Was Osamu Tezuka a Racist?June 5th, 2006 by Adamu |
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I stopped at Book Off, that wonderful oasis of a Japanese used bookshop in midtown Manhattan, on my way home from Connecticut last weekend. I wasn’t intending on actually buying anything, but the first all 4 issues of Osamu Tezuka’s manga Adolf (Adorofu ni Tsugu) at a dollar apiece were too tempting to pass up. It’s an interesting work of historical fiction that answers the question: “What if Jews living in Kobe during World War 2 found definitive proof that Hitler was 1/4 Jewish?” As someone relatively unfamiliar with Tezuka’s work, I’ve been surprised to see depictions of torture and mass murder peppered throughout – I had thought he traded mostly in cute robot boys and little lions, but if you look at his bibliography he’s pretty freakin’ prolific!
What caught my eye, though, was this disclaimer at the end of the first volume (loosely translated):
In this “Complete Works of Osamu Tezuka (published in 1996), the images of many foreigners, mainly blacks and Southeast Asians, make an appearance. Some of those images depict those people as they were when their countries were undeveloped or exaggerate past eras and differ greatly from the present situation. Recently, there have been claims that such depictions are racially discriminatory toward blacks and some other foreigners. As long as there are people who feel uneasy about these images or feel insulted by them, we believe we must seriously listen to those opinions.However, the exaggeration and parody of people’s features is the most important method of humor for comic books (manga). This is especially prevalent in Tezuka’s works, so people of many countries are the subject to parody. Further, beings from the animal kingdom to the world of the imaginary are very humourously caricatured, not only humans. Not even the author’s self-portrait is an exception to this, with his nose drawn several times longer than it actually is. Also, the author is a person who always and continually held the belief that all hatred and conflict is evil, including that between the civilized and uncivilized, advanced nations and developing nations, the powerful and the weak, the rich and the poor, and the healthy and the sick – beneath his stories runs a strong “love of humanity.”
The reasons we have ventured to print the “Complete Works of Osamu Tezuka” are that the author has already passed on and therefore cannot edit his works. Not only would a third person changing the work of the dead would pose a problem in terms of the person’s dignity, but also cannot be considered an appropriate measure to deal with the problem at hand, and not only that, we have a responsibility to protect works that are regarded as the heritage of Japan’s culture. From the beginning, we oppose all discrimination and will work to eliminate discrimination. We believe this is the responsibility of a publisher. We hope that readers, too, will use this Tezuka work as an opportunity to recognize the fact that various discrimination exists and deepen understanding of this issue.
So, Tezuka’s manga aren’t discriminatory but should be used as an opportunity to reflect on the issue of racial discrimination? Sure, Kodansha. Maybe you’ve gotten smarter in the last 10 years, but I kind of doubt it.
This comment is a direct reaction to moves by a group in Japan called “The Group to Eliminate Discrimination Against Blacks,” a fairly sanctimonious group that originally started without a single “black” member to its name. The group claimed that Tezuka’s “Kimba the White Lion” included racist depictions of black Africans and demanded it be changed to reflect a more culturally sensitive era. The move resulted in the removal of Kimba panels from several museum exhibits dedicated to Tezuka. Indicative of Japan’s general isolation from global debate in general, majority public opinion in Japan seems to be against a movement to eliminate discrimination against blacks led by a hypersensitive NGO.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any images online that demonstrate the sharp “satire” of Osamu Tezuka, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a few bones through noses in Kimba the White Lion. Next time I’m in Japan or Book Off I’ll be sure to look out for them.
For the record, I have yet to encounter any stereotypical-type images in Adolf, though one of the Nazis is deliberately depicted as lizard-like to emphasize how evil he is.
June 5th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
Jeez, how dare they! Trying to stop discrimination against blacks—without being black! (What if they “tried to be Black” like Ali G?)
I’m all against sanctimonious PC behavior, and trying to change the lion anime is nuts, but I don’t really see anything wrong with Japanese people protesting discrimination against non-Japanese people.
June 5th, 2006 at 11:29 pm
Me neither, actually. I did a pretty poor job of making the points that a) Kodansha has its head up its ass if it thinks that disclaimer answers people’s concerns over racist depictions; and b) the group, while sanctimonious and shrill, is merely stating what should be obvious; and c) The reaction by the average citizen is pretty appalling.
June 5th, 2006 at 11:56 pm
That sort of language is pretty common on older anime and manga. One of the anime channels I get in my cable package offers a lot of older programming, and they all come with that sort of disclaimer at the beginning: What you’re about to see doesn’t go well with our modern sensibilities, but this is the way it was, and we’re presenting it in toto so as not to take liberties with the artistic vision of the original, etc. etc.
Personally I find this sort of disclaimer a lot more palatable than Disney’s refusal to reissue “Song of the South.”
June 6th, 2006 at 10:06 am
Adolf is only four volumes total. I have an edition of it published as two super wides labelled as 上 and 下 in the fine tradition of two volume works. Reading it I get the impression that Tezuka was trying rather hard to write a story that did not buy into the racialist views of its various racist characters.
June 6th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
You know what’s annoying? When a series of news articles (haven’t seen it in books yet) has a 上、中、 AND 下. That means if you only come across the LAST installment, you can never tell if it had a chu as well as a jo!
June 6th, 2006 at 2:14 pm
Also, now that I am almost done with the manga, I can verify Roy’s comment that its message is most decidedly anti-racist, which makes the presence of the above disclaimer all the more unusual.
June 7th, 2006 at 8:51 pm
I should probably have mentioned that it is also an excellent piece of work, and I believe that there is now an English translation avaliable.
June 7th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1569310580/sr=8-1/qid=1149732110/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-0289048-1128159?%5Fencoding=UTF8
Here’s the translation
June 8th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
I just read that Adolf thing. It’s pretty good. If you like that, then you should search out the Phoenix (火の鳥) – It is 12 volumes and unfinished. But a good read.
Read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_%28manga%29
June 14th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
Well, anyone who wants to read the Kimba-comic books (“Jungle Emperor”) can do so at a website called Tezuka Translated.
http://tezuka-translated.com
The black people in it are dressed in jungle attire, carry spears and shields, are superstitious and say things like “Oonga baroo doong doong dong!”. Just like they always do in old comic stories. No bones in noses though.
June 14th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
Thanks!! That’ll teach me to search the Japanese-language web for primary sources!
October 23rd, 2006 at 5:25 pm
is osamu really a racist agenst africans south korens taiwanese vietnamiese and jew i hope not cuz if he is then (he’s f*&$#in done i’d kick his b*&th a$$ my dran slef freking bastard) if not tell me plz.
October 24th, 2006 at 2:58 am
I would say that he was not racist, but back in the old days even progressive people tended to have more racial stereotypes than we do today, which is just something you need to take with a grain of salt when reading the classics.
October 25th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
I am curious to find where the English Translation would be found as I also think it is a great piece of artwork. Any Help would be appreciated.
October 25th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Hey Don, since this guy is one of the great manga authors, a good deal of his stuff has been licensed (including “Adolf”) and can be found on Amazon USA/UK. As for the other stuff, I’d check google for “scanlations” to see what fans have translated. And be sure to let your friend Don know about this stuff as well. Maybe he’ll use some of his millions to finance new editions of the translations.
February 18th, 2009 at 2:51 am
Let him draw what he wants too plus the fella’s deceased., and If you don’t like it then don’t read it that’s what I think.
March 23rd, 2009 at 7:17 pm
[...] He’s not as squeaky clean as say, Osamu Tezuka, the Japan appointed God of Manga and lifelong pacifist, but hey, Osamu Tezuka has been accused of racism. [...]
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Tezuka was not racist. End of discussion.
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:03 pm
“You know what’s annoying? When a series of news articles (haven’t seen it in books yet) has a 上、中、 AND 下. That means if you only come across the LAST installment, you can never tell if it had a chu as well as a jo!”
Pretty sure that was how the Japanese paperback edition of “Windup Bird Chronicle” was published actually.
June 23rd, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Is there a reason youre making that comment in this post? I mean its true and all, but still
June 23rd, 2009 at 6:26 pm
There was a new comment so I happened to glance at the thread.