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水木しげる漫画大全集 / Mizuki Shigeru Manga Daizenshū #96
Showa 1944-1953: A History of Japan
A sweeping yet intimate portrait of the legacy of World War II in Japan
Showa 1944–1953: A History of Japan continues the award-winning author Shigeru Mizuki’s autobiographical and historical account of the Showa period in Japan. This volume recounts the events of the final years of the Pacific War, and the consequences of the war's devastation for Mizuki and the Japanese populace at large.
After the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, Japan and the United States are officially at war. The two rival navies engage in a deadly game of feint and thrust, waging a series of microwars across the tiny Pacific islands. From Guadalcanal to Okinawa, Japan slowly loses ground. Finally, the United States unleashes the deathblow with a new and terrible weapon—the atomic bomb. The fallout from the bombs is beyond imagining.
On another front, Showa 1944–1953 traces Mizuki’s own life story across history’s sweeping changes during this period, charting the impact of the war’s end on his life choices. After losing his arm during the brutal fighting, Mizuki struggles to decide where to go: whether to remain on the island as an honored friend of the local Tolai people or return to the rubble of Japan and take up his dream of becoming a cartoonist. Showa 1944–1953 is a searing condemnation of the personal toll of war from one of Japan’s most famous cartoonists.
Showa 1944–1953: A History of Japan continues the award-winning author Shigeru Mizuki’s autobiographical and historical account of the Showa period in Japan. This volume recounts the events of the final years of the Pacific War, and the consequences of the war's devastation for Mizuki and the Japanese populace at large.
After the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, Japan and the United States are officially at war. The two rival navies engage in a deadly game of feint and thrust, waging a series of microwars across the tiny Pacific islands. From Guadalcanal to Okinawa, Japan slowly loses ground. Finally, the United States unleashes the deathblow with a new and terrible weapon—the atomic bomb. The fallout from the bombs is beyond imagining.
On another front, Showa 1944–1953 traces Mizuki’s own life story across history’s sweeping changes during this period, charting the impact of the war’s end on his life choices. After losing his arm during the brutal fighting, Mizuki struggles to decide where to go: whether to remain on the island as an honored friend of the local Tolai people or return to the rubble of Japan and take up his dream of becoming a cartoonist. Showa 1944–1953 is a searing condemnation of the personal toll of war from one of Japan’s most famous cartoonists.
540 pages, Paperback
First published November 18, 2014
About the author
Shigeru Mizuki
728 books295 followersShigeru Mizuki (Mizuki Shigeru, 水木しげる) was a Japanese manga cartoonist, most known for his horror manga GeGeGe no Kitaro. He was a specialist in stories of yōkai and was considered a master of the genre. Mizuki was a member of The Japanese Society of Cultural Anthropology, and had travelled to over 60 countries in the world to engage in fieldwork of the yōkai and spirits of different cultures. He has been published in Japan, South Korea, France, Spain, Taiwan, the United States and Italy. He is also known for his World War II memoirs and his work as a biographer.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
April 7, 2024
This series just gets better and better...I can't recommend Showa enough. Told from the perspective of a soldier just trying to survive, you will find yourself asking what you would do if you found yourself in a similar situation. Accounts of war are so often told from the perspective of leaders; this is told from the perspective of someone just trying to find a way to get back home.
September 12, 2016
Showa Volume III: The End of WWII (1945) and the Sino-Japanese conflict (1953).
The best of the four mega volumes on the history of Japan from the recently deceased and much revered manga-ka, author of Kitaro and many other things just being translated into English. This one weighs in at 530 pages, but I have to say, it is not a chore to make it through. And you should read all of these because they are classics and are SO GOOD, but okay, let me be realistic and say, if you had to read just one of these to get a (healthy, still chunky) taste of the series, I would say this is the best one to read, and the most devastating, because it involves the catastrophic end of the war, and the most vicious critiques of the Japanese political and military leadership that led millions of Japanese to their deaths, and relays Mizuki's own personal survival of the war as a soldier in New Guinea.
Lowlights include the July 9, 1944 horrific military-brass-ordered mass banzai of more than 4,300 soldiers. The largest banzai charge in history. “Nobel death” is the military answer to everything, Mizuki notes, preferable (for the military brass) to the shame of living with defeat or captivity. Never mind what all the families will feel upon hearing of their teenaged son’s “sacrifice:” Pride? Possibly. Kuniaki Koiso said, “I’d rather see the death of the entire country than admit one defeat.” Nothing useful to say to that except to insist everyone read Wilfred Owen’s WWI poem about that attitude, “Dulce Et Decorum Est:”
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html
And you know, I might not be quite so disrespectful of a Japanese cultural practice, but Mizuki himself is really enraged about it in this personal account. But Mizuki himself survived, narrowly, in the Japanese surrender at New Guinea, though he was maimed forever (had to have one arm amputated. . . and by an optometrist!) from serving in that “conflict.” Yikes, guess he could feel just a little “proud” to have been at least maimed . . . but to his credit, he mainly feels rage at the military and banzai and the idea of noble death. He details his experience—including finding stashes of gourmet food in the commander’s tents as their soldiers literally starved--in his memoir, Onwards to Our Noble Deaths, which I review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit...
But that personal story, including long bouts of malaria, of having survived a bombing because he had been sent out to get water, and then everyone he left behind died--is also detailed here in Showa. He and his fellow foot soldiers could never fully understand why their military “superiors” wanted them just to die. Many of them tried to heap shame on them for being survivors.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki and "ignoble" surrender and defeat are detailed here, alas, but the story is powerful, sort of riveting throughout for me as an American to see these events through a (also pacifist) Japanese perspective! For instance, I learn that postwar students were given historical textbooks with all references to militarism blacked out! (which is not to say U.S. textbooks are holy with respect to truthfulness about American wrongs!). But in the U.S. we would have never learned in school how the Japanese dealt with their defeat.
Some of the recovery from 1946 through 1953 was a little less interesting to me as history, but when this happens, we also get to see more of Mizuki’s personal life, such as his going to school for art. Mizuki made his way for a number of years as a Kamishibai (street performer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamishibai
artist before becoming a manga-ka:
The art is epically great, and yet, in this grand design, there’s some of Mizuki’s humor retained, even though there is so much pain. But this is Mizuki’s strength, that shines through, almost unbelievably strong: His great spirit. 5 stars for the series, 5 for this particular volume.
The best of the four mega volumes on the history of Japan from the recently deceased and much revered manga-ka, author of Kitaro and many other things just being translated into English. This one weighs in at 530 pages, but I have to say, it is not a chore to make it through. And you should read all of these because they are classics and are SO GOOD, but okay, let me be realistic and say, if you had to read just one of these to get a (healthy, still chunky) taste of the series, I would say this is the best one to read, and the most devastating, because it involves the catastrophic end of the war, and the most vicious critiques of the Japanese political and military leadership that led millions of Japanese to their deaths, and relays Mizuki's own personal survival of the war as a soldier in New Guinea.
Lowlights include the July 9, 1944 horrific military-brass-ordered mass banzai of more than 4,300 soldiers. The largest banzai charge in history. “Nobel death” is the military answer to everything, Mizuki notes, preferable (for the military brass) to the shame of living with defeat or captivity. Never mind what all the families will feel upon hearing of their teenaged son’s “sacrifice:” Pride? Possibly. Kuniaki Koiso said, “I’d rather see the death of the entire country than admit one defeat.” Nothing useful to say to that except to insist everyone read Wilfred Owen’s WWI poem about that attitude, “Dulce Et Decorum Est:”
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html
And you know, I might not be quite so disrespectful of a Japanese cultural practice, but Mizuki himself is really enraged about it in this personal account. But Mizuki himself survived, narrowly, in the Japanese surrender at New Guinea, though he was maimed forever (had to have one arm amputated. . . and by an optometrist!) from serving in that “conflict.” Yikes, guess he could feel just a little “proud” to have been at least maimed . . . but to his credit, he mainly feels rage at the military and banzai and the idea of noble death. He details his experience—including finding stashes of gourmet food in the commander’s tents as their soldiers literally starved--in his memoir, Onwards to Our Noble Deaths, which I review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit...
But that personal story, including long bouts of malaria, of having survived a bombing because he had been sent out to get water, and then everyone he left behind died--is also detailed here in Showa. He and his fellow foot soldiers could never fully understand why their military “superiors” wanted them just to die. Many of them tried to heap shame on them for being survivors.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki and "ignoble" surrender and defeat are detailed here, alas, but the story is powerful, sort of riveting throughout for me as an American to see these events through a (also pacifist) Japanese perspective! For instance, I learn that postwar students were given historical textbooks with all references to militarism blacked out! (which is not to say U.S. textbooks are holy with respect to truthfulness about American wrongs!). But in the U.S. we would have never learned in school how the Japanese dealt with their defeat.
Some of the recovery from 1946 through 1953 was a little less interesting to me as history, but when this happens, we also get to see more of Mizuki’s personal life, such as his going to school for art. Mizuki made his way for a number of years as a Kamishibai (street performer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamishibai
artist before becoming a manga-ka:
The art is epically great, and yet, in this grand design, there’s some of Mizuki’s humor retained, even though there is so much pain. But this is Mizuki’s strength, that shines through, almost unbelievably strong: His great spirit. 5 stars for the series, 5 for this particular volume.
March 10, 2022
The third volume of Show: A History of Japan covers the dates 1944-1953.
This excellent manga version of the Showa period and the events leading up to WWII. This third volume is in the final days of the war and things are not going well for Shigeru. Wounded and stuck in the Pacific Islands, he somehow manages to survive the war.
he returns to Japan slowly changing with the times and with US help. The Korean War helps to boost Japan's economy. The story ends in 1953.
This manga was an excellent, and strangely detailed, an overview of the events of this pivotal period of Japanese history through the eyes of the author, who lived through these events. A great introductory book for anyone interested in this period of Japanese history. Highly Recommended.
This excellent manga version of the Showa period and the events leading up to WWII. This third volume is in the final days of the war and things are not going well for Shigeru. Wounded and stuck in the Pacific Islands, he somehow manages to survive the war.
he returns to Japan slowly changing with the times and with US help. The Korean War helps to boost Japan's economy. The story ends in 1953.
This manga was an excellent, and strangely detailed, an overview of the events of this pivotal period of Japanese history through the eyes of the author, who lived through these events. A great introductory book for anyone interested in this period of Japanese history. Highly Recommended.
December 28, 2016
I devoured this manga, as I have with the other two preceding volumes. And while you could fault the somewhat one-damned-fact-after-another approach he takes to relaying the main events of the war, the artwork traced from photos somehow both dates and brings the book alive; it's like a scrapbook of key events, but only the ones he remembers as having much significance. But he really excels in telling his own remarkable story of survival against the evils of Malaria, starvation and Japanese military discipline. That he emerged from the jungles with his humanity in tact is a remarkable feat and one worth celebrating. Read this.
Download my starter library for free here - http://eepurl.com/bFkt0X
Download my starter library for free here - http://eepurl.com/bFkt0X
January 1, 2019
The hint from how the front and back covers looked like made me remember what someone told me before that Japanese books are read starting from what is usually the back cover of a book, and by turning pages to the right, instead of to the left. When I got to its first ten pages or so, however, I felt disoriented, with a sense that the story seems to be going on a confusing thread, jumping forwards and backwards with no rhythm, until I realized that illustrations are to be read also starting from the rightmost part of the page going to the left.
The book is thick, with the illustrations in black-and-white, but I finished reading it in one day, the day after it was given to me as a 2018 Christmas gift by my brother. The story is partly based on the author’s own true story as a Japanese soldier during world war two, Japan’s defeat and the start of its postwar recovery. The author is said to be one of the founders of the Japanese craze called MANGA (the Filipino word for mango) and has reportedly received almost every award the comics industry has to offer. To think he almost died during the war from his injuries (one of his arms was lopped off in a most primitive and unhygienic wartime manner) and from his recurrent sickness (malaria), which were worsened by perennial hunger.
Some new things I learned reading this:
1. the logic of Japanese soldiers’ refusal to surrender and suicidal banzai charges in seemingly hopeless situations - they consider them as “noble/glorious deaths” like beautiful , but ephemeral, Cherry Blossoms. A surrender and even just a retreat also weaken the morale of remaining fighters and they would rather see them die by their own hands than be made to fight another day;
2. Japan owed a lot to the outbreak of the Korean War - with the cold war between the west and the countries within the Iron Curtain the US felt the need to stop the communists’ creeping encroachment in Asia. With the Korean War the Americans pored money upon Japan with intent of making it an effective buffer against the communists and this spurred Japan’s growth and economic recovery;
3. Japan’s defeat somewhat humanized its erstwhile divine emperor, with the Japanese hearing their emperor’s voice on the radio for the very first time when he announced Japan’s surrender (an announcement which the majority of the Japanese didn’t understand for it was made through a very formal—maybe archaic—language and couched in euphemism to hide the shame of outright defeat); and
4. the decision to make an unconditional surrender was not unanimous among Japan’s leadership despite the two atomic bombs having been dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some of the country’s military leaders had argued for fighting on and when they were overruled they killed themselves in a true, Japanese tradition.
The book is thick, with the illustrations in black-and-white, but I finished reading it in one day, the day after it was given to me as a 2018 Christmas gift by my brother. The story is partly based on the author’s own true story as a Japanese soldier during world war two, Japan’s defeat and the start of its postwar recovery. The author is said to be one of the founders of the Japanese craze called MANGA (the Filipino word for mango) and has reportedly received almost every award the comics industry has to offer. To think he almost died during the war from his injuries (one of his arms was lopped off in a most primitive and unhygienic wartime manner) and from his recurrent sickness (malaria), which were worsened by perennial hunger.
Some new things I learned reading this:
1. the logic of Japanese soldiers’ refusal to surrender and suicidal banzai charges in seemingly hopeless situations - they consider them as “noble/glorious deaths” like beautiful , but ephemeral, Cherry Blossoms. A surrender and even just a retreat also weaken the morale of remaining fighters and they would rather see them die by their own hands than be made to fight another day;
2. Japan owed a lot to the outbreak of the Korean War - with the cold war between the west and the countries within the Iron Curtain the US felt the need to stop the communists’ creeping encroachment in Asia. With the Korean War the Americans pored money upon Japan with intent of making it an effective buffer against the communists and this spurred Japan’s growth and economic recovery;
3. Japan’s defeat somewhat humanized its erstwhile divine emperor, with the Japanese hearing their emperor’s voice on the radio for the very first time when he announced Japan’s surrender (an announcement which the majority of the Japanese didn’t understand for it was made through a very formal—maybe archaic—language and couched in euphemism to hide the shame of outright defeat); and
4. the decision to make an unconditional surrender was not unanimous among Japan’s leadership despite the two atomic bombs having been dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some of the country’s military leaders had argued for fighting on and when they were overruled they killed themselves in a true, Japanese tradition.
June 21, 2015
Shigeru Mizuki is one of the oldest (born 1922) still-working and most respected manga creators in Japan. Though he is best known for children’s horror comics such as GeGeGe no Kitaro, Mizuki also has written extensively for adults. This is the third volume of his personal history of Japan.
The first half of the volume covers the last bit of World War Two from the Japanese perspective, and Mizuki’s personal experiences as an infantry grunt in Papua New Guinea. After the failure of Japan’s invasion of India, and the successes of the Allies in the Pacific War, it is clear that the war had gone sour for the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, but Japan’s military leadership still believed they could pull a victory out of these difficult conditions.
On the ground, the military tried to keep up troop morale by emphasizing the idea of a “noble death”, taking as many Allies with you as possible rather than surrender or retreat. Mizuki survived by mere chance when his unit was ordered into a suicidal charge. He and the other survivors were considered an embarrassment to the brass, and their ill treatment became fictionalized as Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, which I previously reviewed. Unlike his fictional counterpart, Mizuki survived even the worst, developing malaria and losing an arm.
Despite his condition, Mizuki was not repatriated to Japan until 1947, now under American occupation. General Douglas MacArthur and GHQ wanted to reform Japan and get it back on its feet, which among other things meant giving it a new constitution that prevented it from ever again going to war. New freedoms were the order of the day, until the occupiers realized what people wanted to do with those freedoms and began restricting them again.
Over a decade of war and its privations had ruined Japan’s economy, and all the returning soldiers didn’t help. As a disabled veteran, Mizuki was worse off than many others. Personal tragedy struck when his brother was imprisoned; the same deeds that had made him a war hero to the Japanese made him a war criminal to the Americans.
The Red Menace and the Korean War finally were the cause of Japan’s economy beginning to grow again as the Allied forces used it as their staging ground and pumped millions in aid into the area. Meanwhile, Mizuki had gone back to art school and become a kamishibai artist. (These were one-man shows where an entertainer would show pictures and tell stories to an audience, selling candy and snacks.) The advent of regular television was swiftly killing off the old ways, however….
The history is narrated by Nezumi-Otoko (Rat-man), one of Mizuki’s famous creations (joined by cameos of his fellow yokai monsters.) It’s mostly a visual convention as he does not act in his usual character. The art varies from cartoony to photo-realistic, sometimes on the same page, depending on the desired effect.
This is powerful stuff, depicting the horrors of war and occupation, and a few brief moments of peace and joy wrested from their midst. There’s some nudity, and mentions of rape and prostitution (nothing about Mizuki’s own sex life–it’s possible he simply didn’t have any to speak of in this period.) I would suggest it to no younger than senior high students, and even then advise caution.
There’s an introduction by manga scholar Frederik L. Shodt, and end notes explaining who many of the historical figures are, and other useful details.
Despite its disturbing nature, this will be a valuable volume for history buffs and those who want more information on the decade or so covered in this book. Highly recommended.
The first half of the volume covers the last bit of World War Two from the Japanese perspective, and Mizuki’s personal experiences as an infantry grunt in Papua New Guinea. After the failure of Japan’s invasion of India, and the successes of the Allies in the Pacific War, it is clear that the war had gone sour for the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere, but Japan’s military leadership still believed they could pull a victory out of these difficult conditions.
On the ground, the military tried to keep up troop morale by emphasizing the idea of a “noble death”, taking as many Allies with you as possible rather than surrender or retreat. Mizuki survived by mere chance when his unit was ordered into a suicidal charge. He and the other survivors were considered an embarrassment to the brass, and their ill treatment became fictionalized as Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, which I previously reviewed. Unlike his fictional counterpart, Mizuki survived even the worst, developing malaria and losing an arm.
Despite his condition, Mizuki was not repatriated to Japan until 1947, now under American occupation. General Douglas MacArthur and GHQ wanted to reform Japan and get it back on its feet, which among other things meant giving it a new constitution that prevented it from ever again going to war. New freedoms were the order of the day, until the occupiers realized what people wanted to do with those freedoms and began restricting them again.
Over a decade of war and its privations had ruined Japan’s economy, and all the returning soldiers didn’t help. As a disabled veteran, Mizuki was worse off than many others. Personal tragedy struck when his brother was imprisoned; the same deeds that had made him a war hero to the Japanese made him a war criminal to the Americans.
The Red Menace and the Korean War finally were the cause of Japan’s economy beginning to grow again as the Allied forces used it as their staging ground and pumped millions in aid into the area. Meanwhile, Mizuki had gone back to art school and become a kamishibai artist. (These were one-man shows where an entertainer would show pictures and tell stories to an audience, selling candy and snacks.) The advent of regular television was swiftly killing off the old ways, however….
The history is narrated by Nezumi-Otoko (Rat-man), one of Mizuki’s famous creations (joined by cameos of his fellow yokai monsters.) It’s mostly a visual convention as he does not act in his usual character. The art varies from cartoony to photo-realistic, sometimes on the same page, depending on the desired effect.
This is powerful stuff, depicting the horrors of war and occupation, and a few brief moments of peace and joy wrested from their midst. There’s some nudity, and mentions of rape and prostitution (nothing about Mizuki’s own sex life–it’s possible he simply didn’t have any to speak of in this period.) I would suggest it to no younger than senior high students, and even then advise caution.
There’s an introduction by manga scholar Frederik L. Shodt, and end notes explaining who many of the historical figures are, and other useful details.
Despite its disturbing nature, this will be a valuable volume for history buffs and those who want more information on the decade or so covered in this book. Highly recommended.
January 18, 2015
This is an excellent series in general, but I find myself particularly captivated by this volume. It's such a major crossroad. World War II ends and Japan begins to pull itself from the rubble and move forward. Mizuki rejoins civilian life, and eventually finds--or seems about to find--his life's calling as a manga artist. As always, I find the perspective on history fascinating. It is immensely sobering, for instance, to learn that, even after the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, the Japanese government was still evenly split as to whether or not to accept the US terms of surrender, and it fell to the emperor to break the tie. Looking forward to the next and, I believe, final volume.
May 28, 2017
Bottom Line First: Showa: A history of Japan 1944-1953 is so far the best of this 4 book series by Shigeru Mizuki. There is a more complete picture of the politics and history of Japan from the closing days of WW II and the financial recovery from the war with the beginning of America’s involvement in the Korean War. Mizuki brings us much closer to his personal experiences as a soldier and citizen. He shares his suffering as a battlefield amputee and a malaria victim. He is honest about his struggle to survive in ruined Japan and to find for himself his future. He does not use any of this to portray himself as a victim. He is a proud Japanese and perhaps too unwilling to admit that Japan was the author of its destruction, or that occupied Japan was treated better than those it had invaded. Even so this is a view of this time period from one of its survivors and carries with it the honest that goes with his point of view. Recommended, and more highly than books 1 or 2. There is violence but Mizuki is cover war. There may be some colorful language but it is rare and appropriate to the speaker and the situation.
Early in the book, Mizuki, the soldier makes friends with some local some tribal people. He does so mostly against the rules of the Army and much to his benefit. This would have been a good time to ask why Natives and Japanese troops had not formed many personal relationships. Mizuki may not have known, or he may not have wanted to speak to some of the worst aspects of local life under the Japanese’s Army. Certainly there were excess by some units in the allied army, but his book is only about Japanese’s history.
Once repatriated to Japan, his presentation remains matter of fact. His brother guilt as a war criminal seems to be unfair, 70 plus years later, but Mizuki does not dwell upon it. We gt a taste of how the post war years were a trial and a scramble on everyone, but most he reports and makes little in the way of editorial.
There is a steady repetition of major events by day and year; but very little in the way of context or analysis for anyone, especially a non-Japanese reader to understand why this or that event worthy. Part of this is because his intended reader was a Japanese person who may not have lived through this period by might know them from School. His goal was to make his own statement to his younger generation, about the history of 20th Century Japan not as told in the classroom.
Having gotten used to Mizuki’s combination of hyper realism, involving a photograph to comic format he pioneered; interleaved with more traditional Manga cartoon style, I find this approach more reasonable and easy to follow.
I will be reading Book four and with more anticipation than I felt at the end of either books 1 or 2.
Early in the book, Mizuki, the soldier makes friends with some local some tribal people. He does so mostly against the rules of the Army and much to his benefit. This would have been a good time to ask why Natives and Japanese troops had not formed many personal relationships. Mizuki may not have known, or he may not have wanted to speak to some of the worst aspects of local life under the Japanese’s Army. Certainly there were excess by some units in the allied army, but his book is only about Japanese’s history.
Once repatriated to Japan, his presentation remains matter of fact. His brother guilt as a war criminal seems to be unfair, 70 plus years later, but Mizuki does not dwell upon it. We gt a taste of how the post war years were a trial and a scramble on everyone, but most he reports and makes little in the way of editorial.
There is a steady repetition of major events by day and year; but very little in the way of context or analysis for anyone, especially a non-Japanese reader to understand why this or that event worthy. Part of this is because his intended reader was a Japanese person who may not have lived through this period by might know them from School. His goal was to make his own statement to his younger generation, about the history of 20th Century Japan not as told in the classroom.
Having gotten used to Mizuki’s combination of hyper realism, involving a photograph to comic format he pioneered; interleaved with more traditional Manga cartoon style, I find this approach more reasonable and easy to follow.
I will be reading Book four and with more anticipation than I felt at the end of either books 1 or 2.
September 13, 2016
Showa 1944-1953 is one of Shigeru Mizuki’s many graphic novels of his accounts of Showa Japan and autobiography during the period. While telling a very detailed history of Japan, Mizuki incorporates cartoon elements while at the same time drawing very graphic scenes of the Pacific War and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Mizuki also writes about himself during the war as a foot soldier in the Pacific Islands and its truly gripping how barely he survives and how detailed he can describe everything.
The book is very well written and a breeze to go through and learn lots of cool historical facts. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in war and even if you usually don't read graphic novels, you will enjoy this because the visuals go really well with the text and is very interesting to actually visualize what you're reading.
Mizuki also writes about himself during the war as a foot soldier in the Pacific Islands and its truly gripping how barely he survives and how detailed he can describe everything.
The book is very well written and a breeze to go through and learn lots of cool historical facts. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in war and even if you usually don't read graphic novels, you will enjoy this because the visuals go really well with the text and is very interesting to actually visualize what you're reading.
December 9, 2015
At times Mizuki's story of survival in the South Pacific is reminiscent of parts of Spiegelman's "Maus," which perhaps says something about the role that luck plays in survival. I also enjoyed how the political and the personal merge as Shigeru tries to adjust to life in Occupation-era Japan. The history of Japan trying to rebuild is so much more visceral when told in this fashion.
July 1, 2016
While this book is similar to the previous volume, Mizuki's personal war experience during this period is bizarre and horrifying. The post-war material is interesting as well and his take on the war's turning point is different than many western historians.
January 12, 2015
Mizuki is one of the luckiest guys in the world to come out of World War II alive! This series just keeps getting better and better! How to wait until June for the final volume!?
March 1, 2017
I recommend this series to absolutely everyone. This is how history should be taught in our schools.
June 28, 2015
Really interesting to see the post-war history for Japan; it's a period I knew almost nothing about, from that perspective.
February 6, 2016
My favorite volume so far. 1944-1953 details the end of World War II and the subsequent occupation/rebuilding of Japan. Most interesting though was Shigeru's personal stories from the end of the war. Getting in trouble for coming back alive from suicide charges, alluding allied soldiers in the forest, losing his arm and getting malaria a bunch of times, and chilling out with the natives and contemplating staying there forever. The way he deals with this absolute insanity with borderline nonchalance is incredible. There's humor on one page (he's more concerned with food than impending death and dismemberment), and then the next page people are getting blown to bits. There's no heavy, overbearing anti-war sentiment, just a matter of fact retelling of the war's end from both macro and micro perspectives and it's brilliantly done. Especially considering that in America we were never taught to see humanity in the Japanese soldiers. They're just shifty, fight to the last man sorts who hide out in tunnels and blow you up. In reality, they were miserable like everyone else. Victims of ideology and insane nationalistic generals. These are thick volumes but should be required reading.
February 26, 2019
I know next to nothing about the Manga tradition, but after going through some of Oishinbo manga on Japanese food and most of these Showa volumes, I'm becoming a believer.
This series is distinguished on several levels. First of all Shigeru's life story is compelling. A weird kid and all around young slacker, Shigeru is drafted into the army, where he remains a misfit and non-conformist. His wartime stories are almost too strange not to be fiction. Are they fiction or exaggeration or the truth, truth, truth? I really have no idea and I don't really care.
Because the reasoning of Mizuki's analysis of the positions that bring the wartime culture to Japan via China is thoughtfully laid out, when he takes a viewpoint on right and wrong it seems supportedZ by fact.
The other point--and perhaps most importantly--are his incredible drawings. Continuing the great Japanese tradition of illustration, Mizuki's drawing are mezmerizing.
I've read the first three volumes of Showa: A History of Japan and am awaiting the fourth. They are amazing works of art.
This series is distinguished on several levels. First of all Shigeru's life story is compelling. A weird kid and all around young slacker, Shigeru is drafted into the army, where he remains a misfit and non-conformist. His wartime stories are almost too strange not to be fiction. Are they fiction or exaggeration or the truth, truth, truth? I really have no idea and I don't really care.
Because the reasoning of Mizuki's analysis of the positions that bring the wartime culture to Japan via China is thoughtfully laid out, when he takes a viewpoint on right and wrong it seems supportedZ by fact.
The other point--and perhaps most importantly--are his incredible drawings. Continuing the great Japanese tradition of illustration, Mizuki's drawing are mezmerizing.
I've read the first three volumes of Showa: A History of Japan and am awaiting the fourth. They are amazing works of art.
October 28, 2015
When I got the first book in the series I didn't realize that this would become as much a story of Mizuki as it was about the war, nor did I anticipate the narrative stretching so far beyond the war, and I'm all the happier for these two surprises. I knew almost nothing of post-war Japan, or how strong a hand the US had in running the country in those years, and I'm excited to see that there is a fourth installment on the way to take us up to 1989. And then there's Mizuki, who you just can't help but root for as he goes through stunning trials over the course of the war and after.
August 30, 2015
I've continued to be totally hooked by this series and am eagerly anticipating the final volume. It's been fascinating to read such a compelling history of a critical period from what is (for me) such a different perspective.
While there is a broad overview of key events, it is in the end a very personal history, and the extent of treatment is often driven more by their impact on Mizuki than any sort of "global importance".
While there is a broad overview of key events, it is in the end a very personal history, and the extent of treatment is often driven more by their impact on Mizuki than any sort of "global importance".
April 15, 2015
Excellent all around. Mizuki's writing is often stark but funny, and highly informative but never dull. There is a surprising amount of historical detail packed into this volume, and the not-quite-chronological presentation of events reinforces certain political and social themes as you move through the book. Definitely recommended.
April 16, 2016
The third of four books. Maybe my least favourite because it's so war history heavy. But still an incredible and important read in the series.
For those who have read "Onward to our Noble Death", the personal tales in this volume are mostly republished pages from his earlier book, so the voice changes a bit in a wonky way. But neat to see how it comes together.
For those who have read "Onward to our Noble Death", the personal tales in this volume are mostly republished pages from his earlier book, so the voice changes a bit in a wonky way. But neat to see how it comes together.
August 9, 2016
A wonderful history of the Showa Era of Japan. It alternates chapters highlighting the Mizuki's life in during the war, and the political happenings in the Pacific Theatre. It is well researched and critical of all parties involved: Japan, the USA, and more.
A great read that balances the real terror of war, humanity, and humour. A manga classic for historian and casual readers alike.
A great read that balances the real terror of war, humanity, and humour. A manga classic for historian and casual readers alike.
February 8, 2015
History written by the losing side, or in this case the opposing side, can be far more enlightening than what is churned out by the winners. It is almost always a fresh perspective. Shigeru Mizuki both enlightens and provides fresh perspectives in this historical and auto-biographical work on life as a Japanese soldier during after the Second World War.
April 5, 2016
I loved this series on the Showa period in Japan. I found the mix of didactic history, popular history, man-on-the-street-view and personal biography to be enjoyable and I feel I learned a lot about Japan. I loved the visuals and felt that the earlier volumes were the best.
July 4, 2017
The transitional scope of this volume, from the final days of war into conquest and imposed peace, make this a more varied installment than the previous one. And Mizuki's autobiographical thread is more compelling than in the earlier volumes.
December 29, 2016
"But propaganda and reality rarely have anything in common,especially when the military is involved"
"
April 4, 2023
Five stars all the way. Shigeru Mizuki has given me a completely fresh perspective on World War II. It was fascinating to learn about the author's harrowing experiences fighting for Japan. The extreme level of dedication and fanatical behavior of the officers was beyond what I could imagine. Shigeru describes how troops that survived battles or were wounded were just as likely to be executed as fed and reassigned to a new unit. That was bananas.
Beyond that, the description of what was happening in Japanese culture during the US occupation was a wake-up call. I learned so much from reading this book. I loved it.
Beyond that, the description of what was happening in Japanese culture during the US occupation was a wake-up call. I learned so much from reading this book. I loved it.
October 28, 2017
Definitely the best of the series so far (part 3 of 4). Again, most of it is spent on explaining politics and naval battles, and we learn t hat Muzuki was not overly found of Japan's strategy of vastly underestimating the enemy and then deciding to send soldiers to their deaths rather than surrender because it would cause a loss of face. The war really could have gone on much longer had they not pulled the plug on that strategy (And Italy and Germany not surrendered), which is horrific to think about.
October 13, 2021
This third volume may be my favorite of Mizuki's Showa series. The first half covers the end of WWII and, as with the second volume, does a great of showing how miserable life was for the soldiers being sacrificed and for the average Japanese person back home. Mizuki's own story and opinions do a great job of humanizing the war experience. The second half of this volume also does very well to show that life in Japan didn't improve until well after the end of the the wars. Again Mizuki's own story does well to show what real life was like for Japanese people and for soldiers returning home.
February 23, 2023
A continuation of the series on the Showa Period of Japan. This one is a bit more personal than the last but a peak at the final years of WW2 and Japans recovery from her defeat from a Japanese perspective is something I have never read before and this with the great footnotes still makes this a top notch manga.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
November 28, 2022
I like this series quite a lot. They're entertaining and educational, memoir and history.
Shigeru Mizuki's personal story has a lot of surprising and unique moments, and I like the way that he makes fun of himself for his weaknesses and foibles. I like reading the history from a Japanese perspective. However, the narrative can jump around in a disorienting way. And the history portions are often pretty dry recapitulations of facts (although the events are often dramatic and dangerous).
The art is my least favorite aspect, and specifically the mishmash of styles. You find, always on the same page and often within the same panel: very cartoony; stylized semi-realistic; hyper realistic; and photos that have been processed into black & white (no gray) -- or maybe they're drawings traced over photos, but either way they are clearly only slightly manipulated photos. I find the combination ... well, ugly, to be honest. Unappealing.
Still... I liked and valued this and the earlier volumes enough that I'm eager to read the next and final volume.
Shigeru Mizuki's personal story has a lot of surprising and unique moments, and I like the way that he makes fun of himself for his weaknesses and foibles. I like reading the history from a Japanese perspective. However, the narrative can jump around in a disorienting way. And the history portions are often pretty dry recapitulations of facts (although the events are often dramatic and dangerous).
The art is my least favorite aspect, and specifically the mishmash of styles. You find, always on the same page and often within the same panel: very cartoony; stylized semi-realistic; hyper realistic; and photos that have been processed into black & white (no gray) -- or maybe they're drawings traced over photos, but either way they are clearly only slightly manipulated photos. I find the combination ... well, ugly, to be honest. Unappealing.
Still... I liked and valued this and the earlier volumes enough that I'm eager to read the next and final volume.
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