Paper Fortress

STORY/DESCRIPTIONS

This manga is based on Osamu Tezuka's experiences in junior high school during World War II. The story follows Tetsuro Osamu, a junior high school student who continues to draw manga secretly despite it being prohibited during wartime. Due to this, he is sent to a special training camp by his instructor who considers him unpatriotic, and then forced to work at a munitions factory. At the factory, he accidentally reunites with Kyoko Okamoto, a female student he had encountered before. However, Kyoko, who dreams of becoming an opera singer, suffers severe injuries to her face during an air raid in Osaka.


1974/09/30　Published in Shonen King (Shonen Gahousha)

Osamu Tezuka created several manga works based on his own war experiences. "Three Adolf," a story of three young men in Japan and Germany, is often cited as his major war work. However, his short story "Paper Fortress" is also important in understanding the manga artist Tezuka. By incorporating his life into the main character Tetsuro Osamu, Tezuka vividly embodied his war experiences, including military training, serving in a military factory, and surviving the Osaka air raid. In particular, the scene of him putting his manga sheet on the restroom wall so other students could read it, and the scene of his excitement after learning about the end of the war, where he says aloud, "Now I have survived," are well known among his fans. The attraction of this work lies in Tezuka, the author, depicting himself as a manga character and making the character vividly express his anti-war message. Thanks to this uniqueness, this work, although minor compared to his other major works, is often featured in TV programs and newspaper articles about war.