A sweeping yet intimate portrait of World War II's legacy in Japan
Showa 1944-1953: A History of Japan continues Eisner award-winning author Shigeru Mizuki's historical and autobiographical account of Japanese life in the twentieth century. In this volume, the tail-end of the Pacific War and its devastating consequences upon the author and his compatriots loom large. Two rival navies engage in a deadly game of feint and thrust, waging a series of ruthless military campaigns across the Pacific islands. From Guadalcanal to Okinawa, Japan slowly loses ground. When the United States unleashes the atomic bomb-then still a new and now enduringly terrible weapon-it is the ultimate, definitive blow. The catastrophic fallout from both explosions surpasses the limits of popular imagination.