Manga Wars, Aso, Tamogami, and Progressive Alternatives
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Volume 7 | Issue 17 | Number 2 | Article ID 3116 | Apr 12, 2009 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Nationalism and Anti-Americanism in Japan – Manga Wars, Aso, Tamogami, and Progressive Alternatives Matthew Penney Nationalism and Anti-Americanism in Japan – Manga Wars, Aso, Tamogami, and Progressive Alternatives Matthew Penney In 1967, Astroboy, the Japanese animation and comic book icon, died protecting a North Vietnamese village from American bombers. [Manga images should be read in Japanese manner from RIGHT to LEFT][1] 1 7 | 17 | 2 APJ | JF After the carnage, Astroboy’s body was set adrift in the Mekong, 2 7 | 17 | 2 APJ | JF authors in many countries, not least the United States, have represented the US in critical ways. Peter Katzenstein has described representations which criticize the United States for failing to live up to its often lofty human rights rhetoric, as “liberal anti-Americanism”.[2] While opposed to American wars and other international actions, it must be asked, however, if “anti-American” is the best label for categorizing such writing. In Japan, critical commentary has often been combined with deep reflection on Japan’s own human rights record, past and present. This type of discourse, at its best, seeks a universal standard from which the mass killing of civilians and other forms of violence can be condemned. InAstroboy , Tezuka’s critique of the American practice of indiscriminate bombing is part of his life- long condemnation of militarism and organized violence, which included probing looks at Japan’s war record. Criticizing American atrocities in this way is quite distinct from using the US as Despite this plot twist, Tezuka Osamu, a convenient target to reify Japanese Japan’s “God of Comics”, ensured that his nationalist images. For Tezuka, the most famous creation was brought back critique of US destruction of Vietnam was to life the following week. This narrative part and parcel of his dissection of dodge did not, however, take away from Japan’s war crimes. the powerful condemnation of America’s campaign of indiscriminate bombing that Japanese popular culture, however, also Tezuka conjured. By locating Astro on the sees the contextless use of anti- side of the bombed, Tezuka sought to Americanism and vague but nonetheless build both outrage at the practice of meaningful images that glorify Japan`s th indiscriminate bombing, and sympathy 20 century wars. Morikawa Joji’s Hajime for the victims. no Ippo (Fighting Spirit) is a popular boxing manga currently running in Throughout the postwar period,leading boy’s weekly Shonen Magazine. progressive artists, directors, andIn one chapter, an elderly Japanese 3 7 | 17 | 2 APJ | JF trainer recalls his youth during the American occupation. The future trainer, Gen, and his friend encounter an American officer – a man they had seen brutally beating a much smaller Japanese boxer in an earlier exhibition match – chasing down a young woman in his jeep, The pair are no match for the American, but they begin a strict training regimen in hopes of challenging him in the ring. Morikawa represents their “passionate feelings” with a war image, 4 7 | 17 | 2 APJ | JF predictable brutality. Readers are treated to “x-ray” drawings of the American’s ribs and internal organs being destroyed by the smaller Japanese fighter’s blows, The boxers were not pilots. They did not fight in the war and Japan had no air power early in the occupation, all aircraft having been destroyed following the surrender. This is a fantasy image included at the beginning of a chapter and has nothing to do with the narrative. Morikawa says nothing about the war It very clearly, however, relates a vaguely and nothing substantive about the conceived “war” with postwar acts of Japanese-American relationship. These defending Japanese honor. There are images are more or less a dead zone of grounds on which American occupation era behavior can be criticized, buthistorical awareness. Evident, however, glorifying Japanese bravado in the Asia- is a lingering sense of Japan’s Pacific War is a distraction at best. victimization at American hands. The manga expresses frustration at Japan’s When the final battle takes place,defeat and a sense that Japan was Japanese revenge is carried out with victimized in war – with hundreds of 5 7 | 17 | 2 APJ | JF thousands of civilians killed in incendiary to pursue a dynamic Japan-centric and atomic bombings – and during an conception of national interest and occupation that stripped away theinternational contribution on the part of nation’s sovereignty. Even in works of politicians who have exacerbated two popular culture that show little historical disturbing trends in the country’s public awareness, the past can be an open discourse. wound. The first is the increased appearance of A public opinion poll conducted jointly by vague, anti-American images like those Gallup and Japan`s Yomiuri Shimbun in employed by Morikawa. In the absence of November of 2008 revealed that positive a clear political vision of what “national feelings toward America were at their interests”, “reform” and Japan’s future lowest ebb in decades with only 32% of “international contribution” should look Japanese respondents saying that they like independent of American influence, “trust” America compared to 67% of many popular creators have lashed out at Americans who express “trust” foran alliance that they see as predicated on Japan.[3] Rather than being channeled one-sided bullying. They most often do constructively, such as throughthis not with reasoned criticism and the discussion of the nature of the Japanese- articulation of alternatives, but by American relationship, however, these reproducing neo-nationalist tropes, feelings are instead manifested inlampooning the status quo, or with examples like Morikawa’s war image and simplistic schadenfreude. Gags and simplistic “vengeance through boxing” fleeting images of “victory”, often ultra- narrative. violent, over American bullies are marketed as anti-American fantasies to This article attempts to shed light on the audiences who face a sense of tremendous rifts that exist inpowerlessness within the Japanese- contemporary Japanese visions ofAmerican alliance. The second negative America. It sets pop culture anti-trend is the revisionist history of former Americanism in the context of theAir Self Defense Force Chief of Staff inability of conservatives like current Tamogami Toshio and an array of neo- Prime Minister Aso Taro to articulate a nationalist ideologues that he counts as clear and compelling vision for Japan’s influences or associates. Confrontational future. The United States frequently rightwing ideas, including abrasive anti- pressures allies to subordinate their own American rhetoric, are also empowered interests to American priorities. Some by the lack of a clear future vision at American partners, however, find ways to Japan’s political center. say “no”. For Japan, uncritically supporting each of America’s wars since Tezuka’s style of principled perspective, the occupation, even dispatching Self- however, has not vanished and there is Defense Forces into a disastrous venture also a significant progressive like the Iraq War, illustrates a lack of will counterpoint to neo-nationalist positions. 6 7 | 17 | 2 APJ | JF A variety of alternatives to subservience, Sometimes the popular culture backlash to confrontational neo-nationalism, and to consists of spoof and is relatively benign. attempts to glorify Japan’s wartime In the popular fighting mangaHanma militarism, are being expressed. What Baki which runs in the irreverent youth sets the progressives apart is context. In manga digest Shonen Champion[4], representations of the past, when points Japanese martial artist Hanma Yujiro, the like war crimes of the United States are “strongest man on earth”, effectively raised, they are most often discussed reverses the common imagining of the alongside, not instead of Japanese Japanese-American alliance by forcing atrocities. This forms the basis for a Bush to chauffeur him, broad humanist critique of the type of [Please note, some of these pictures violence and militarism that other works contain disturbing images and strong glorify. When the current relationship language] between Japan and the United States is criticized, alternatives to dependence and vivid imaginings of future bi- and multi- lateral cooperation are also presented. While the present political elite may pay little attention to this form of expression, it enjoys a powerful position in intellectual discourse, scholarship, and non-fiction publishing, and circulates popularly in many forms including fiction, film and manga. Anti-Americanism in Popular Culture While Japanese readers may smile at this Negative images of America in Japanese ironic if silly image, some depictions of popular culture became more widespread the Japanese-American alliance in recent during the Bush years. The vast majority manga move further into the realm of of works that take an anti-American shocking anti-Americanism fantasies. stance do not call for severance of the alliance or nuclear armament; theyKarate Shokoshi Kohinata Minoru (Little simply evoke a profound dissatisfaction Karate Lord Kohinata Minoru) is a and sense of insult, due as much to the popular karate manga by Baba Yasushi Japanese government’s lack of initiative that runs in Kodansha’s Young Magazine, as to any action of the United States. a mainstream digest for young adults that Unfortunately, these representations often sells in excess of 1,000,000 copies often share with the political elite a lack weekly.[5] Early in the series, the cast of context and an absence of clear, journeys to Okinawa – the birthplace of reasoned alternatives to the status quo. karate – for a training camp. What they 7 7 | 17 | 2 APJ | JF find, however, are violent American are turned but no serious points about troops. In volume 5, one of the female sexual violence are made. In the end, the characters is accosted, male leads come to save the day and the Americans are beaten up.