Today manga (Japanese comics) pervades Japanese society and reaches a readership that spans from children to adults. Among manga, the works of Tezuka Osamu occupies a special place in the heart of the Japanese masses because Tezuka is considered as the God of Comics. Although Tezuka passed away in 1989, his manga are still widely read inside and outside of Japan. Thus Tezukas manga could potentially influence peoples perception of Japan.
In this thesis, I conduct a discourse analysis of Tezukas manga on World War II. Based on Homi Bhabhas definition of nation as a set of narratives, I explore the means used by Tezuka to challenge the official narrative of World War II. My goal is to demonstrate that the States narration of a nation is volatile.
I argue that Tezukas World War II manga both challenges and strengthens the official narrative of the wartime Japanese nation. Tezuka challenges the official narrative by giving voice to those who were absent of this narrative, mainly children and war orphans, and depicting the brutality of Japanese officers against civilians.
Tezuka also challenges the mainstream narrative by presenting the U.S. occupation of Japan as a neo-colonization period during which American soldiers abused their power. This denunciation of Japanese suffering stands at the core of Tezukas constant call for international peace.
Yet this focus on the Japanese suffering also leads to an almost disappearance of the Imperial armys non-Japanese victims. In other words, Tezuka strengthens the official victimhood narrative because he merely addresses the issue of Japanese war crimes. This ambiguity of Tezukas narrative exemplifies Bhabhas idea of individuals agency in the definition of a nation.
By examining the representation of World War II in popular culture medium such as manga, this thesis also provides an in-depth understanding of Tezukas works as well as an insight about the ongoing debate surrounding Japans wartime responsibility.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04142010-164843 |
| Date | 01 June 2010 |
| Creators | Feuillassier, Rémi |
| Contributors | Akiko Hashimoto, Dennis Hart, Brenda Jordan |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04142010-164843/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
Page generated in 0.0024 seconds