of a shipgirl. There are two types: conjured and constructed. The main (and only) type used at the base is the "constructed" type. "Construction" takes place by taking a volunteer (usually a girl who has an ideal body type for the build and usually is an orphan), wiping their memories, and then restructuring their body slightly to perform optimally with equipment. The process is quite painful, so the volunteer is kept under anesthesia during the procedure. By the end, they are transformed into a new person, with no past memories.

This in itself is quite morally ambiguous. On one hand, utilitarianism declares that sacrificing this small number of people is necessary to ensure the good of the greater people. However, this is at odds with Emmanuel Kant's categorical imperative, which states that people must be treated as people, and not as pawns. Usually, these two philosophical frameworks agree, but when they don't, we need to look closer into what we should pick.

This brings up an interesting problem: are shipgirls humans? As far as I can tell, they are very prone to emotions and self-image. Undoubtedly, their emotions are very similar to those of a normal human. Furthermore, once they are decommissioned and returned to civilian life, or "scrapped", as it is called on base, they are virtually indistinguishable from normal humans in most regards, and any differences can just be attributed to random chance to the untrained eye.
However, shipgirls are by their very nature manufactured to enhance their performance in battle. For their body, they can lift an unusual amount of weight on their backs with little training and can crush even male squat lifting records with proper training. In addition, steps have been taken to strengthen the minds of shipgirls against the rigors of battle and its effects. In this manner, the humanity of shipgirls is questionable.

For the sake of simplicity, we must assume that shipgirls must be treated as humans since they can be altered back into a human form with no changes to their mental or physical processes.

With this established, we must consider the age of the shipgirls and evaluate whether we can indeed follow moral protocols since they are humans. There are many within the naval base's forces that have not yet come of age physically. The most obvious among these are the destroyer escorts, submarines, and destroyers. This demographic ranges from around primary school for destroyer escorts to around the age of 16 for the Akizuki class. Other ship types, such as heavy cruisers, usually trend older than 18.

When considering the age of the shipgirls, it is imperative to question whether they can mentally handle the rigors of battle. Abyssals, as these shipgirls have observed, are very much sentient beings. Killing these on order is something trained into them from day one, yet it can still leave significant scars in their conscience. There is a select number in the neighboring village who suffers from PTSD from their days on the naval base, and this disease only becomes more prevalent the more experience and time the person spent on base.

However, I would argue that, although the physical appearance of these shipgirls makes them seem quite young, their mental age is more than mature enough to handle these stresses. Recall that scientists are working to fortify the minds of shipgirls, and they have seen improvements since the experiments started. In addition, only the most mature girls are chosen to participate in the experimental conversion to shipgirls. Opposition to our program would also bring up that we mentally age these girls faster because of possible traumatic experiences, but those, if they do chance upon them, act as a maturing point.

It is my opinion, then, those shipgirls are more than capable of performing their duties as shipgirls without adverse side effects on the job. Off the job, we have many resources available to those who may need help in coping with the stresses of their work. In this way, we hope to ensure that every shipgirl is cared for in the most ethical and morally justified manner.

Nonetheless, this question of morality is still very much an open question. Ever since the first base opened almost eight years ago, loads of new information regarding this state of being has been released and researched. However, some long-term effects may lurk under the surface or lay undetected until many years into the future. FOr this reason, the question remains open. However, we resolve that we will continue to use shipgirls to ensure the safety of all seafaring voyages on the earth's seas.

by Capt. Tachi