Kyoto International Manga Museum

MANGA AND WAR

This year marks a turning point as the 70th year since Japan was defeated in the Pacific War.

The manga that blossomed in post-war culture was strongly influenced by personal war experiences and depicts various 'wars'. For those of use living in the postwar period, a close analysis of numerous 'war manga' provides hints which allow us to consider how personal war experiences and their transmission has been faced up until this point in time, and should be faced in the future.

Organization : Kyoto International Manga Museum, 
Kyoto Seika University International Manga Research Center
Under the supervision of Kure Tomofusa (commentator) and Yoshimura Kazuma (Professor of Kyoto Seika University, Faculty of Manga)

Exhibition Contents

This exhibition presents 6 themes; 'Atomic bomb', 'Special attacks', 'Manchuria', 'Okinawa', 'Voices of the War Generation' and 'The Role of Manga' structured into 4 quadrants, and introduces 24 war manga through wall panels and related exhibition material.

Even within a single theme, there are various different trajectories, and this fact allows us to consider diverse perspectives of war through the expressive medium we know as manga. In addition, many of the war manga which could not be included in this exhibition have been collected in a separately available reading room (2nd floor, gallery 6).

Furthermore, this exhibition showcases beautiful, and yet violent, original artwork from three artists, Ozawa Yuki, Kyou Machiko, and Kouno Fumiyo, whose works challenge the universal theme of war through perspectives and representations of the here and now, creating a new form of 'war manga'.