In Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths (2011), Shigeru Mizuki highlights the hardships soldiers face besides their enemy. Mizuki’s graphic novel focuses on Japanese soldiers on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea during the Second World War. One problem the soldiers face is lack of food. Distracted by their hunger, the men often stop in the middle of work to forage in the jungle. As the soldiers lack proper nutrition, they become even more susceptible to disease. In the wild, tropical environment of the island, the men suffer from different maladies. Most terrifying of all, however, remain the expectations of the Japanese army commanders. Rather than retreat, or resort to guerilla tactics, Japanese leadership prefers entire battalions to concede nothing and engage in offenses that they cannot win. Bound by a traditional sense of honor, Japanese leadership directly precipitates the deaths of many Japanese soldiers. Shigeru Mizuki’s Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths, reveals the beleaguered lives of Japanese soldiers as they struggle to survive in a place with too little food, dangerous sicknesses, and ruthless leadership.

Food

Underfed by the army, the hungry Japanese soldiers stay on the lookout for food. As one soldier carries timber through the jungle, he suggests to his partner, “Wanna take a break? I can’t do anything on just one cup of rice a day. Wonder if we can eat that fruit over there. Nope too bitter” (pp. 42-43). The hungry soldier’s energy wanes, and he must stop to rest in the middle of the jungle. He complains that he cannot efficiently complete his tasks with so little food each day. Desperate, the soldier takes a risk, and tries a jungle fruit he does not know. Later, Private Second Class Maruyama makes a similar complaint. Maruyama says to his fellow soldier, “I’m so hungry, I can’t think” (p. 55). When the fellow soldier shows Maruyama a secret stash of potatoes, Maruyama exclaims: “Potatoes! Wow! With this many potatoes, I can now die a happy man!” (p. 56). Maruyama claims his hunger impedes his normal thinking skills. When he finds potatoes, he exaggerates happily. He claims that the potatoes fulfill him completely. Another time in the jungle, the soldiers find an abandoned structure, full of enemy rations. The hungry soldiers fight each other over the canned food and chocolate. One soldier hits another soldier and says to him, “Rookie like you…you don’t get treats like this…I found the chocolate first. Open your mouth, rookie, and I’ll send you flying” (p. 104). The soldiers’ general lack of food makes them selfish when they do discover food. The food they discover in the enemy structure causes them to turn on each other, to become violent and derogatory towards each other. As they do not receive enough food from their army, food becomes the soldiers’ highest priority. The hungry soldiers must supplement their diets themselves, with food they find on the island. The soldiers’ hunger negatively affects them throughout their days.

Sickness

In the jungle of New Britain, the Japanese soldiers become vulnerable to diseases. Malaria creates the most trouble for the soldiers. One corpsman reports to a doctor: “With this southern location, more men are coming down with fevers. Two men can’t even move anymore” (p. 107). The corpsman expresses the soldiers’ problematic position, and the growing number of sick soldiers. He reports that two soldiers are immobile due to malaria. Later, one soldier observes: “We have this many casualties and malaria victims? It’s out of control” (p. 193). The soldier sees that the number of soldiers sick with malaria seriously hinders the Japanese effectiveness in Papua New Guinea. The soldier feels surprised and overwhelmed by the losses. In the jungle one day, Private First Class Ogawa collapses and must visit the doctor. The doctor tells Ogawa, “Your arm’s broken, but more than that…You’ve got dengue fever” (p. 41). Ogawa collapses and suffers a broken arm. However, Ogawa’s underlying sickness outweighs the broken arm. Soon after he goes to the hospital, Ogawa dies (p. 45). In another scene in the jungle, Corporal Yokoi warns Maruyama, “Hey! You can’t drink that water…What’re you gonna do if you get amoebic dysentery!” (p. 331). In a moment of weakness, Maruyama wants to drink the standing water in the jungle. Maruyama’s intense thirst and feeling of impending doom make him indifferent to the possibility of dysentery. Yokoi reminds Maruyama that he must resist the standing water, as a hungry man in the jungle with dysentery has few good options. Malaria, dengue, and dysentery threaten the Japanese soldiers in Papua New Guinea.

Leadership

Along with hunger and sickness, the soldiers face the mental anguish of faltering faith in their own army. When the Japanese soldiers in Papua New Guinea hear about the bombings in Japan, they question their purpose in Papua New Guinea: “If everything at home is crazy like that - what’re we doing fighting a war here?” (p. 217). With the new knowledge that their homeland is in danger, the men feel a motivation to leave Papua New Guinea and return home to Japan. The soldiers want to defend their homes in Japan more than they want to hold ground on foreign islands. However, the soldiers’ commanders not only want the soldiers to remain in Papua New Guinea, they expect the soldiers to fight until their deaths there. The commanding officers order a suicide charge - a noble death. A doctor in the second platoon voices his abhorrence of the traditional practice. The doctor exclaims: “Regardless, it is the will of the universe for all living things to live. It’s wrong to get in the way of that…This ‘army’ is the most diseased thing humanity has ever seen. This is not the way human beings should be” (p. 280). The doctor believes that the purpose of life is to live. He insists that the army is sick to order its soldiers into suicide charges because a suicide charge goes against nature. The doctor shares his opinion with a commanding officer, who tells the doctor he is shameful. Much to the dismay of the commanders, some men survive the mission. As officers, Lieutenants Yamagishi and Kitzaki receive a higher blame than the enlisted men. The two officers agree to commit suicide in order to atone for their actions. However, Kitzaki wonders: “What the hell was that suicide charge for…what are we killing ourselves for?” (p. 321). Kitzaki questions the decisions of army leadership, and questions his own role in the army’s practices. Throughout the story, several individuals lament the choices their army makes for them.

Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths illustrates the hardships of one Japanese battalion on the island of New Britain, in Papua New Guinea. Graphic novelist Shigeru Mizuki largely avoids the international politics and context of the Second World War. Instead, Mizuki delivers a closer, more introspective examination of the real life of a Japanese soldier at the time. Mizuki details the constant battle the soldiers face with hunger. He describes many conversations that the soldiers have about food, including unfamiliar island plants, potatoes, and chocolate. Mizuki also portrays how the Japanese soldiers in New Britain struggle against disease. Various ailments such as malaria, dengue, and dysentery have the power to immobilize the soldiers. The Japanese presence on the island weakens because of the number of sick soldiers. Finally, Japanese leadership proves to be demoralizing and even murderous for Japanese soldiers. Shigeru Mizuki reveals conditions on the island of New Britain that show how for Japanese soldiers, the enemy is only one of their many problems.

References

Mizuki, S. (2011). Onward towards our noble deaths. (J. Allen, Trans.) Drawn & Quarterly. (Original work published 1973).