Showa 1926-1939: A History of Japan Vol. 1 (Showa: A History of Japan)

As World War II veterans slowly disappear, every first hand account of that explosive and horrifically destructive war becomes more hallowed. Few people living today, at least in the relatively peaceful west, can imagine the ghastly brutality of that time. War was everywhere and it interrupted or outright ended countless lives. Few could evade the power of the dueling empires. Shigeru Mizuki, himself a World War II veteran on the Japanese side, recently departed at the age of 93. Born in Taishô 11, or 1922, he came of age during the reign of Emperor Hirohito, otherwise known as the Showâ era. He lived through and ultimately played a role in Japan's Imperial project of the 1930s and 1940s. Many know that this role eventually cost him an arm. Much later he became one of Japan's most famous and acclaimed manga artists, mostly through his works featuring Yôkai. As his work shows, he possessed a singular, inimitable skill. Those who think manga exclusively deals in cute may recoil at his twisted and distorted characters and sometimes disturbing subject matter. In 1988 Mizuki dove into one of the murkiest and most controversial subjects in Japanese history and produced an epic manga that covered the years 1926 to 1989, the entire reign of Hirohito. Mizuki himself appears in this masterwork as someone who found himself thrown into an era of rampant militarism and impending fascism that ultimately ended in defeat and annihilation. With the help of the equally famous "Nezumi Otoko" or "Rat Man," who appears to "help you out with the hard parts," the work brilliantly and beautifully unfolds the rising nationalistic fanaticism that gripped Japan in the early twentieth century and its ugly implications. It excels as history, manga and riveting storytelling. Even more fascinating, it tells the story of World War II from a Japanese perspective.Drawn And Quarterly graciously translated this magnum opus into English and released it in 4 large volumes beginning in 2014. The first volume covers the growing empire's formative years of 1926, when Hirohito rose to the Chrysanthemum throne, through 1939 after the outbreak of the second Sino-Japanese war and the appointment of the infamous Hideki Tojo as War Minister. Nazi forces also roll into Poland by the end of this first book. Some have argued that World War II really began with the conflicts between Japan, China and Korea in the 1930s, in contrast to western historical traditions that begin the war with Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939. The detail given to that conflict in this volume arguably adds credence to that claim. But things begin earlier, at the end of Japan's "roaring 20s" also known as "Taishô Democracy." In 1923, or Taishô 12, a great disaster befell Tokyo, the Great Kanto earthquake. It flattened nearly everything and sent fires roaring throughout the city constructed largely from wood. As the Showâ age dawned the destruction brought about an almost equivalent economic disaster. Bank failures proliferated and the Taishô-spawned middle class found itself squeezed financially.Mizuki first appears as a child learning what things not to eat. His classic first line: "Can't eat rocks. Too hard." He settles for scraping and eating the gold plating off of the ball on a flagpole's pinnacle. Not a promising start. Mizuki's father also stars and a brief flashback shows his rise into middle class Taishô life. In the ensuing Showâ downturn, labor disputes rise in number along with radios. Nonnonba, a Mizuki grandmother figure, takes him to eat sazae. Some famous Japanese historical figures pass and Mizuki's father falls out with his employer. So why not open a movie theater? Signs of things to come arrive with "The General Election Law" and the "Public Security Preservation Law" in 1927, both cleverly summarized as "It's okay to vote as long as you vote for the right candidate." A series of "incidents" follows, beginning with the "March 15 Incident" that saw a mass rounding up of communists. Japan then makes a foray into China, leading to "The Huanggutun Incident" in 1928. A bomb explodes on a railroad, killing a Chinese warlord. Nezumi Otoko says that the Kwangtung army planned it to bolster Japanese power. This effort fizzles.The brutality of Mizuki's childhood comes alive in a sometimes nauseating sections starting with one called "The Gang." Here, rival youth gangs violently conspire against one another and someone on each side ends up eating "miso" poop. Ugh. Mizuki dreams of becoming the toughest kid at school. Then the Great Showâ Depression sets in, spurned by the USA's 1929 stock market crash. Zaibatsu rise. Mizuki's grandfather goes to Java while his father travels to Osaka. The government lifts the gold embargo. Gold spills out of Japan. Kids worship war heroes in "Shonen Club." The "Great Powers" limit Japan to a 10:10:6 ratio. "Betobeto-san," one of this series' yokai, follows Mizuki and a friend home. Despair sets in. "Chimney Man" holds his ground. Suicides increase. The tragedy of the Tohoku farmers spreads anger. Daughters get sold. Farmers paradoxically starve to death. Then the Mukden Incident. More bombs on railroads lead to further Chinese invasions and the occupation of Manchuria and the founding of Manchukuo in 1932. A debate in the general staff leads to further aggression with China. Nezumi Otoko concludes, sadly, "in hindsight, they should have done nothing at all." And further: "It's a shame, but people rarely make the difficult choice of leaving things alone."Uprisings in Korea begin, suppressed by China. The Wanpaoshan Incident. As the Japanese press spins events to its advantage, Nezumi Otoko chimes in again: "In the wrong hands, mass media can be a terrible thing." Mizuki collects newspaper clippings, somewhat out of season, walks twenty miles to an art exhibition and encounters the hidarugami, or hunger ghosts. He also does not excel at school. The Shanghai Incident, helped along by a Japanese Mata Hari. Tensions rise further after the Japanese arrange to have Japanese people attacked in Shanghai. The Human Bullets become an inadvertent, and much glorified, suicide mission. Mizuki and friends walk twenty-five miles for rare donuts. Puyi becomes Emperor of the Japanese puppet state, Manchukuo. The Saurakai's coup de-etat fails when no one joins in their planned riots. Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai falls in the May 15 Incident. Mass hysteria and ritual suicide overtakes the nation. Mount Mihara takes on ominous symbolism. Tokyo Ondo and "Gloomy Sunday" sweep Japan. In 1933 things get serious as Japan withdrawn from the League of Nations in protest. More political assassinations lead to chaos and the February 26 Incident in which Ikki Kitta's coup gets thwarted by Hirohito himself (here the Showâ Emperor appears for the first and only time in this first book). Mizuki begins painting. The famous Marco Polo bridge incident of 1937, "7-7-7 day," throws Japan and China into war. The nefarious Nanjing massacre occurs in late 1937 as Japan continues to conquer China. Mizuki seems to fail at everything that comes his way, but art school remains a possibility. Japan and The Soviet Union fight with great losses and eventually sign an armstice. Meanwhile, things are heating up inexorably Europe. Enter Tojo.Western readers may know very little, or perhaps none, of the history outlined in Showâ. But even those familiar with this history will probably evolve into page turning addicts as each event unfolds. Thankfully, Shigeru Mizuki has preserved this era so compellingly in this manga memoir that readers will probably only find themselves disappointed when the historical roller coaster ride ends. Luckily, three more volumes await. Mizuki's personal touch elevates the story beyond conventional history. As such, it will likely find a place as one of World War II's most moving, introspective and self-critical personal narratives. Onward to volume two.

Bottom Line FirstShowa 1926-1939: A History of Japan (Showa: A History of Japan) Paperback – November 12, 2013by Shigeru Mizuki (Author), Zack Davisson (Translator) achieves most of it purpose. Shigeru tells and illustrates his autobiography as a child of the period of Japanese history he is also telling. He reason for this history as picture book if that Japanese students tend to receive a very sanitized version of Japan’s role as aggressor in more than the 15 year period that the Imperial Japanese Army engaged in a number of incidents in neighboring Korea and China. As a graphic history, rather than a graphic novel it is a superior effort. Writer, artist Shgeru Mizuki is one of the top names in Japanese Manga. That is he is both an artist and a writer and became one years after losing his writing arm as a soldier in World War II. This is an easy recommendation for fans but a slightly less enthusiastic recommendation for a more serious minded reader.It is a fairly old story that Japan has not done a good job of teaching its 20th Century history to its students. They are aware that their country lost World War II but may have a little or no appreciation for the aggressive way their country helped to initiate the war and the often vicious method employed as warriors and conquerors.Showa is the name for the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of the Shōwa Emperor, Hirohito, from December 25, 1926, through January 7, 1989. Mizuki also lived through this period and his intention was to tell his life’s story as context for also telling something closer to the truth about how Japan acted during this era. He begins with a great earthquake in 1923 and follows with a series of episodes as the Japanese economy follows the world’s economy into what he calls the “American Depression”.Much of the narrative is carried by a famous Mizuki character called Ratman. Vaguely akin to America’s Donald Duck but a more serious guide rather than a trickster. The narrative begins as mostly disjointed recollections and simple facts about certain events. The absence of analysis can make it hard to understand why we are being told things, but this is also the time of a very young Mizuki who may have only had a vague awareness of the larger events of his country.Towards the end there may be some analysis but never much and never at any depth. We are shown that the Japanese Army empowered itself to launch invasions and conduct military incidents seemingly despite or without any direction from the civil government. Ministers and opposing voices are assassinated with a regularity that has an almost casual feel to it. In a few years there are reported several attempted military takeovers, backed by killings and no one seems to have been held accountable in such a way as to thwart or deter the next plotters.If the historic content is lacking the artwork is not. Important people, events and iconic images are reproduced exactly using a technic developed to achieve photo realism. Other images are more impressionistic and typical of Japanese graphic novels, but this is a style all the author helped to develop.As a study, Showa is uneven and lacking in depth. As a Graphic History, autobiography and demonstration of the serious capabilities of manga it is more than worth reading. I will be seeking out a copy of the next collection of this 3 volume series.

I'm completely the wrong person to review a manga.My sum knowledge of the art form is from stolen glances on the Tozai Line at salarymen's copies that looked to me slightly less enticing than lugging around multi-coloured phonebooks through Tokyo's underground. But that was 15 years ago. The comics were impenetrable to me, being in Japanese. And upside down (I was invariably standing and the manga were on the laps of folk who had got on before me and so got seats.)Well, that was until tonight.Tonight, I finished reading Shigeru_Mizuki's Showa, A History of Japan 1926-1939, an English translation of his history of the country, his life and his art. You probably know more about him than I do, so I'll just simply add that the guy is well placed to comment on the history of the Showa period, having lived through it all, much of it at the s*** end of the stick.I thought at first it was just one damned thing after another (pre-war Japanese history as a series of Incidents and Puppet Governments, at least it was if all the history you know is to pass an 'O' Level. To a student, everything looks like a bullet point). But as time goes on and the pages fly by, you see, really see -- this is a manga remember -- how the Great Events of History impacted an imaginative but lazy kid having the good fortune to grow up in the wilds of Tottori, but the bad to have come of age at the time of dictatorship.Read it. It's excellent. Unlike me, you haven't spent half your life deluded that comics are just for kids, have you? Because that would be a terrible mistake.

gran resumen de lo que ocurria en japon en esos tiempos

Honestamente? Achei que ia gostar mais. Achei bem chatinho e não prendeu minha leitura.

So interesting I could not stop reading it!Already finished it and ordered the next one, can’t wait.

Normally, Japanese manga takes the form of a pocket book, but this one is big.However, it epitomizes history well. MIzuki’s perspective is not necessarily in line with that of a typical history teacher in Japan, but we need to know different perspectives, too.

This graphic novel is the first of a 4-part series in which the author maps his biography against Japanese history, neatly covering the Showa period (1926-89). This first volume covers the growth of militaristic nationalism from the 1923 earthquake, the 1927 recession and the 1932 Great Depression. The army and navy operate independently of the elected government and they exploit their domination of Korea, extend into Manchuria and invade China. Apparently, there is no formal declaration of war as that would bring in the United Nations, so the book comes as a series of ‘incidents’ that are war by another name. It is not actually a linear series as much of the book circles around the Mukden Incident and various attempted military coups (around 1930-33).The public history is presented in a stern style and the biographical parts in a more cartoon style (reminding me a bit of the Beano’s Bash Street Kids). Mediating between the 2 is a narrator: a strange creature heavily wrapped - apparently he is a famous Japanese cartoon character, who is as recognisable as Donald Duck.Mizuki notes how the military wanted to assert Japanese power without liberal compromises and they duped the public to drive their agenda, using the new tools of mass communication. He is critical of this, though notes how he bought into it as a child. This seemed a bit too neat to me - I was interested in Pankaj Mishra’s presentation in From the Ruins of Empire where he sought to understand the military’s position in more structural terms. The use of mass communications and modern bureaucratic technology to unify and centralise a nation state in order to assert its power on the international stage seems to have been a common aim. The virulent split between nationalists and socialist seems an endemic/structural problem for the 20s and more so in the 30s. Recent experience has shown how easy it is to push that split for cynical reasons and how easy it is to polarise a nation - William Shirer's book on the Fall of France's Third Republic struck me as tracing a very similar path.