Kajimunugatai: Kaze ga Kataru Okinawa-sen

Synopsis

The disastrous experience of the people at the war of Okinawa just before the end of WWII. This manga was serialized on the magazine, "Morning" which sometimes adopts utter/absolute new mangaka who do not have any career as a professional, like Yuuji Aoki of "Naniwa Kinyuudou". Higa is not so young and his art is simple/naive as Aoki, but the power/impact of his works is very strong, too. He was born in Okinawa and has gathered a lot of historical facts, and describes them matter-of-factly, without one-sided interpretation (So his manga is not too bitter because people are tough and brave persons who can offer hopes to people will appear even under the war). In his manga, both a japanese soldier and american one can become an enemy of the people. Higa tries to insist that the war can easily make an ordinary guy into a devil who can mercilessly kill a child or woman (and lynch good soldiers). For the helpless people of Okinawa, the japanese army often became an enemy (Soldiers deprived the people of their civilian shelter, food,,etc) because they were used as a shield for the people of mainland of Japan. Even after the war, they were often raped by US soldiers (and even japanese officers stood by the US army). In any war, weak people (children, women and old people) always become victims.