a day ago
- Entertainment
- Asahi Shimbun
Noted manga artist finally opens up about war experience
Having spent part of his childhood in northern China, manga maestro Tetsuya Chiba knew firsthand about the horrors of war and its aftermath. Yet, he ignored the subject for many years.
'I never thought my memory of war would become material for my manga,' said the creator of 'Ashita no Joe' (Tomorrow's Joe).
'War is nothing but sadness as well as ghastly and barbaric. I considered manga to be something that would energize the reader and allow them to lead a good life from tomorrow like the protagonist.'
But Chiba, 86, now firmly believes that manga has the power to build peace. It took him decades to reach that point.
For years after making his debut as a manga artist at age 17, Chiba did not dip into his wartime memories despite his experiences in what was then Manchuria. But his thinking changed around the mid-1960s when war manga became all the rage.
'All the works depicted the protagonist as a hero,' said Chiba, the first manga artist to be awarded the Order of Culture. 'They shot down enemy fighters, sank battleships and returned to base with a sense of fulfillment. That really caught me by surprise.'
He recalled thinking that if children read violent manga, they would get the mistaken impression that war was cool.
Between 1963 and 1965, he serialized 'Shiden Kai no Taka' (The hawk of Shiden Kai fighters).
The protagonist, Jotaro Taki, was a pilot of the Shiden Kai fighter of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
NEW REALISM
What made Chiba's works stand out was the way he depicted not only the successes and heartaches encountered by the Japanese pilots, but also the American families who lost loved ones due to the bombings by the Japanese planes.
He wanted to show that war is a tragedy for all sides.
'Even if I say I know about war, it was only a little since I was a child,' the artist said.
Before drawing the manga, Chiba made a point of doing extensive research, visiting bases around Japan and reading the accounts of soldiers who survived as well as those who died while still young.
He said it was a heartbreaking experience.
When writing the war manga 'Shiden Kai no Taka,' Chiba decided the protagonist, Taki, needed to have a girlfriend as well as a mother he cherished dearly.
'I thought about what kind of life he would lead,' Chiba said. 'I thought he would likely become a good elementary school teacher. But it became difficult when I kept thinking about it, and there were nights when I could not get to sleep.'
In the end, Taki is ordered on a suicide kamikaze mission.
'Even if he had a goal in life, he must perish by becoming a human bomb at the order of his superior, even if it was for the good of the nation,' Chiba said.
Even after drawing that manga, Chiba never touched upon his own wartime experience.
He remembered being thrown into the chaos of the war when it ended on Aug. 15, 1945, as local Chinese began rioting with the approach of Soviet forces. It was also bitterly cold.
He felt close to death all the time.
Chiba recalled playing with a friend only to find he had died during a sudden attack while right next to him and that flies had gathered over the body.
He managed to board a ship taking Japanese home and noted that many passengers died on the voyage to Japan. The bodies were wrapped in cloth and dumped overboard.
Those images remained etched in Chiba's mind, even when he was busy drawing several serialized manga simultaneously.
The depiction in 'Ashita no Joe' of a boxer trying to make his weight before a fight coincided with Chiba's own feelings of hunger aboard the ship that brought him back to Japan.
Childhood memories of the war returned when Chiba drew scenes for his manga about the Korean War.
He said his experiences in Manchuria prior to returning to Japan gave him the footing to flourish as a manga artist.
A Chinese friend of his father's allowed Chiba and his siblings to live secretly in an attic. Chiba came up with stories and drawings to entertain his younger brothers.
'That experience created the foundation for me as a manga artist,' Chiba said. 'I realized then that everything was connected. By that I mean during and after the war.'
In his current serialization 'Hinemosunotari Nikki' (Diary at a languid pace), Chiba has drawn upon those war experiences.
Due to failing eyesight, Chiba said he needed a magnifying glass to draw.
With every deadline, he thought it might be the last manga he ever drew. But he took satisfaction in knowing that noted manga artists such as Shigeru Mizuki and Takashi Yanase drew well into their 90s. So, he reckons he has a few more years left.
Chiba is also impressed by the works of younger manga artists who have created works based on the wartime experiences of their parents and grandparents.
'It is very difficult for those with no direct knowledge of war to research and draw in detail,' Chiba said. 'I am heartened and grateful that there are younger artists willing to take on that difficult task.'
In his view, manga can contribute to a better world.
'If manga artists around the world drew works about what they thought about war, and if children who did not know about war read those manga, I am hopeful that when they grow up, they will share good ideas,' he said.
