MattBrady
11-28-2002, 08:57 AM
While we here in the States prepare to be whipped into a patriotic lather with the release of Pearl Harbor, which is aimed to hit all the same notes in us as Saving Private Ryan, it's time to take a minute to remember that Americans weren't the only ones who have stories from World War II.
That's where Adorufu ni Tsugu or "Tell Adolf" by Osamu Tezuka comes in. The manga series is simply entitled Adolf. One of Tezuka's most mature and compelling works, Adolf is a powerful statement about the destructive powers of war on a national, social, and personal level.
While you may be more familiar with some of Tezuka's works aimed at younger audiences, such as Astro Boy, Phoenix, Kimba, the White Lion and Blackjack, don't let the earlier work fool you. Adolf has the punch of a novel, and is one of the most compelling reads that you can find in manga. The reprinted, translated volumes are like literary Lay's potato chips - you can read just one - if you even try, the story will haunt you until you find and read the rest. It's that good.
Clocking in at just under 1,300 pages, Adolf was originally serialized in the Japanese news magazine, Shukan Bunshen between 1983 and 1985. When reprinted in Japan, it was sold in the literature sections of bookstores, rather than on the manga shelves.
But don't get the title wrong - Adolf, while being a story of World War II, isn't just about Adolf Hitler. The manga is about three Adolfs - Adolf Kamil, son of Jewish-German refugees living in Kobe, Japan; his boyhood friend, Adolf Kaufman, the half-German, half-Japanese son of a low-level German political official; and Adolf Hitler.
The bulk of the story is told through the eyes of Sohei Toge, a former marathon runner turned newspaper reporter who gets involved in political intrigue while covering the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. While in Berlin, Sohei's brother, an exchange student in German university, tells him he has papers to give him that would cause the downfall of the ascending Hitler and the entire Nazi party. Before he can give the papers to Sohei, he is killed, and the papers sent back to Kobe.
While the search for the papers (and their secret, which is on par with Citizen Kane's "Rosebud") will provide the political intrigue that is Adolf's backdrop, the story quickly shifts to following the lives of the two young Adolfs as they grow from children into young men. As the two grow, they both, by accident, learn what was on the secret papers sent from Berlin - it's a secret that each of them carriers throughout their lives.
The boys are separated when his father sends Adolf Kaufman to Germany for education and indoctrination into the Nazi party. Meanwhile, in Kobe, Sohei comes under pressure from the secret police, the Nazis, and virtually every spy in pre-World War II Japan to hand over the secret documents. The fact that he can't find them doesn't stop anyone from trying to beat the information out of him.
The story continues to unfold, with Sohei's story intermingling with the two Adolfs In Germany, Adolf Kaufman joins the Hitler Youth Patrol, aiding the SS in rounding up Jews from the ghettos, and ultimately executing Adolf Kamil's father who was caught in Lithuania trying to help Jews escape to Japan. Kaufman is slowly drawn deeper and deeper into the Nazi party, until he meets Hitler himself, and becomes one of his favored soldiers, given special missions of utmost importance to the Reich.
In Japan, Adolf Kamil is drawn deeper into the mystery and intrigue that surrounds the secret documents that he now possesses. Ultimately, Kaufman is sent back to Kobe to recover the documents, but it is a vastly different Adolf that returns to his home - his soul is a twisted, dark thing, making him an instant enemy of his boyhood friend. While Kaufman finally succeeds in his mission, its utterly hollow - Hitler is dead, and the war is entering its final days.
But the story doesn't end there.
The two Adolfs meet one final time, in 1948 Israel. The story ends in 1983, as an aged Sohei Toge visits the son of Adolf Kamil. It's a poignant end to the story of the three Adolfs.
While the story of the two boyhood friends is truly compelling and will haunt readers for months afterwards, the telling of the story by Tezuka that has the potential to open the eyes, particularly of American readers, whose knowledge of World War II is tainted by victory, that is, "US and some Allies good, everyone else bad." Drawing from his own childhood memories of World War II in Japan, Tezuka's account shows the war from the point of view of many Japanese civilians, not necessarily siding with the Axis powers, or agreeing with the view of their government. These were the people who lived, breathed, and died in the cities of Japan - often living in fear of the next bombing raid by the Americans.
Tezuka's viewpoint is also decidedly anti-war in all forms. In Adolf, there were no "sides," everyone was wrong - as Tezuka liked to describe it, the "ego" of the state always got in the way of true justice. As such, Tezuka portrayed F.D.R. in a controversial light - a president who fully knew about the upcoming attack on Pearl Harbor, and was willing to sacrifice the base, and the men therein, if it meant America would finally mobilize its war machine.
If you are going to see Pearl Harbor this weekend, it might be a good idea not to discuss that theory in the theater.
Tezuka's telling of the story also hits hard thanks to the art style he employed in Adolf. While it's clearly drawn by the same artist who brought Astro Boy and Kimba to life, it's slightly more mature. As a result, the art lulls you in to a sense of almost-security - it looks slightly childish, so nothing bad can happen right? That feeling helps to give both the violence and the sex (which Tezuka intermingles with brutal effectiveness) a sharp, visceral edge that stuns the reader.
While the violence begins slowly, you realize that the gloves are off when Tezuka graphically shows Adolf Kaufman executing Adolf Kamil's father. Here is a boy who, until now, has been drawn by Tezuka like a young prince - Kaufman could have been lifted from Adolf and transplanted into the creator's Blackjack, and no one would've noticed. Everything changed when the nervous Kaufman took three shots to kill the elder Kamil - all shown graphically by Tezuka. After the execution, Kaufman runs behind a tree and throws up. You'll want to as well at the sudden brutality.
That's where Adorufu ni Tsugu or "Tell Adolf" by Osamu Tezuka comes in. The manga series is simply entitled Adolf. One of Tezuka's most mature and compelling works, Adolf is a powerful statement about the destructive powers of war on a national, social, and personal level.
While you may be more familiar with some of Tezuka's works aimed at younger audiences, such as Astro Boy, Phoenix, Kimba, the White Lion and Blackjack, don't let the earlier work fool you. Adolf has the punch of a novel, and is one of the most compelling reads that you can find in manga. The reprinted, translated volumes are like literary Lay's potato chips - you can read just one - if you even try, the story will haunt you until you find and read the rest. It's that good.
Clocking in at just under 1,300 pages, Adolf was originally serialized in the Japanese news magazine, Shukan Bunshen between 1983 and 1985. When reprinted in Japan, it was sold in the literature sections of bookstores, rather than on the manga shelves.
But don't get the title wrong - Adolf, while being a story of World War II, isn't just about Adolf Hitler. The manga is about three Adolfs - Adolf Kamil, son of Jewish-German refugees living in Kobe, Japan; his boyhood friend, Adolf Kaufman, the half-German, half-Japanese son of a low-level German political official; and Adolf Hitler.
The bulk of the story is told through the eyes of Sohei Toge, a former marathon runner turned newspaper reporter who gets involved in political intrigue while covering the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. While in Berlin, Sohei's brother, an exchange student in German university, tells him he has papers to give him that would cause the downfall of the ascending Hitler and the entire Nazi party. Before he can give the papers to Sohei, he is killed, and the papers sent back to Kobe.
While the search for the papers (and their secret, which is on par with Citizen Kane's "Rosebud") will provide the political intrigue that is Adolf's backdrop, the story quickly shifts to following the lives of the two young Adolfs as they grow from children into young men. As the two grow, they both, by accident, learn what was on the secret papers sent from Berlin - it's a secret that each of them carriers throughout their lives.
The boys are separated when his father sends Adolf Kaufman to Germany for education and indoctrination into the Nazi party. Meanwhile, in Kobe, Sohei comes under pressure from the secret police, the Nazis, and virtually every spy in pre-World War II Japan to hand over the secret documents. The fact that he can't find them doesn't stop anyone from trying to beat the information out of him.
The story continues to unfold, with Sohei's story intermingling with the two Adolfs In Germany, Adolf Kaufman joins the Hitler Youth Patrol, aiding the SS in rounding up Jews from the ghettos, and ultimately executing Adolf Kamil's father who was caught in Lithuania trying to help Jews escape to Japan. Kaufman is slowly drawn deeper and deeper into the Nazi party, until he meets Hitler himself, and becomes one of his favored soldiers, given special missions of utmost importance to the Reich.
In Japan, Adolf Kamil is drawn deeper into the mystery and intrigue that surrounds the secret documents that he now possesses. Ultimately, Kaufman is sent back to Kobe to recover the documents, but it is a vastly different Adolf that returns to his home - his soul is a twisted, dark thing, making him an instant enemy of his boyhood friend. While Kaufman finally succeeds in his mission, its utterly hollow - Hitler is dead, and the war is entering its final days.
But the story doesn't end there.
The two Adolfs meet one final time, in 1948 Israel. The story ends in 1983, as an aged Sohei Toge visits the son of Adolf Kamil. It's a poignant end to the story of the three Adolfs.
While the story of the two boyhood friends is truly compelling and will haunt readers for months afterwards, the telling of the story by Tezuka that has the potential to open the eyes, particularly of American readers, whose knowledge of World War II is tainted by victory, that is, "US and some Allies good, everyone else bad." Drawing from his own childhood memories of World War II in Japan, Tezuka's account shows the war from the point of view of many Japanese civilians, not necessarily siding with the Axis powers, or agreeing with the view of their government. These were the people who lived, breathed, and died in the cities of Japan - often living in fear of the next bombing raid by the Americans.
Tezuka's viewpoint is also decidedly anti-war in all forms. In Adolf, there were no "sides," everyone was wrong - as Tezuka liked to describe it, the "ego" of the state always got in the way of true justice. As such, Tezuka portrayed F.D.R. in a controversial light - a president who fully knew about the upcoming attack on Pearl Harbor, and was willing to sacrifice the base, and the men therein, if it meant America would finally mobilize its war machine.
If you are going to see Pearl Harbor this weekend, it might be a good idea not to discuss that theory in the theater.
Tezuka's telling of the story also hits hard thanks to the art style he employed in Adolf. While it's clearly drawn by the same artist who brought Astro Boy and Kimba to life, it's slightly more mature. As a result, the art lulls you in to a sense of almost-security - it looks slightly childish, so nothing bad can happen right? That feeling helps to give both the violence and the sex (which Tezuka intermingles with brutal effectiveness) a sharp, visceral edge that stuns the reader.
While the violence begins slowly, you realize that the gloves are off when Tezuka graphically shows Adolf Kaufman executing Adolf Kamil's father. Here is a boy who, until now, has been drawn by Tezuka like a young prince - Kaufman could have been lifted from Adolf and transplanted into the creator's Blackjack, and no one would've noticed. Everything changed when the nervous Kaufman took three shots to kill the elder Kamil - all shown graphically by Tezuka. After the execution, Kaufman runs behind a tree and throws up. You'll want to as well at the sudden brutality.