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水木しげる漫画大全集 [Mizuki Shigeru Manga Daizenshū] #67
Operación Muerte
Hábilmente, y sin caer en la caricatura, Mizuki describe el repugnante desprecio por la vida humana del mando militar nipón. Sin razón válida o sentido estratégico alguno, los jóvenes soldados eran enviados a la muerte con la expresa prohibición de volver vivos bajo pena de ejecución.
368 pages, Paperback
First published October 23, 1991
36 people are currently reading
2716 people want to read
About the author
Shigeru Mizuki
741 books328 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 292 reviews
February 26, 2022
Anti-war manga by the great and venerable Japanese manga-ka whose work has still not been translated enough i the west. This is work from the seventies which he says was 90% true, and in an American afterword, he now clarifies what he made up in it. This is essentially history, a memoir of his time spent serving in the Japanese army in 1943 on New Guinea when western Allies bombed and took over the country. In the manga, one Japanese soldier survived, but in reality, eighty survived, including Mizuki, who excoriates militarism and blind patriotism and the idea of a noble suicide, which hundreds of his fellow soldiers were encouraged to do rather than live with the humiliation of surrender.
The perspective here is from one of the "rookie" soldiers, of which Mizuki was one, and how they were abused by their "superiors," and misguided by chain of command, regardless how stupid and corrupt. This book was not given much critical reception at all in Japan initially probably because it is so harsh about the military and one kind of Japanese philosophy dependent on unthinking allegiance and honor. Though I am no WW II buff, I have never read anything like it; it is scathing and retains a sense of humanity and (dark) humor in places. And finally not limited to the Japanese military; all military leadership depends on blind allegiance.
I do read anti-war works from a variety of countries, including those critical of the US in various wars, but this is my first critique of the Japanese army in that war by a Japanese artist. Artistically it is a unique (and odd and a little off-putting) mix of cartoony characters and realistic, very detailed settings in the way of manga of its period. And some of the story is of course disturbing on many levels, and does not excuse the rookies, who are starved, beaten, dying of thirst, traumatized teenagers, but who also commit terrible deeds. There is, for instance, an encounter with prostitutes early on that is upsetting that maybe should be shown as even more disturbing (from the author's perspective) than it is, but maybe can be seen as a young soldier narrative's limited view, and there are a couple other things like this of which one might wish more critique, but the overall impression is pretty impressive, I thought. It's honest, at least. It speaks of human frailty all around. There's a speech made by the doctor responding to a commanding officer deciding on a mass suicide that is pretty impressive (and not surprising) as an indictment of military "leadership." This is a great anti-war story.
2016/March/4 update: Mizuki died in October 2015. Since Onward there is an impressive collection of his work now available in translation, including NonNonBa, Kitaro, Showa. He's one of the great manga-ka sensei of Japan comics history. A must for students of manga, Japanese history, humor, and yokai (ghosts, spirits, monsters).
The perspective here is from one of the "rookie" soldiers, of which Mizuki was one, and how they were abused by their "superiors," and misguided by chain of command, regardless how stupid and corrupt. This book was not given much critical reception at all in Japan initially probably because it is so harsh about the military and one kind of Japanese philosophy dependent on unthinking allegiance and honor. Though I am no WW II buff, I have never read anything like it; it is scathing and retains a sense of humanity and (dark) humor in places. And finally not limited to the Japanese military; all military leadership depends on blind allegiance.
I do read anti-war works from a variety of countries, including those critical of the US in various wars, but this is my first critique of the Japanese army in that war by a Japanese artist. Artistically it is a unique (and odd and a little off-putting) mix of cartoony characters and realistic, very detailed settings in the way of manga of its period. And some of the story is of course disturbing on many levels, and does not excuse the rookies, who are starved, beaten, dying of thirst, traumatized teenagers, but who also commit terrible deeds. There is, for instance, an encounter with prostitutes early on that is upsetting that maybe should be shown as even more disturbing (from the author's perspective) than it is, but maybe can be seen as a young soldier narrative's limited view, and there are a couple other things like this of which one might wish more critique, but the overall impression is pretty impressive, I thought. It's honest, at least. It speaks of human frailty all around. There's a speech made by the doctor responding to a commanding officer deciding on a mass suicide that is pretty impressive (and not surprising) as an indictment of military "leadership." This is a great anti-war story.
2016/March/4 update: Mizuki died in October 2015. Since Onward there is an impressive collection of his work now available in translation, including NonNonBa, Kitaro, Showa. He's one of the great manga-ka sensei of Japan comics history. A must for students of manga, Japanese history, humor, and yokai (ghosts, spirits, monsters).
August 21, 2016
Shigeru Mizuki takes you into the company of the low ranking soldiers of the Japanese army during WW II. This funny yet heartbreaking tale reinforces the fact that it is the common soldier who always pays the most uncommon price for war.
June 10, 2013
What a tough read.
It's an interesting bit of history, seeing how Japanese forces were living and fighting. And this is a great example of a book for those who have a low opinion of "those backwards graphic novels" (by which I mean read right-to-left, not so much as a racial thing. Although maybe I'm misinterpreting the criticism?)
What's sort of bizarre about the whole thing is that it does make me question how effective Japanese forces could have been as WWII went on. They were outnumbered and stuck on islands, but there was always a fear that the Japanese would dig in and be almost impossible to beat, and the only way to break through would mean great loss of life.
However, this book makes me think otherwise. Because when given the choice between retreating to the mountains and engaging in guerrilla warfare or making a suicide charge, the leadership elects to make the suicide charge. And when some of the force fails to make the charge, their leaders commit suicide and the rest of their troops are ordered to make a second, re-do suicide charge. It's a bizarre way to fight a war, in my humble, 2013 opinion. Or maybe it's a western viewpoint? Either way, I can't wrap my head around the idea of putting some version of honor above the possibility of success when it comes to winning a war. Because let's face it, dropping the bomb was effective, successful. But as honor goes, I don't know that it's exactly a noble act or anything. I guess one of the most undervalued resources in wars has always been the willingness to abandon the moral high ground.
Oh, and by the way, as most books regarding war, this one definitely proves that the whole thing is really, fundamentally stupid. I mean, just a mind-blowingly poor way to resolve anything. I'm not calling the soldiers stupid or anything like that, but the very concept of war is such a bizarre, ridiculous leftover from a time long past.
It's an interesting bit of history, seeing how Japanese forces were living and fighting. And this is a great example of a book for those who have a low opinion of "those backwards graphic novels" (by which I mean read right-to-left, not so much as a racial thing. Although maybe I'm misinterpreting the criticism?)
What's sort of bizarre about the whole thing is that it does make me question how effective Japanese forces could have been as WWII went on. They were outnumbered and stuck on islands, but there was always a fear that the Japanese would dig in and be almost impossible to beat, and the only way to break through would mean great loss of life.
However, this book makes me think otherwise. Because when given the choice between retreating to the mountains and engaging in guerrilla warfare or making a suicide charge, the leadership elects to make the suicide charge. And when some of the force fails to make the charge, their leaders commit suicide and the rest of their troops are ordered to make a second, re-do suicide charge. It's a bizarre way to fight a war, in my humble, 2013 opinion. Or maybe it's a western viewpoint? Either way, I can't wrap my head around the idea of putting some version of honor above the possibility of success when it comes to winning a war. Because let's face it, dropping the bomb was effective, successful. But as honor goes, I don't know that it's exactly a noble act or anything. I guess one of the most undervalued resources in wars has always been the willingness to abandon the moral high ground.
Oh, and by the way, as most books regarding war, this one definitely proves that the whole thing is really, fundamentally stupid. I mean, just a mind-blowingly poor way to resolve anything. I'm not calling the soldiers stupid or anything like that, but the very concept of war is such a bizarre, ridiculous leftover from a time long past.
July 16, 2012
Shigeru Mizuki (b. 1922) is something of a national treasure in Japan. His innovative manga titles place him the same league as Osamu Tezuki, the artist referred to as the God of Manga. Mizuki made his name with manga involving Yokai, the sometimes playful, sometimes malevolent demons of Japanese folklore. In 1973 he published this magnificent anti-war tale. I have read several manga that are billed as "adult" in content, but this usually means the stories are more sexual or grotesquely violent than other, more mainstream offerings. Onwards Towards Our Noble Deaths is the first manga I have read where the adult label applies to material that is morally complex and emotionally devastating. It deserves a place with such Japanese anti-war classics as Kon Ichikawa's film Fires on the Plain(1959). And western readers should not look on this tale of moral depravity among the Imperial Army's officer class with too much smug superiority. It is a story of soldiers forced in to a suicide mission, a mission that initially fails and therefore must be repeated because the glorious sacrifice of the soldiers has already been reported. The twisted logic and gross disregard for human life is apalling, but remember that Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory (1957) involves the execution of French soldiers for cowardice after their refusal to follow a clearly suicidal order. That setting is World War One.
Mizuki's was assigned to the battalion described in his story, and would have died had he not lost an arm in a previous fight some weeks before the final orders came through. Mizuki depicts the New Guinea setting as a combination of tropical paradise and absolute hell hole. Soldiers are starving, dying of malaria, and lining up seventy-men deep for the attention of the handful of comfort women their officers have provided them. Important work on camp construction can be delayed for days while soldiers search for the remains of a comrade almost certainly eaten by a crocodile. But the officers insist that remains must be returned for proper burial. A severely wounded soldier has his finger cut off by a shovel so the body part can be returned to his family. As his friends leave with the grisly trophy, the soldier, who is mortally wounded, is still alive and suffering.
Japan has lost the war at this point. Fire bombings of major cities has begun and Hiroshima is not far in the future. The insane logic of the suicide mission is the outcome of the rigid training of an officer class who treat their soldiers as fodder. The criminal insanity of forcing the men to return after they survive the first assault will leave readers enraged.
Mizuki's was assigned to the battalion described in his story, and would have died had he not lost an arm in a previous fight some weeks before the final orders came through. Mizuki depicts the New Guinea setting as a combination of tropical paradise and absolute hell hole. Soldiers are starving, dying of malaria, and lining up seventy-men deep for the attention of the handful of comfort women their officers have provided them. Important work on camp construction can be delayed for days while soldiers search for the remains of a comrade almost certainly eaten by a crocodile. But the officers insist that remains must be returned for proper burial. A severely wounded soldier has his finger cut off by a shovel so the body part can be returned to his family. As his friends leave with the grisly trophy, the soldier, who is mortally wounded, is still alive and suffering.
Japan has lost the war at this point. Fire bombings of major cities has begun and Hiroshima is not far in the future. The insane logic of the suicide mission is the outcome of the rigid training of an officer class who treat their soldiers as fodder. The criminal insanity of forcing the men to return after they survive the first assault will leave readers enraged.
October 12, 2011
What was odd about this one was that somehow the fact that the characters are so cartoonish made it even more grotesque when they were blown to pieces or mowed in half by machine gun fire. Apparently 90% of this story was true, with the exception being that in reality, not everyone was killed. (Obviously) Suffice it to say, I have no desire to ever use my secret time machine to take me back to the war in the Pacific.
October 10, 2011
This is a both beautiful and disturbing portrayal of WW II from a Japanese perspective from one of the foremost Manga artists of Japan (known for GeGeGe no Kitaro).
Read
June 6, 2023It's not often I read manga, and whether this qualifies is definitely up for debate. It's bitter and dark, and at times deliberately going for laffs in a way which only makes sense in a Japanese-entertainment context (the guy dying by trying to swallow a whole fish, seems like something from an anime no?). Mizuki's drawing style renders every character a grotesque, almost scribbled out -- counterpointed with photorealistic landscapes, machinery, and corpses. It's as if Mizuki wanted to point out that the least human thing in the New Britain Campaign of the Pacific Theater was the humans themselves.
January 1, 2016
One of my new favourite authors after this one. Funny and terribly horrible in equal parts.
May 4, 2012
Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths Review
By Shigeru Mizuki
The graphic novel, “Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths”, was an astonishing experience for a Mizuki virgin, such as myself. Prior to this reading, I had never experienced the elegant and truly magnificent work of Shigeru Mizuki. Shigeru Mizuki is regarded as one of the most famous and respected cartoonists in Japan.
The story takes place in Papa New Guinea, where some of the Japanese are stationed during World War II. The graphic novel follows several different characters, all of whom are in the military. Characters range from the rookie hating Yoshida to more gentle characters like Nogami or Maruyama. The Baien Battalion is in Papa New Guinea, in order to protect it from the Allies. The characters encounter the horrors of the war, as the island itself is deadly. From alligator deaths to shortage of food to Allied attacks, the Battalion is constantly hindered. Many of the soldiers don't know what they are fighting for, as Japan is miles away. As the soldiers start decreasing, and news of what is truly happening in Japan spreads, they are sent on a death march or a suicide march. This is where the “noble deaths” of the title is derived from. The soldiers march bravely with a sense of patriotism, as they walk into their own deaths, with honor.
“Onwards Towards Our Noble Deaths”, seemed like a book I would favor due to it being set during World War II. The story's plot was very comedic and serious at other times. At times characters would talk of prostitutes, at others of honor. Mizuki certainly illustrates and depicts how soldiers truly feel about such wars. Throughout history, soldiers have unwillingly, for the most part, fought in wars. The Japanese army was at the time reckless and this is evident in Mizuki's work. The effects of the war regrading the soldier's inner humanity is obvious, as enemy attacks and diseases plagued the soldiers. I felt that the story showed the Japanese perspective, which is very much important. We rarely look at the other side, and this new perspective definitely is one to see. At the time, Americans viewed the Japanese as enemies and as ruthless perpetrators responsible for the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Yet in reality, many of these soldiers did not have a definite idea of who the enemy was or why they were fighting, especially not on their homeland, but rather on their mother country's colony. This new fresh look offers the reader a new lens, from which to see the other side.
The story definitely contained perspective and the sense of humanity. As I have stated earlier, perspective is offered to readers, and helps view the Japanese at the time, from a new light. Especially, because these soldiers were dumbfounded as to why they were in the war at all. Humanity is also explored by Mizuki, as we see the effect of the war, on the various soldiers. The soldiers march towards their deaths, sometimes twice, because they survived the first time. All of these soldiers do so with honor and patriotism, yet one cannot stop one's self from questioning the world's powers. How can nations virtually make soldiers do such horrific things? Perhaps only the people understand the true burden of such a war, and national leaders simply do not. “Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths”, although comedic at times, provokes ones thoughts towards humanity itself and its gruesome wars.
By Shigeru Mizuki
The graphic novel, “Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths”, was an astonishing experience for a Mizuki virgin, such as myself. Prior to this reading, I had never experienced the elegant and truly magnificent work of Shigeru Mizuki. Shigeru Mizuki is regarded as one of the most famous and respected cartoonists in Japan.
The story takes place in Papa New Guinea, where some of the Japanese are stationed during World War II. The graphic novel follows several different characters, all of whom are in the military. Characters range from the rookie hating Yoshida to more gentle characters like Nogami or Maruyama. The Baien Battalion is in Papa New Guinea, in order to protect it from the Allies. The characters encounter the horrors of the war, as the island itself is deadly. From alligator deaths to shortage of food to Allied attacks, the Battalion is constantly hindered. Many of the soldiers don't know what they are fighting for, as Japan is miles away. As the soldiers start decreasing, and news of what is truly happening in Japan spreads, they are sent on a death march or a suicide march. This is where the “noble deaths” of the title is derived from. The soldiers march bravely with a sense of patriotism, as they walk into their own deaths, with honor.
“Onwards Towards Our Noble Deaths”, seemed like a book I would favor due to it being set during World War II. The story's plot was very comedic and serious at other times. At times characters would talk of prostitutes, at others of honor. Mizuki certainly illustrates and depicts how soldiers truly feel about such wars. Throughout history, soldiers have unwillingly, for the most part, fought in wars. The Japanese army was at the time reckless and this is evident in Mizuki's work. The effects of the war regrading the soldier's inner humanity is obvious, as enemy attacks and diseases plagued the soldiers. I felt that the story showed the Japanese perspective, which is very much important. We rarely look at the other side, and this new perspective definitely is one to see. At the time, Americans viewed the Japanese as enemies and as ruthless perpetrators responsible for the attacks on Pearl Harbor. Yet in reality, many of these soldiers did not have a definite idea of who the enemy was or why they were fighting, especially not on their homeland, but rather on their mother country's colony. This new fresh look offers the reader a new lens, from which to see the other side.
The story definitely contained perspective and the sense of humanity. As I have stated earlier, perspective is offered to readers, and helps view the Japanese at the time, from a new light. Especially, because these soldiers were dumbfounded as to why they were in the war at all. Humanity is also explored by Mizuki, as we see the effect of the war, on the various soldiers. The soldiers march towards their deaths, sometimes twice, because they survived the first time. All of these soldiers do so with honor and patriotism, yet one cannot stop one's self from questioning the world's powers. How can nations virtually make soldiers do such horrific things? Perhaps only the people understand the true burden of such a war, and national leaders simply do not. “Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths”, although comedic at times, provokes ones thoughts towards humanity itself and its gruesome wars.
Read
April 15, 2019A powerful anti-war book.
Shigeru Mizuki served in the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII, stationed in the British-ruled island of Raboul (today part of Papua New Guinea). Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths presents a slightly fictionalized account of his experience. It begins with a regiment arriving on the island, first dealing with starvation and disease, then fighting the Allied forces who later infiltrate the region. The second half of the book touches heavily on gyokusai, the mandate that all Japanese soldiers must die for their country; in other words, a soldier must kill himself instead of being taken prisoner. Mizuki is very blunt about his feelings towards this policy, sharply criticizing the Army throughout the book. He asserts that for this policy to work, every soldier must be behind it, which simply wasn’t the case.
There’s very little, if any, heroism to be glimpsed here. That’s to the book’s benefit, I think. Mizuki portrays honestly the horrid mess that is war, and the psychological and physical toll it has on Japanese soldiers, particularly regarding gyokusai. The soldiers themselves don’t have much in the way of personalities or backgrounds that we hear of. Mizuki doesn’t set out to humanize them. Instead, he’s writing about this terrible situation they find themselves in, and what it does to them. Always lingering in the background is the question: just how important is this little island in the grand scheme of the war?
Some of the scenes towards the end that deal with the suicide charges are extremely poignant and disturbing. One beat in particular, involving a senior officer and a doctor, I won’t soon forget. I was also struck by Mizuki’s art. Like a lot of manga, he draws realistic, detailed backgrounds contrasted with cartoony figures in the foreground. I found this to be highly effective here. For the soldiers, the situation at first may seem exaggerated or distorted, but they are sooner or later confronted by just how real everything is. Indeed, the final pages look so realistic that I thought they might be drawn from photographs.
So, Onward Towards Our Noble Deathsis not light reading by any means. It is, however, a deeply personal story for Mizuki, a brutal assessment of the experience of Japanese soldiers. I’m not sure I’d want to read this again, but I’m glad I did this one time.
Shigeru Mizuki served in the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII, stationed in the British-ruled island of Raboul (today part of Papua New Guinea). Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths presents a slightly fictionalized account of his experience. It begins with a regiment arriving on the island, first dealing with starvation and disease, then fighting the Allied forces who later infiltrate the region. The second half of the book touches heavily on gyokusai, the mandate that all Japanese soldiers must die for their country; in other words, a soldier must kill himself instead of being taken prisoner. Mizuki is very blunt about his feelings towards this policy, sharply criticizing the Army throughout the book. He asserts that for this policy to work, every soldier must be behind it, which simply wasn’t the case.
There’s very little, if any, heroism to be glimpsed here. That’s to the book’s benefit, I think. Mizuki portrays honestly the horrid mess that is war, and the psychological and physical toll it has on Japanese soldiers, particularly regarding gyokusai. The soldiers themselves don’t have much in the way of personalities or backgrounds that we hear of. Mizuki doesn’t set out to humanize them. Instead, he’s writing about this terrible situation they find themselves in, and what it does to them. Always lingering in the background is the question: just how important is this little island in the grand scheme of the war?
Some of the scenes towards the end that deal with the suicide charges are extremely poignant and disturbing. One beat in particular, involving a senior officer and a doctor, I won’t soon forget. I was also struck by Mizuki’s art. Like a lot of manga, he draws realistic, detailed backgrounds contrasted with cartoony figures in the foreground. I found this to be highly effective here. For the soldiers, the situation at first may seem exaggerated or distorted, but they are sooner or later confronted by just how real everything is. Indeed, the final pages look so realistic that I thought they might be drawn from photographs.
So, Onward Towards Our Noble Deathsis not light reading by any means. It is, however, a deeply personal story for Mizuki, a brutal assessment of the experience of Japanese soldiers. I’m not sure I’d want to read this again, but I’m glad I did this one time.
June 3, 2013
This was a total impulse read, and I could not be happier with my decision.
The book is a graphic novel (more accurately, translated Japanese manga) that looks over the last few weeks of a small infantry section of the Imperial Japanese Army. Stationed in New Guinea, these men go through the hellish life often led by Japanese soldiers on Pacific Islands (and that's not even counting the horrific treatment they received from their superiors).
The book is primarily a vicious attack on the wartime practice of gyokusai (the "noble death" in the title), which was a deliberate suicide charge. It was seen by the Japanese military at the time as a far preferable fate than surrender, or "dying like a dog" from bombs, starvation, or disease. But, as is the case in the book, doing this often meant the pointless sacrifice of hundreds and thousands of good soldiers who could have fought a much longer and tougher battle if they were allowed to withdraw in good order, as most other militaries would do (imagine the Pacific war if the Japanese hadn't been committed to this pointless death... it might have been even bloodier as far as the Allies are concerned, which is hard to imagine). The events in the book are mostly based on fact, and are drawn from the author's experiences during the war.
I highly, highly recommend this book to any history buff who (like me) enjoys the perspective from the "other side." It's so easy, due to most pop culture concerning the Pacific War, to forget the individual Japanese soldier, just a normal person trying to survive, and maybe get one more meal. This book corrects that huge void, in a very visually compelling way.
My only note is a purely personal one. This is the absolute first time I have ever read manga, and therefore the first time I had to navigate with the "right to left" part. Right to left pages was easy enough to get, but reading right to left inside the panels themselves was much harder.
The book is a graphic novel (more accurately, translated Japanese manga) that looks over the last few weeks of a small infantry section of the Imperial Japanese Army. Stationed in New Guinea, these men go through the hellish life often led by Japanese soldiers on Pacific Islands (and that's not even counting the horrific treatment they received from their superiors).
The book is primarily a vicious attack on the wartime practice of gyokusai (the "noble death" in the title), which was a deliberate suicide charge. It was seen by the Japanese military at the time as a far preferable fate than surrender, or "dying like a dog" from bombs, starvation, or disease. But, as is the case in the book, doing this often meant the pointless sacrifice of hundreds and thousands of good soldiers who could have fought a much longer and tougher battle if they were allowed to withdraw in good order, as most other militaries would do (imagine the Pacific war if the Japanese hadn't been committed to this pointless death... it might have been even bloodier as far as the Allies are concerned, which is hard to imagine). The events in the book are mostly based on fact, and are drawn from the author's experiences during the war.
I highly, highly recommend this book to any history buff who (like me) enjoys the perspective from the "other side." It's so easy, due to most pop culture concerning the Pacific War, to forget the individual Japanese soldier, just a normal person trying to survive, and maybe get one more meal. This book corrects that huge void, in a very visually compelling way.
My only note is a purely personal one. This is the absolute first time I have ever read manga, and therefore the first time I had to navigate with the "right to left" part. Right to left pages was easy enough to get, but reading right to left inside the panels themselves was much harder.
July 28, 2019
Did they believe their lives were worthless (as so treated by the militaristic regime) or did they think their lives were only worthy in noble death, the euphemism for suicide?
The answer to this came across me as I was reading Being Mortal by Atul Gawande in parallel with this book. The author quotes from Philosophy of Loyalty by Josiah Royce.
"What more is it that we need in order to feel life is worthwhile? The answer he believed is that we all seek a cause beyond ourselves. This was to him an intrinsic human needs....seeing it (the cause) worth making sacrifices for, we give our lives meaning...this is loyalty, opposite of individualism".
"Human beings need loyalty. It does not necessarily produce happiness, and can even be painful, but we all require devotion to something more than ourselves for lives to be endurable. Without it we have only our desires to guide us, and they are fleeting, capricious, insatiable. They provide ultimately only torment".
"The only way death is not meaningless is to see yourself as part of something greater. If you don't, mortality is only a horror. But if you do, it is not. Loyalty solves the paradox of our ordinary existence, by showing us outside of ourselves, the cause which is to be served..."
Young lieutenants, who were back home mere peasants, gained power in the military, in the war that the power imbalance with the enemy was apparent. The regime's propaganda, instigated by the media, indoctrinated the uneducated youth that their death would be honored by the divine emperor.
"Gyokusai" is the collective form of "Junshi", which has a long history in Japan. As Susan Sontag points out in Regarding the Pain of Others, the Japanese sob about the seppuku of Lord Asano, as it is a tragedy, yet honorable. There may no longer be seppuku in Japan, but the culture in which we value loyalty persists. Loyalty is the double edged sword that gives us meaning for both life and death.
The answer to this came across me as I was reading Being Mortal by Atul Gawande in parallel with this book. The author quotes from Philosophy of Loyalty by Josiah Royce.
"What more is it that we need in order to feel life is worthwhile? The answer he believed is that we all seek a cause beyond ourselves. This was to him an intrinsic human needs....seeing it (the cause) worth making sacrifices for, we give our lives meaning...this is loyalty, opposite of individualism".
"Human beings need loyalty. It does not necessarily produce happiness, and can even be painful, but we all require devotion to something more than ourselves for lives to be endurable. Without it we have only our desires to guide us, and they are fleeting, capricious, insatiable. They provide ultimately only torment".
"The only way death is not meaningless is to see yourself as part of something greater. If you don't, mortality is only a horror. But if you do, it is not. Loyalty solves the paradox of our ordinary existence, by showing us outside of ourselves, the cause which is to be served..."
Young lieutenants, who were back home mere peasants, gained power in the military, in the war that the power imbalance with the enemy was apparent. The regime's propaganda, instigated by the media, indoctrinated the uneducated youth that their death would be honored by the divine emperor.
"Gyokusai" is the collective form of "Junshi", which has a long history in Japan. As Susan Sontag points out in Regarding the Pain of Others, the Japanese sob about the seppuku of Lord Asano, as it is a tragedy, yet honorable. There may no longer be seppuku in Japan, but the culture in which we value loyalty persists. Loyalty is the double edged sword that gives us meaning for both life and death.
December 3, 2013
In a similar vein to Studio Ghibli's film 'Grave Of The Fireflies', here a Japanese author takes a fictionalised version of events which played out repeatedly throughout WWII, gives it a cartoony styling, a firm grounding in realistic dialogue and human behaviour, then uses it to batter your emotions over the head.
Just because it's completely obvious from the first page what will happen doesn't make it any less brutal or heartbreaking when it does happen, and it's a credit to Mizuki that even with a cast as dazzlingly large as the one he has assembled (there's a who's who guide at the start of the book, which should tell you something) it is still hard watching the men and their fates.
Some of the artwork, especially that depicting scenery and the local wildlife is so minutely detailed and beautiful (in contrast to the cartoon humans) that I'm gobsmacked it's not digitally manipulated photography.
Just because it's completely obvious from the first page what will happen doesn't make it any less brutal or heartbreaking when it does happen, and it's a credit to Mizuki that even with a cast as dazzlingly large as the one he has assembled (there's a who's who guide at the start of the book, which should tell you something) it is still hard watching the men and their fates.
Some of the artwork, especially that depicting scenery and the local wildlife is so minutely detailed and beautiful (in contrast to the cartoon humans) that I'm gobsmacked it's not digitally manipulated photography.
June 1, 2016
Maybe you don't think you can do manga. the odd fantasy, the forced atmosphere of adolescence, the stylized bodies. Consider this a perfect test of whether you have issues with format or style: the bleak story of the Japanese forces defending a meaningless peninsula in the final days of World War 2. A company of people, seemingly vast but dispatched as fast as you become acquainted. Trying to keep their humanity in the face of hunger and disease and predators and bombs and officers and thirst and injuries and stupidity. The line work is simply amazing and Shigeru Mizuki is a master of his craft, doing amazing things with photographic recreation and finding so many ways to make various the bullet-headed soldiers whose identity is a thin veneer on the cusp of being smeared out of existence. A truly remarkable telling of that most unremarkable story: inadequate numbers facing an impossible task. If you enjoy stories of war, try this. If you abhor stories of war, try this.
July 21, 2018
I am very quickly becoming a fan of gekiga manga from the 1970s. These gritty adult tales are full of violence, war, and dark themes. Last month I read Retrofit’s The Troublemakers by Baron Yoshimoto and today I devoured Shigeru Mizuki’s excellent Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths.
What I liked about Mizuki’s 1973 masterpiece was the intermix of cartoony art with gorgeous highly detailed landscapes. The last 4 pages of the book are particularly gruesome and realistic and highly detailed but there’s no shortage of amazing landscape work. Every couple pages he throws in a jungle scene that has been painstakingly rendered.
As for the story, we get an insiders view (Mizuki served in WWII ) of the hell known as war. Malaria, starvation, grotesque wounds, abuse of the soldiers by their superiors.
As always, the production values are high coming from a Drawn and Quarterly book.
What I liked about Mizuki’s 1973 masterpiece was the intermix of cartoony art with gorgeous highly detailed landscapes. The last 4 pages of the book are particularly gruesome and realistic and highly detailed but there’s no shortage of amazing landscape work. Every couple pages he throws in a jungle scene that has been painstakingly rendered.
As for the story, we get an insiders view (Mizuki served in WWII ) of the hell known as war. Malaria, starvation, grotesque wounds, abuse of the soldiers by their superiors.
As always, the production values are high coming from a Drawn and Quarterly book.
March 4, 2015
I didn't think much of this until I got about halfway through and the attacks began. It was mostly soldiers hanging out at camp and getting slapped around. But once the order for the suicide attack was given, the book took an intense and serious turn that gripped me for the rest of the story. It's easy to judge from a western perspective, but mostly I just marveled at how different their culture is from ours and yet the soldiers struggled as much as I would have had I been in their position. I love getting the chance to read or watch war stories from the perspective of the "enemy." It's always a somber reminder that we're all human beings and we're killing those who are like us in so many ways.
March 5, 2019
Great book about the Japanese in World War 2 pacific region. My favourite author of all time, have many of his books in my home.
Want to read
July 29, 2019Introduction, by Frederik L. Schodt
Characters
--Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths
Notes
Afterword: Such Lengths To Hold That Place . . .
Q&A with Shigeru Mizuki
Characters
--Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths
Notes
Afterword: Such Lengths To Hold That Place . . .
Q&A with Shigeru Mizuki
March 15, 2020
Não é o típico livro de guerra e o início foi para mim algo confuso, muito irónico, sem grande propósito e desconexo. Muitas das passagens me fizeram rir porque efectivamente não tinham lógica dentro do cenário de guerra. Para isso, também contribuiu o traço do mangaká, que é bastante realista nos cenários e ao representar o inimigo, mas estilo "desenho animado" para representar a facção protagonista: militares japoneses. Talvez o intuito seja dizer que a guerra é estúpida e que no meio dos tiros e das batalhas há uma data de tarefas corriqueiras e domésticas realizadas sem as mínimas condições, perfeitamente evitáveis quando se está inserido na sociedade e feitas na iminência de se morrer a qualquer momento. Nada na guerra tem lógica, guerra que é em si pior que uma doença (citando uma das personagens). Na segunda metade do mangá, quando tudo dá errado, um dos manda-chuvas decide dar a ordem de ataque suicida, porque no seu entender (e na cultura, em geral) participar na guerra é uma glória e perder é uma vergonha, mais vale morrer, mesmo que isso não faça sentido nenhum. A história é baseada em factos e termina com o traço realista representando a morte que, supostamente, é nobre, mas que de nobre nada tem.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 29, 2020
Shigeru Mizukin "Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths" (Drawn & Quarterly, 2011) on tekijänsä omiin kokemuksiin "yhdeksänkymmentäprosenttisesti perustuva" albumi, jossa kuvataan japanilaisten rintamamiesten koettelemuksia toisen maailmansodan loppuhetkillä. Syystä tai toisesta sarjakuva toi minulle mieleen Stanley Kubrickin elokuvan Kunnian polut (1957).
Sävy on hyvin sodanvastainen. Sotiminen on turhaa ja tappio häämöttää, mutta kieroutunut kunniakäsitys pakottaa upseerit valitsemaan banzai-itsemurhahyökkäyksen amerikkalaisten linjoille. Käskyä ei sovi kyseenalaistaa, eikä sitä vastaan sovi nousta.
Sarjakuva on piirretty mielenkiintoisella tavalla: tarinan päähenkilöt on kuvattu pelkistetyn karikatyyrimäisiksi, kun taas hetkittäin viidakkotaustat ja amerikkalaisten maihinnousualukset saattavat olla hyvinkin huoliteltuja ja realistisia.
Tekijän toista maailmansotaa käsittelevistä sarjakuvista on käännetty englanniksi myös hieno Shigeru Mizuki’s Hitler.
Sävy on hyvin sodanvastainen. Sotiminen on turhaa ja tappio häämöttää, mutta kieroutunut kunniakäsitys pakottaa upseerit valitsemaan banzai-itsemurhahyökkäyksen amerikkalaisten linjoille. Käskyä ei sovi kyseenalaistaa, eikä sitä vastaan sovi nousta.
Sarjakuva on piirretty mielenkiintoisella tavalla: tarinan päähenkilöt on kuvattu pelkistetyn karikatyyrimäisiksi, kun taas hetkittäin viidakkotaustat ja amerikkalaisten maihinnousualukset saattavat olla hyvinkin huoliteltuja ja realistisia.
Tekijän toista maailmansotaa käsittelevistä sarjakuvista on käännetty englanniksi myös hieno Shigeru Mizuki’s Hitler.
June 18, 2021
манґа-версія "На західному фронті без змін", тільки куди менш оптимістична. 1944 рік, Японія фактично вже програла війну, ресурси вичерпано, але керівництво країни відмовляється визнати неминучу поразку. Оборона острову Нова Британія показана здебільшого очами простих солдат та молодших офіцерів, і в тих очах війна позбавлена як благородства так і ґлузду.
April 1, 2016
Shigeru Mizuki's seminal work "Onward Towards a Noble Death" is a "90% true" retelling of his experiences with the Imperial Japanese Army in WW II. For such a grim subject, I was struck by how caricature-like Mizuki drew the soldiers. The combination of realistic and detailed backdrops against these cartoonish figurines were used effectively to play out the tragi-comedy that ensues.
The endless days and the routine suffering for the soldiers stationed on an Indonesian island was so casually portrayed, it becomes comical. The casual violence at the hands of seniors - getting routinely thwacked around just to keep them in line, the endless days of toil on meager rations and the small incidents of petty revenge are retold wonderfully.
Keep in mind though, this is no revisionist history. Within the first few pages, we have a captain who literally forces his unit to visit the brothel. The soldiers trudge on, only to find fifty odd of their comrades waiting in line. Keen on fulfilling their assigned 'task' before night, the crowd beg and cajole the sex workers to carry on, casually throwing in that they get to go off the island on the next ship, but the soldiers' have to die here. Did the author consider that the workers may have been forced into prostitution? Maybe not, but as I said, these are events purely from the soldier's perspective.
For all their caricature-like figures, the characters were three dimensional. The camaraderie between recruits from the same hometown, the swapping of stories from back home. As combat became more and more inevitable, the stoic and 'demonish' superiors showed signs of humanness - the drunken singing of raucous songs at parties, getting their portraits drawn to be sent home, the surprising kindness of giving a recruit their own shoes.
History bears testament to all that followed in the closing years of WW II - the 'bushido' propaganda by the government, the mass suicide attacks carried out to cripple the strength of the Allied armies. Yet, it was interesting to get a perspective from the other side. The lone voice that suggests guerrilla tactics to hold the plateau is drowned out by ever - insistent orders by the seniors following a bizarre line of thought. Was it due to the haphazard, in the heat of the moment decision making by the seniors? Or was it truly the fervent wish of misguided patriots to give all they had to evade defeat for one more day? Or was it due to the higher line of command pressurizing them into 'not coming back', knowing they would have to make an example out of them to other serving units? The questions to the end, remain unanswered, as the caricature-like soldiers fall like chess pawns.
Perhaps, that was the reason behind Mr.Mizuki retelling the events thirty long years after WW II. That war has no answers, and the survivors are left in limbo seeking answers to the fallen "who have no mouths".
The endless days and the routine suffering for the soldiers stationed on an Indonesian island was so casually portrayed, it becomes comical. The casual violence at the hands of seniors - getting routinely thwacked around just to keep them in line, the endless days of toil on meager rations and the small incidents of petty revenge are retold wonderfully.
Keep in mind though, this is no revisionist history. Within the first few pages, we have a captain who literally forces his unit to visit the brothel. The soldiers trudge on, only to find fifty odd of their comrades waiting in line. Keen on fulfilling their assigned 'task' before night, the crowd beg and cajole the sex workers to carry on, casually throwing in that they get to go off the island on the next ship, but the soldiers' have to die here. Did the author consider that the workers may have been forced into prostitution? Maybe not, but as I said, these are events purely from the soldier's perspective.
For all their caricature-like figures, the characters were three dimensional. The camaraderie between recruits from the same hometown, the swapping of stories from back home. As combat became more and more inevitable, the stoic and 'demonish' superiors showed signs of humanness - the drunken singing of raucous songs at parties, getting their portraits drawn to be sent home, the surprising kindness of giving a recruit their own shoes.
History bears testament to all that followed in the closing years of WW II - the 'bushido' propaganda by the government, the mass suicide attacks carried out to cripple the strength of the Allied armies. Yet, it was interesting to get a perspective from the other side. The lone voice that suggests guerrilla tactics to hold the plateau is drowned out by ever - insistent orders by the seniors following a bizarre line of thought. Was it due to the haphazard, in the heat of the moment decision making by the seniors? Or was it truly the fervent wish of misguided patriots to give all they had to evade defeat for one more day? Or was it due to the higher line of command pressurizing them into 'not coming back', knowing they would have to make an example out of them to other serving units? The questions to the end, remain unanswered, as the caricature-like soldiers fall like chess pawns.
Perhaps, that was the reason behind Mr.Mizuki retelling the events thirty long years after WW II. That war has no answers, and the survivors are left in limbo seeking answers to the fallen "who have no mouths".
November 29, 2015
There will be so many better reviews than I can write, here.
The book is a fictionalized auto-biographical account of WWII from the Japanese soldier's perspective in the South Pacific.
Dark, sometimes darkly funny, utterly hopeless, and the story of men utterly at the mercy of their superiors and cultural dogma.
A few moments jumped out where the idea of honor took precedence over humanity and strategy. A comrade dying in the mud is subjected to further agony when his cohorts chop off his finger with a shovel to prove he died in battle. A clever strategic decision is completely thrown out in favor of charging into battle because the word "retreat" was used.
Because it's based on reality, you're not getting out of this alive. It's a downhill slide to the end.
A couple key moments that stuck with me:
Death by fish was probably the most horrible, ironic, and yet darkly funny scene. Probably one of the most "what the f@#$" ways to die I've read in a long time.
The resentment of the ill treatment towards soldiers causing subversive behavior, and that behavior cruelly backfiring on one character in the "rice incident."
Recommended for those who are interested in the Japanese perspective of the war, but I'd suggest Barefoot Gen first, given the choice.
The book is a fictionalized auto-biographical account of WWII from the Japanese soldier's perspective in the South Pacific.
Dark, sometimes darkly funny, utterly hopeless, and the story of men utterly at the mercy of their superiors and cultural dogma.
A few moments jumped out where the idea of honor took precedence over humanity and strategy. A comrade dying in the mud is subjected to further agony when his cohorts chop off his finger with a shovel to prove he died in battle. A clever strategic decision is completely thrown out in favor of charging into battle because the word "retreat" was used.
Because it's based on reality, you're not getting out of this alive. It's a downhill slide to the end.
A couple key moments that stuck with me:
Death by fish was probably the most horrible, ironic, and yet darkly funny scene. Probably one of the most "what the f@#$" ways to die I've read in a long time.
The resentment of the ill treatment towards soldiers causing subversive behavior, and that behavior cruelly backfiring on one character in the "rice incident."
Recommended for those who are interested in the Japanese perspective of the war, but I'd suggest Barefoot Gen first, given the choice.
April 6, 2017
A war novel that does a lot of very different things to capture what it was like as a Japanese soldier in New Britain. In the afterword, Mizuki says this was 90% based on his experience there, and I think that's what gives it the peculiar narrative movement that sticks out to me.
It doesn't follow character arcs, really. People's death seem random and haphazard, and the predicament often seems absurd and comedic. Comedic in the most fatalistic and absurd ways. It's the kind of humor that sort of depresses you and connects you more to the people involved in the novel.
The art does interesting things, too. The living are drawn very cartoonishly, but any violence is drawn with strong realism. Scenes of death and mayhem are extremely detailed and even gruesome, and these are often juxtaposed with the cartoonish faces of the character living through the events.
There's an unreality to the whole novel, which is likely fitting, given how absurd the mundane and serious are treated here. But that's how most war novels and films are.
It doesn't follow character arcs, really. People's death seem random and haphazard, and the predicament often seems absurd and comedic. Comedic in the most fatalistic and absurd ways. It's the kind of humor that sort of depresses you and connects you more to the people involved in the novel.
The art does interesting things, too. The living are drawn very cartoonishly, but any violence is drawn with strong realism. Scenes of death and mayhem are extremely detailed and even gruesome, and these are often juxtaposed with the cartoonish faces of the character living through the events.
There's an unreality to the whole novel, which is likely fitting, given how absurd the mundane and serious are treated here. But that's how most war novels and films are.
December 13, 2020
(4 of 5 for the shitty job that Japanese conscripts needed to endure)
There is a lot of WW2 stories about Allies, especially about Americans, they know how to utilize the dama of WW2. There ale fewer stories about Axis and even less about Japanese soldiers. This graphic novel allows you to get inside a WW2 in the pacific theatre of war and get you the idea of how "that evil ferocious japs" saw their army duties. And without any doubts it was awful. Onward Towards our Noble Deaths is a tragicomical scenery. There is death, sometimes very cruel and slow one lurking everywhere. And way before first enemy soldier will step on the beach of the guarded island...
Mizuki did a great job in depicting that, and his art helped to create that tragicomical contrast - cartoonish characters with realistic surroundings. Without that, it would be very depressive, but Mizuki managed to create the specific balance which is not that dreadful for the reader's perception. This is excellent comics/manga, which both creates amusement for the reader and gives a fairly accurate historic lesson.
There is a lot of WW2 stories about Allies, especially about Americans, they know how to utilize the dama of WW2. There ale fewer stories about Axis and even less about Japanese soldiers. This graphic novel allows you to get inside a WW2 in the pacific theatre of war and get you the idea of how "that evil ferocious japs" saw their army duties. And without any doubts it was awful. Onward Towards our Noble Deaths is a tragicomical scenery. There is death, sometimes very cruel and slow one lurking everywhere. And way before first enemy soldier will step on the beach of the guarded island...
Mizuki did a great job in depicting that, and his art helped to create that tragicomical contrast - cartoonish characters with realistic surroundings. Without that, it would be very depressive, but Mizuki managed to create the specific balance which is not that dreadful for the reader's perception. This is excellent comics/manga, which both creates amusement for the reader and gives a fairly accurate historic lesson.
May 6, 2016
Flawless storytelling meets stunningly drawn panels in this tale about Japanese soldiers stuck on an island during the second world war. The book's rich detailing of the island's flora and fauna and its attention to the realities of war (when Japanese solders run over an enemy camp, they discover chocolates and food that they hadn't eaten in years and they can't stop stuffing themselves -- to hell with the war!) makes it much more realistic than most other graphic novels.
Mizuki channelizes his anger at his own war experience (he lost an arm in WW2) to write and draw a book that should serve as a potent testament to the futility of war for many future generations to come -- not only because its such an effective statement but also because it comes from the "other side" of WW2. This books needs to be read and re-read and it needs to be discovered by more readers.
Mizuki channelizes his anger at his own war experience (he lost an arm in WW2) to write and draw a book that should serve as a potent testament to the futility of war for many future generations to come -- not only because its such an effective statement but also because it comes from the "other side" of WW2. This books needs to be read and re-read and it needs to be discovered by more readers.
January 10, 2012
Fucking. Crazy. Shit.
At the beginning it's "Why haven't you reported to the brothel yet?" and we all have a good laugh... Then they inch the curtain back a little, and from then on the curtain never stops moving. Usually, the soldiers are cartoony, the backgrounds are realistic. But every now and then -- and especially near the end -- he goes all realism on us, and draws the soldiers more like they really were. No onomatopoeia or speech bubbles to be found...
This was a scary realistic book. People die at random. The upper brass have no regard for the lives of their soldiers. And it's the "little things," like sex, disease, and food, that are on the minds of all the soldiers, even near the end. I'm surprised more reviewers haven't taken this book seriously.
At the beginning it's "Why haven't you reported to the brothel yet?" and we all have a good laugh... Then they inch the curtain back a little, and from then on the curtain never stops moving. Usually, the soldiers are cartoony, the backgrounds are realistic. But every now and then -- and especially near the end -- he goes all realism on us, and draws the soldiers more like they really were. No onomatopoeia or speech bubbles to be found...
This was a scary realistic book. People die at random. The upper brass have no regard for the lives of their soldiers. And it's the "little things," like sex, disease, and food, that are on the minds of all the soldiers, even near the end. I'm surprised more reviewers haven't taken this book seriously.
March 10, 2017
Everything Shigeru Mizuki writes and draws is amazing. He has this unique way of telling his stories, in this one he managed to get us to empathize with the poor Japanese foot soldiers stuck on the Pacific islands with their idiot commanders. It gives the Japanese soldier a face, a soul... Until this moment he was just an unseen face, relentless, willing to kill the American soldier no matter what, here we see the poor peasant boy who has no willing to fight any further but he doesnt know any better and has no power to do anything against the irrational orders he has been issued. The critique of the Japanese suicide culture was most important if done by a Japanese himself. Thank you Shigeru for giving us this perspective...
August 26, 2015
Do not expect any sort of happy ending, some kind of moral satisfaction, at the end of this book. It is first and foremost a story about war, and the men made to fight in them. It is violent, vulgar, bloody, and unforgiving. You will probably walk away from ONWARDS TOWARDS OUR NOBLE DEATHS with a sense of futility, a sense of anger, and yet also an inch of comprehension for those soldiers made to die in the name of gyokusai. And if so, then manga-ka Mizuki has succeeded in his mission with this "90 percent" autobiographical work.
February 21, 2019
Marcha para a morte! não é uma leitura fácil de engolir. E não seria suposto sê-lo. Mizuki põe a nu o absurdo do militarismo, apontando o dedo de sobrevivente a um período negro da história do Japão moderno. A sua narrativa não dá tréguas, e a estupidez humana aviltada na guerra é evidenciada de forma impiedosa. Todos os personagens estão condenados à partida, pela sua própria condição de humanos apanhados numa engrenagem ideológica cega. Resenha completa na H-alt: Marcha para a Morte!.
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