Educational comic books cause controversy in Japan

Posted on : 2013-08-28 15:01 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
One local school board banned books that depict war atrocities by Japanese soldiers, but public opinion pushed a reverse of the ban

By Jeong Nam-ku, Tokyo correspondent

When the first atomic bomb in history was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on Aug. 6, 1945, six-year-old Keiji Nakazawa (who died in Dec. 2012) was only 1.3 km from ground zero. His father, brother, and two sisters died in the bombing, along with 200,000 residents of the city.

Nakazawa, who survived that day because he was sheltered by the wall of his school, later became a comic artist. In a comic titled “Barefoot Gen,” he drew upon his own experience to depict the tragedy of war and nuclear weapons, and the courage of people who do not bow down before adversity. The comic was serialized in the weekly comic magazine Shonen Jump starting in 1973, and the entire series was published in 1987 in 10 volumes.

“Barefoot Gen” sold more than ten million copies in Japan and has been translated into around 20 languages, including Korean, and published around the world. It is regarded as a textbook for peace education.

“Students should not be allowed free access to ‘Barefoot Gen.’ Keep the book on a separate bookshelf so that it can only be read when a teacher has need of it.”

These were the directions that the school board of Matsue, a city in Shimane Prefecture gave in a meeting of principals of city elementary and middle schools in Dec. 2012. After some schools failed to follow the instructions, the school board ordered schools to carry out its orders to the letter.

The reason that the school board gave for its decision was that the comics contain excessive depictions of the cruel acts that the Japanese military perpetrated against people in other Asian countries. The comic shows Japanese soldiers beheading people for fun, cruelly slaughtering women, and ripping fetuses out of the wombs of pregnant women.

The measures taken by the school board were triggered by a petition that a self-employed individual filed with the board in Aug. 2012. Taking issue with the scenes described above, this person claimed that they misled students about history and asked that the comic be removed from school libraries.

The school board’s decision to accept the petition and ban the comic books has been widely reported in the Japanese media recently and has become a topic of major interest throughout Japanese society.

Some members of the Japanese government made comments defending the restrictions on reading the comics. During an Aug. 21 press conference, education minister Hakubun Shimomura said, “Since the city school board’s decision was not illegal, there is no problem with it. It is necessary for educators to be sensitive to children’s developmental stages.”

But much more is being said in criticism of the decision to ban the comic books.

“It is important to show the true suffering faced by victims of the atomic bomb and to impress upon people that this kind of thing must never happen again,” said Kazumi Matsui, mayor of Hiroshima, objecting to the measures taken by the school board.

On Change.org, a petition website, people started a petition calling for the reversal of the decision by the school board’s decision.

The Japanese Association of Comic Arts released a statement of opinion on Aug. 26, referring to the school board’s decision as “a worrying development that could lead to restrictions on the freedom of expression.”

When the Matsue school board convened on Aug. 26, it decided that there had been a problem with its previous decision and reversed the ban on the comics.

“It was appropriate for the board to rescind its ban on the comics,” said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Aug. 27. “It was right to consult with the board members.” However, Suga, as well as the school board, avoided any comments on the legitimacy of the comic ban itself.

“Just the fact that the ban has been lifted does not mean this is all over,” the Asahi Shimbun said. “There needs to be a thoughtful discussion about how we will teach our young people about the tragic wars of the past.”

As the controversy has grown, Japanese have become more interested in “Barefoot Gen,” and many bookstores are selling out of the series. The publishers of the book are hurrying to print more copies, the Mainichi Shimbun reported.

 

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