| Review |
The story itself is a powerful one, set both in Germany and among the German community in Japan, and is a strong warning against hatred and prejudice. The volumes contain some uncompromising material, as when the young Nazi, Adolf Kaufmann, finishes off some prisoners during a death march. This is a significant manga that should be read by all serious collectors and Japan buffs.
I would like to say to younger readers who are in danger of being seduced by the siren voices of the "Holocaust denial" that the Jewish holocaust DID take place, that at least six million Jews WERE murdered, and that their names, the dates of their arrest, the times of the trains taking them to the death camps, and their ultimate fates, are in many cases recorded in German documents that still exist by the roomful and have been distilled into innumerable books and documentaries. There were a lot of Jews in Europe before the War, now there aren't... I speak as a traveller who has seen the now-empty ghettoes of Prague and Cracow, and stood where the Warsaw ghetto used to be. The Nazi aim was, quite simply, to murder every Jew in the countries the German armies controlled, and to a large extent they accomplished this horrible deed. Only the defeat of the German armies prevented the extermination from being carried out to the last Jew.
In addition to the Jews, the Germans murdered millions of other nationalities, perhaps five million in addition to the deaths caused by military action. Meanwhile, the Japanese killed several million Chinese, but were responsible for the deaths of only about 40,000 white British and other prisoners. Which makes one wonder how much the anti- Japanese feeling among older Britons is not simply a form of racism. [GC]
|
