A review by tsharris
Showa: A History of Japan, 1926-1939 by Shigeru Mizuki

5.0

Incredible, simply incredible. I've already learned to appreciate the graphic novel as an excellent medium for history, but Mizuki's work is superlative. The artwork is stellar (contrast between photorealism for historical panels and simplistic for the personal); his account of Japan's road to war is not rote and actually added to my knowledge; and the bottom line is that the Japan that went to war was a modern society, and therefore there are numerous uncomfortable echoes of the road to war in other, more democratic societies. Societies at war tend to resemble each other more than partisans would like to think.