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Showa:1926-1939 A History of Japan by Mizuki Shigeru
| Showa:1926-1939 A History of Japan by Mizuki Shigeru [message #274395] |
Thu, 27 November 2014 19:42 |
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Again this is from Drawn & Quarterly and the price is the same as
the second volume.
The period covered is from 1923(Great Kanto Earthquake) and actually Showa 1
begins in late 1926. Showa 2 started a few weeks later as it was done
according
to the old calendrical assumptions.
Shigero was born in the last year of Taisho and was a year old when
Showa
was enthroned. He is truely a man of Showa in a way that few remaining can
manage, growing up in the Pre-WW II period and experiencing all the problems
and triumphs of the Japanese nation during the rest of Showa.
The art is strong and the story is personal as well as national.
While he mentions a lot of turning points in the relationship of
Japan with
the West he misses a few items such as unequal treatment in dividing
the spoils of WW I and other conflicts which basically amounted to
treatment of the Japanese nation as a 2nd class nation and the Japanese
people as a second class race. The USA passed laws severally llimiting
Japanese
immigration to the USA for example and the refusal of the League of Nations
to insert language rejecting racial bias in its documents.
But the economic uncertainty of the times with Japan in a depressed
state
before the USA's great depression is set out clearly. This helped empower
the fascistic forces in Japan which were deathly afraid of the people coming
to power.
I have read a few books about this period of Japanese history.
The Taisho emperor was a sick man most of his life. Democratic
movement flourished and laws were made against Communism
and Anarchy.* It was in Showa though when mass arrests were made
of dissenters.
The nation tried to fix its economic woes by expansion to the Asian
mainland. In 1910 they had taken Korea to administer it for the benefit
of the Japanese. Then in the 1930s they tried to annex Manchuria and
re-created it as a client state with PuYi, last Emperor of China as the
ruler.
And I have to say that at home in Japan things went from bad to
worse steadily. Jobs were in short supply despite the fact that the
Army had taken many men to fight.
But Manchuria was not enough. They had to invade China as well
and the body count went very high. Some of the responsible parties
were executed as war criminals after WW II. It did not stop the
deprivation of the people in Japan though many very poor folks
were shipped to Manchuria to homestead land there.
The West responded with boycotts and with trade embargoes.
So if you are into serious manga read this book.
And note that this is the 1st of 4 volumes. I reviewed the second
volume last week and hope I get to read the rest of them soon.
bliss
And if you want to be serious about history in Japan then read
this book among others and learn how the consensual nature of
the Japanese society was used to control the dissenters.
*Thought Control in Prewar Japan by Richard H. Mitchell, fairly
complete review of Meji and Taisho attitudes with the changes to
the law in 1925, the early emphasis on communists and anarchists,
Liberals who considered the Emperor as a organ of the state rather
than the state as being essentially the Emperor, finally on right
wingers who did not hew to the militaristic line in Showa.
b.
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