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ceruseeI'm going to be really clear: seeing people attempt to justify the American use of the atomic bomb fills me with such revulsion for them that I want to throw up. Jokes about wanting to punch people in the face aside, I am a pacifist, and I am a Universalist, so there's no need to accuse me of being either. Lately, I've been lulled by an excess of humanistic sanity into forgetting how much emotional and intellectual energy Americans in particular expend in convincing themselves and the world that it's okay to nuke human beings, because what the hell, civilians die in war anyway.
Okay! Now that that's out of the way, and I've hopefully forestalled any kind of response in my LiveJournal bearing a nauseating pseudo-historical justification for using nuclear weapons on cities, check this out--an article about the work of Shigeru Mizuki, a Japanese soldier who fought in WWII, and afterwards became a prolific manga artist who shared his wartime experiences in their full complexity, including the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers, the devaluing of human life, and the brutality endured by Japanese soldiers from their own commanders. The article's fascinating, but don't forget to scroll down past the notes to check out samples of his work. I would love to see some of his body of work commercially translated into English, although it seems unlikely to happen, unless a boutique publisher like Drawn and Quarterly or Fantagraphics was interested. It's a damn shame. I realize nuanced war literature is not exactly a crowd-pleaser, but I think it's important that it be available.
(Yes, I know VIZ translated Adolf, for which they deserve mad props, but that was Tezuka, and it was the 80s, and it's out of print now.)
This bit put a lump in the back of my throat: "Mizuki, who unlike most prominent revisionists actually experienced the horrors of war firsthand, sees no contradiction between a love for Japan and its traditions, and a willingness to look honestly at the nation’s war history. His war stories contain many shocking images, but he still reflects, “… on the way back to Japan from Rabaul, the moment that I saw Mount Fuji from the sea, I thought, ‘I’m back’, and I felt, ‘I’m Japanese’.” It's a point of view a lot of people have trouble understanding--that you can disagree with your country's actions, even be sickened and disheartened by them, and still love your country. It's a powerful thing, to reconcile your love and idealism--this is my home, the country where my heart is--with bloody horror, particularly in the case of soldiers, for whom bloody horror, endured or perpetrated, is not a morally abstract issue, but an immediate physical reality which will become a lifelong memory. It's complicated and hard.
By the way, even though it fucks me up that America dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan--and things we've done since, things we are doing right now--this is my home, the country where my heart is; here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine.
Okay! Now that that's out of the way, and I've hopefully forestalled any kind of response in my LiveJournal bearing a nauseating pseudo-historical justification for using nuclear weapons on cities, check this out--an article about the work of Shigeru Mizuki, a Japanese soldier who fought in WWII, and afterwards became a prolific manga artist who shared his wartime experiences in their full complexity, including the atrocities committed by Japanese soldiers, the devaluing of human life, and the brutality endured by Japanese soldiers from their own commanders. The article's fascinating, but don't forget to scroll down past the notes to check out samples of his work. I would love to see some of his body of work commercially translated into English, although it seems unlikely to happen, unless a boutique publisher like Drawn and Quarterly or Fantagraphics was interested. It's a damn shame. I realize nuanced war literature is not exactly a crowd-pleaser, but I think it's important that it be available.
(Yes, I know VIZ translated Adolf, for which they deserve mad props, but that was Tezuka, and it was the 80s, and it's out of print now.)
This bit put a lump in the back of my throat: "Mizuki, who unlike most prominent revisionists actually experienced the horrors of war firsthand, sees no contradiction between a love for Japan and its traditions, and a willingness to look honestly at the nation’s war history. His war stories contain many shocking images, but he still reflects, “… on the way back to Japan from Rabaul, the moment that I saw Mount Fuji from the sea, I thought, ‘I’m back’, and I felt, ‘I’m Japanese’.” It's a point of view a lot of people have trouble understanding--that you can disagree with your country's actions, even be sickened and disheartened by them, and still love your country. It's a powerful thing, to reconcile your love and idealism--this is my home, the country where my heart is--with bloody horror, particularly in the case of soldiers, for whom bloody horror, endured or perpetrated, is not a morally abstract issue, but an immediate physical reality which will become a lifelong memory. It's complicated and hard.
By the way, even though it fucks me up that America dropped the atomic bomb twice on Japan--and things we've done since, things we are doing right now--this is my home, the country where my heart is; here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine.