By Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
Daisuke Nishijima "Điện Biên Phủ: Complete Edition" ,vol. 1, pp.16-17 ©️Daisuke Nishijima (simasima) 2020
Seventy-five years have passed since the end of the Asia-Pacific War. Postwar manga in Japan have told stories of the war in various forms. The very fact that the word “postwar” serves as a historical divider signifies that Japanese people understand “contemporary times” to mean “the period after experiencing the war.” On the other hand, as war survivors reach old age and pass away, the question arises: how do generations that never experienced war firsthand confront war? To answer this question, we introduce contemporary works of manga that bring readers face-to-face with the realities of war.
“Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms” by Fumiyo Kono, 2004
When it comes to works of manga about the atomic bomb, "Barefoot Gen" (1973–87) by Keiji Nakazawa, based on the artist’s direct experiences as a survivor of the atomic bombing, is known to be an overwhelming masterpiece. On the other hand, "Town of Evening Calm", while only a mere 16 pages in length, is a new masterpiece that takes a contrasting approach to Gen in various aspects of how it captures the lives and emotions of atomic bomb survivors and makes readers aware of things not depicted in Gen. Using a female protagonist, Kono painstakingly depicts the guilt felt by survivors for having survived the bombing and their attempts to overcome this emotional burden. The short story is combined in one volume with "Country of Cherry Blossoms", its sequel in which the daughter of the younger brother of the protagonist in "Town of Evening Calm" traces her father’s roots.
"In This Corner of the World" by Fumiyo Kouno (2007-09), three volumes
In this manga, Kouno paints a detailed picture of life during the middle to the end of the war for protagonist Suzu, who leaves Hiroshima to join her new husband in the naval port city of Kure. Based on thorough research, Kouno’s detailed reconstruction of life during the war and her depiction of landscapes that reflect the subjective viewpoint of Suzu, who loves to draw, make readers realize the irreplaceability of this “corner” of the world. The manga is also a pioneering work that opens up the possibilities of manga expression itself, such as in its distorted depiction of the world “like a world drawn by a left hand” after Suzu loses her right (drawing) hand at the end of the story.
"Cocoon" by Machiko Kyo (2010)
In contrast to Kouno, who strives to reconstruct life during the war in great detail, Machiko Kyo emphasizes the power of imagination, backed by historical accounts, as a channel for those who have not experienced the war to face the realities of the war. Her story of schoolgirls who create an “imaginary cocoon” to protect their spirits in the midst of an unbearable situation, based on the story of the Himeyuri students during the Battle of Okinawa, forces readers living today to imagine what it would be like and what they would do if they were put in the same situation.
"Điện Biên Phủ: Complete Edition" by Daisuke Nishijima (2019), 13 volumes
In this manga, which begins with a quote by the novelist Tim O’Brien: “In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. […] Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t,” Daisuke Nishijima constructs a fantastical story about a Japanese-American military photographer and a Vietnamese girl guerilla with superhuman physical abilities, while incorporating vast amounts of information about the Vietnam War. His work reminds Japanese people that wars continued to rage in various parts of the world even during the period known as “postwar” in Japan and makes readers think about the fact that war is now being enjoyed as a form of entertainment.
"anone," by Machiko Kyo (2012-13), two volumes
What would happen if the internal worlds of Anne Frank and Adolf Hitler were connected through time and space, with Anne’s diary as the “door”? The lives of Hanako, from an “Eastern race” and Taro, the dictator of a “new empire,” intersect in a wild fantasy that surpasses even that of "Điện Biên Phủ". While making references to the life of Anne Frank, who was sent from a safe house to a concentration camp, the story unfolds in a mixture of dream and reality, eventually culminating in a shocking conclusion that raises the question of “whose” story this story was.
"Strawberry War" (2014) and "Paraíso" (2015) by Machiko Kyo
A brutal war unfolds, waged by girls using adorably sweet desserts and fruits as weapons, as pictures and words from the battlefield are recorded in a notebook. "Strawberry War", which is actually bound like a small notebook, is a collection of story fragments that tests the reader’s ability to connect fantasy and reality through the imagination. Following this, "Paraíso" is a story based on the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki. Rather than innocent victims, the manga depicts girls who each carry their own sins and questions the relationship between war and humans as beings who cannot avoid doing wrong.
Machiko Kyo "Paraíso", pp.46-47 (2015)Original Source: ©Machiko Kyo (Akitashoten) 2015
"Kōri no Te [Frozen Hands]" by Yuki Ozawa (2012)
When Yuki Ozawa, in high school, heard from her father about her father’s experiences of detainment in a Siberia, she was shocked to learn that it was nothing like the “experiences of war she knew about from dramas and novels.” Thirty years later, she asked her father about his experiences once more and turned them into a manga. She depicts the brutal labor endured in the camps by detainees who had no idea what the future held in store for them, how long their detention would last, or even what had become of Japan and the world, in a level of detail that only someone who experienced it could know. In doing so, she demonstrates the power of manga to give shape to and preserve memories.
"Atokata no Machi [City of Traces]" by Yuki Ozawa (2014-15), five volumes
After illustrating her father’s experiences of detention in Siberia in "Kōri no Te", Yuki Ozawa turned her focus to her mother’s experiences to depict the life of a young girl during the war leading up to the bombing raid on Nagoya. Set in the period from 1944 to 1945 when U.S. military aircraft begin to invade life in the domestic sphere and the girl is mobilized to work in a factory, Ozawa painstakingly traces the gradual deterioration of human relationships as the people around her, her family, and then she herself are driven into a corner. Ozawa’s stance of reconstructing stories of her immediate family’s experiences as accurately as possible imparts a different kind of intensity to the work as compared to works by Fumiyo Kouno and Machiko Kyo.
"Peleliu: Guernica of Paradise" by Kazuyoshi Takeda (ongoing since 2016)
Peleliu is a small island in Palau. On this beautiful island, the location of a Japanese airfield, a battle took place between 40,000 attacking U.S. troops and 10,000 Japanese troops who were ordered to hold out until the end. The battle is narrated from the perspective of Tamaru, a Japanese soldier and aspiring manga artist charged with the task of writing letters to the surviving families of dead soldiers to inform them of how they died. Tamaru feels conflicted by his duty to glorify the deaths of his friends, who are dying one after another on the battlefield, as he desperately tries to survive the battle himself. This work, which tells a story about the reality of “everyday life on the battlefield” through cartoonishly-proportioned characters, also poses questions about the element of fictionality inevitably involved in the process of “telling a story.”
"Sensō to Hitori no Onna [One Woman and the War]" by Youko Kondo (2012), original story by Ango Sakaguchi
U.S. aircraft float in the night sky, illuminated by searchlights. Overlaid on this scene is a single phrase: “Night air raids are amazing.” Youko Kondo wove together three short stories by the novelist Ango Sakaguchi—"Sensō to Hitori no Onna", its sequel of the same name, and "Watashi wa Umi wo Dakishimeteitai [I Want to Hold the Sea]"—into one volume of manga. Set in a city where air raids have become a routine occurrence, the work follows the degenerate life of a woman who believes “war is beautiful and grand” and a man who thinks “the war should go on forever” from each of their respective viewpoints. Not all humans hate war and love peace. On the contrary, seeking war is the essence of being human. When contemplating war through manga, this is one masterpiece that cannot be left out.
Text: Hirohito Miyamoto(Meiji University)
Edit: Nanami Kikuchi, Natsuko Fukushima+Yuka Miyazaki(BIJUTSU SHUPPAN-SHA CO., LTD.)
Supervisor: Hirohito Miyamoto(Meiji University)
Production: BIJUTSU SHUPPAN-SHA CO., LTD.
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