A good way to examine Gundam's attitude toward war is to look at how it portrays people who opt out of the fighting. If Gundam is anti-war, we should expect positive depictions of a peaceful alternative. In First Gundam that means looking at safe, prosperous, neutral Side 6... https://twitter.com/MatteoWatz/status/1333702457541742592

Initially Side 6 appears to be a paradise for the exhausted crew of the White Base. Being from the space-sticks and having only ever experienced the Earth in a state of devastation, they are awed by the prosperity in this modern city.

For the audience, too! After 30 some episodes of scorched earth and rubble, this is our first glimpse at what we would recognize as normalcy.

But the charm doesn't last...

The two characters who end up being emblematic of Side 6 are the government functionary (and Mirai's fiance) Cameron Bloom and the profiteering industrialist Bergamino.

Scion of a wealthy family, Bloom fled to Side 6 in order to avoid getting entangled in the war. He's portrayed as weak-spirited and spoiled. He tries to solve every problem with wealth and status.

Like the generals and admirals hiding deep underground in Jaburo while soldiers die on the surface, or the elites partying with Garma in a mansion a few miles from bombed out New Yark, Bloom reminds us that 'avoiding war' is a privilege exclusive to the wealthy and powerful.

Bloom is contrasted with Bright and Sleggar - Mirai's other romantic pairings. Though very different, both are professional and volunteer soldiers. Naturally this choice is metaphoric: choosing Bright or Sleggar means choosing war; choosing Bloom means choosing to escape.

Mirai, even though she has seen the horrors of war with her own eyes and buried friends with her own hands, barely hesitates.

Interestingly Bergamino is the only character in the Side 6 episodes who is actually *from* that Side. As a wealthy merchant boasting about his connections to both sides of the conflict, Bergamino becomes a neat stand-in for Side 6 as a whole... and perhaps 'neutrality' itself.

Bergamino (and the Side) are confident that the war will remain someone else's problem. Their diplomatic and economic relationships with Zeon and the Federation ensure their comfortable neutrality. This is how he dismisses Bright's worries about a Zeon attack:

He's wrong, of course. Zeon blows his dockyard to smithereens the moment it becomes convenient for them.

And like Bloom, Bergamino is shown to be an ineffectual coward. Perhaps if Bloom continues on his current trajectory he will grow into another Bergamino.

Neutrality, as Char makes clear to Cameron in a later episode, is a courtesy that Zeon extends to Side 6 only so long as it remains convenient. Put another way: neutrality is just a way to delay an inevitable surrender to the victor.

Some people in Side 6 are starting to understand this: when the White Base is breaking the Zeon blockade, the TV news crew reporting on the battle tells their audience, "As witnesses to this battle we must all consider the position our nation should take in the future."

The war, after all, has come to them at last.

So yes. Gundam says war is awful... But there battles that must be fought. There are kinds of peace that are worse than war.