"First volume of Shigeru Mizuki's meticulously researched historical portrait of twentieth century Japan. This volume deals with the period leading up to World War II, a time of high unemployment and other economic hardships caused by the Great Depression. Mizuki's photo-realist style effortlessly brings to life Japan of the 1920s and 1930s, depicting bustling city streets and abandoned graveyards with equal ease"--Publisher's website.

Showa 1944-1953 : a History of Japan continues the award-winning author Shigeru Mizuki's autobiographical and historical account of the Showa period in Japan. This volume recounts the events of the final years of the Pacific War, and the consequences of the war's devastation for Mizuki and the Japanese populace at large. "The third volume of [the author's] ... encyclopedic account of Japan before and after World War II. Drawing from his own experiences as a foot soldier in the Pacific Islands and from the greater sweep of history's footprints, it is a chilling antiwar document and an intimate revelation of the destruction left in the wake of the atomic bombs."--Page 4 of cover.

Continues Mizuki's autobiographical and historical account of Showa-era Japan. This volume covers the final moments of the lead-up to World War II and the first few years of the Pacific War, and is a chilling reminder of the harshness of life in Japan during this highly militarized epoch.