Today we say a "sayonara!" to one of the last of the great manga artists to come out of the turbulent postwar era. Shigeru Mizuki lost his arm during the Pacific side of WWII and developed a strong pacifist streak due to the hardships experienced there. He struggled in devastated postwar Japan until he made his break as a manga artist. He gained great fame for his creation: Gegege no Kitaro, a comedy/adventure comic about a ghostly child. His beautiful background art and simple character designs charmed generations of Japanese readers and tv viewers, and Kitaro has spawned many series' and several live action movies.
In the years after creating the equivalent of Japan's Charlie Brown, he created several autobiographical manga about his time in the Japanese military in WWII and the critical look at Japan's 20th century history.
Onwards towards our Noble Deaths told the story of his experiences in Papua New Guinea, and earned him an Eisner award. There is a sample of his historical work here http://www.japanfocu...05/article.html