Japanese / Japan
Nakimushi seitoku. Okinawasen ni makikomareta shōnen no monogatari
(Seitoku, the crybaby. The boy who was drawn into the Battle of Okinawa)
Tajima, Yukihiko
(text/illus.)
Tōkyō: Dōshinsha, 2022. – [50] p.
ISBN 978-4-494-01248-0
Japan | History 1945 | World War II (1939-1945) | Okinawa | Picture book
Reading age: 9+
White Ravens issue: 2022
Yukihiko Tajima (b. 1940) has visited Okinawa for more than 40 years and published several picture books set on the island. With tremendous exertion, he produced »Nakimushi Seitoku« a story set in 1945 at the time of the Battle of Okinawa. The protagonist, Seitoku, an anxious young boy, cries when his older brother, a student, is called up to join the army. The boy comes under heavy bombardment and is driven from a cave shelter by Japanese soldiers. After his mother dies, he is almost killed by a tank. This book, addressing an event of World War II that is inscribed in Okinawans’ collective memory, includes facts such as that Japanese soldiers killed many local inhabitants and that 70% of the US military bases in Japan are still in Okinawa. In an appendix, a map and a chronological record add further information. While the abstract illustrations with stencil dyeing and brush strokes carefully avoid showing the excessive horrors of war, the contrast between the beautiful scenery with flowers and the sombre-coloured battlefield underscores a longing for peace. [RN]