From the archive of the Pokemon411 dot net forum. Original post dated February 22, 2000 by user gengardetector

There is a 9th town and gym in the original Japanese Pokemon games that was banned in the USA. In the town humans and pokemon are treated as equals and they live in perfect harmony with no money or exploitation. This was banned in the USA and then was removed from reissues of Blue+Red in Japan and all international markets too.

My friend Alex and I were pretty much the first kids at our school to get Pokemon. We had seen the toys in japantown for a couple years (the first ones I ever saw were Horsea #116 and Venasaur #003) and thought they were so cool. When a tv commercial for the game came on during Megaman on UPN I finally knew where the toys were from and had to have it. I got Blue version because Blastoise on the cover has metal guns in its back and I know nothing can beat guns. Alex got Red version because dragons are cool.

Alex's dad is japanese and alex's mom used to live there. Alex can read and speak japanese and everything. Japanese is called nihongo in japanese. When Alex's mom went to Tokyo for work to visit a high tech battery company we begged her to buy us the japanese versions. We heard you could play as Ash, Brock and Misty. Well obviously that was a lie. But we had no idea there was an entire 9th town and gym.

Morning Cloud Town contains a gym, pokecenter, town square, and 2 houses. There's no pokemart. Alex says Morning Cloud Town is named after the japanese word for the color of the sky when you wake up early to work, like on a farm or something. The town is between route 13 and 15, east of Fuschia City and the Safari Zone. In the USA version on route 15 you can see there's weird looking fences along the right side of the screen. That's where the road extended to Morning Cloud Town.

To get into the town you have to let your pokemon out of their pokeballs and walk around with you. Pokemon and humans are treated as equals so pokeballs are banned. They are considered inhumane solitary confinement, designed to cause stockholm syndrome. Alex's mom told us about stockholm syndrome it's when a kidnapping or hostage victim starts to think they are friends with kidnapper.

At the gym, the pokemon don't just fight. It's a tag team match with humans and pokemon. Just like the pokemon you have to be in the battle.

When you try to order your pokemon what moves to use, they pause and look at the gym leader and pokemon cooperating as one. This causes you to skip a turn every time and take extra damage. The gym pokemon are also just super strong with no level, and the gym leader is about as strong as a level 35 Machoke (we compared damage taken). But even if you start to get the gym leader's HP down the other pokemon all step in and quickly defeat you. Your character is super weak and has like 4 HP when you have to fight.

You can just never win. It's impossible. We tried everything.

The only way to earn the gym badge is to talk to every person in the town, then talk to each of your pokemon while standing in the town square next to a statue of the founder of Morning Cloud Town who was the first person to treat pokemon like equals. The dialogue box says your pokemon look like they want to tell you something. Since they can't talk obviously you slowly figure it out, that you want your pokemon to be as free and equal as the pokemon in the town. When you go back to the gym they see you have changed and give you the badge.

You can go into the houses in the town. In one you see there are 3 people hanging out. If you talk to them you learn one owns a ship factory, one is a janitor, and one works at the pokemon cemetery. In a normal society you'd never find a rich factory owner hanging out with people who take out garbage and move dead pokemon. This shows that people can be friends for who they are, not for the station they hold in life. The other house has a bunch of bunk beds and a big kitchen but no one is home.

Morning Cloud Town was a little weird since it's so much dialogue, way more than any other part of the game. Maybe they banned this town for the USA version since they thought american kids couldn't read this much.

But I think they banned it because it's true. Pokemon should be our equals. Why is it fair to find a pokemon in the wild that's running around with its family and playing and eating food and then beat it up and catch it in a pokeball? Who would want to live cooped up in a tiny pokeball? And then be forced to fight and beat up other pokemon? I wouldn't.

Alex and I told our parents we were becoming vegetarian. And I let my 2 pet mice free in a big pile of wood behind our house next to a bird feeder. We still play Pokemon Blue+Red, since we know that's just a fantasy world and it's ok to catch and battle pokemon in a video game but we wouldn't in real life.

If I were trapped in a pokeball I'd do anything to get out. I'd probably even be friendly and cuddle with my master when they let me out, just in the hope they would let me out as often as possible.