Overview

Okinawa brings together two collections of intertwined stories by the island's pre-eminent mangaka, Susumu Higa, which reflect on this difficult history and pull together traditional Okinawan spirituality, the modern-day realities of the continuing US military occupation, and the senselessness of the War The first collection, Sword of Sand , is a ground level, unflinching look at the horrors of the Battle of Okinawa. Higa then turns an observant eye to the present-day in Mabui (Okinawan for ""spirit""), where he explores how the American occupation has irreversibly changed the island prefecture, through the lens of the archipelago's indigenous spirituality and the central character of the yuta priestess.

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9781683961185

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Reviews

"an endearing and enduring collection ... The diversity of perspectives presented in this collection is impressive.-- ""AIPT Comics"" Okinawa is a powerful work that asks tough questions without much varnish, making the reader uncomfortable in all the right ways.-- ""Multiversity Comics"" While these stories are unflinching and often disturbing, they're a must-read for fans of historical non-fiction.-- ""Otaku USA Magazine"" Okinawa elegantly explores the painful realities of colonialism... Higa captures quiet moments of human connection, even as he unsparingly documents the ongoing loss of the islands' Indigenous culture and the suffering of their people.-- ""Washington Post"" If you're a fan of Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen or Shigeru Mizuki's Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, this will add to your splendid collection of manga about World War II.-- ""Gosh! Comics"" There's a lot of potential for this to be taught in high school and university classes as an examination of war, occupation, and tradition. Higa's characters are supremely well-developed for such short vignettes, and their motivations are well-defined for their actions. Higa's monumental work sits firmly among such other notable ruminations on history as Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen, Shigeru Mizuki's Showa, Art Spiegelman's Maus, and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis.-- ""Booklist, Starred Review"""

"There's a lot of potential for this to be taught in high school and university classes as an examination of war, occupation, and tradition. Higa's characters are supremely well-developed for such short vignettes, and their motivations are well-defined for their actions. Higa's monumental work sits firmly among such other notable ruminations on history as Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen, Shigeru Mizuki's Showa, Art Spiegelman's Maus, and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis.-- ""Booklist, Starred Review"""

"As heartbreaking and heavy as it was to read, I could not recommend this manga enough. ... it was raw, and it was real, and I honestly think that means more than anything else.-- ""International Examiner"" an endearing and enduring collection ... The diversity of perspectives presented in this collection is impressive.-- ""AIPT Comics"" Okinawa is a powerful work that asks tough questions without much varnish, making the reader uncomfortable in all the right ways.-- ""Multiversity Comics"" While these stories are unflinching and often disturbing, they're a must-read for fans of historical non-fiction.-- ""Otaku USA Magazine"" Okinawa is a beautiful collection of short stories that offer you a glimpse into the life of a masterful talent whose clarity of line illustrates a consciousness that will entice you as much as any collection of literary tales by Hemingway, Borges, or Munroe. Pure artistry.-- ""Hyperallergic"" Okinawa elegantly explores the painful realities of colonialism... Higa captures quiet moments of human connection, even as he unsparingly documents the ongoing loss of the islands' Indigenous culture and the suffering of their people.-- ""Washington Post"" If you're a fan of Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen or Shigeru Mizuki's Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, this will add to your splendid collection of manga about World War II.-- ""Gosh! Comics"" There's a lot of potential for this to be taught in high school and university classes as an examination of war, occupation, and tradition. Higa's characters are supremely well-developed for such short vignettes, and their motivations are well-defined for their actions. Higa's monumental work sits firmly among such other notable ruminations on history as Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen, Shigeru Mizuki's Showa, Art Spiegelman's Maus, and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis.-- ""Booklist, Starred Review"""

Author Information

Winner of the Japan Media Arts Grand Prize in the manga division and nominated for the Tezuka Award and the FIBD Fauve d'Or Prize for Best Album, Susumu Higa was born in Okinawa in 1953, and continues to make it his home to this day. Jocelyne Allen is a Japanese translator and interpreter who splits her time between Toronto and Tokyo. Andrew Woodrow-Butcher is an editor, critic, and consultant with a career specializing in comics in school and public libraries. Andrew manages graphic collection development services for renowned comics shop The Beguiling Books & Art, where he also built their spin-off shop Little Island Comics, at the time the world's only comic book shop just for kids. His work for the Toronto Comic Arts Festival spanned a decade and focused on programming for kids and educators, and on building international comics partnerships. He has written about a wide variety of books for venues like Xtra!, Broken Pencil, Quill & Quire, CBC Kids, and Publishers Weekly. Christopher Butcher is a writer, editor, and podcaster who has been working in and around comics, graphic novels, and manga for over quite a while now. He is currently co-hosting the manga podcast Mangasplaining, and publisher of the Mangasplaining Extra publishing line. He has worked with publishers including VIZ Media, UDON Entertainment, Kodansha, and Fantagraphics.

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