Manga Reviews (2010-2019): Hiroshima's Revival: Remembering how people overcame destruction and despair (a Neo-Tokyo 2099 Manga Review) (2015)

NOTE: I am reviewing the English adaptation of “Hiroshima’s Revival”.

A delightful and entertaining manga series, if you want a romantic comedy-driven storyline and a story that is easy to follow and enjoy, definitely give “After the Rain” a try! Definitely recommended!

MANGA TITLE: Hiroshima’s Revival: Remembering how people overcame destruction and despair

BY: Tezuka Productions

STORY AND ART BY: Aoki Takeo

English Adaptation by Pauline Baldwin

FIRST PUBLISHED IN JAPAN: Shogakukan Creative Inc.

Supporting Company: Gojinsha Group Co., Ltd.

Revised Edition (English Adaptation) was released on July 30, 2018

For anyone going to the Hiroshima Peace Museum, I highly recommend visiting the shop and picking up the English adaptation of Tezuka Productions and Aoki Takeo’s “Hiroshima no fukkō: Genbaku no higeki o norikoeta hitobito” (Hiroshima’s Revival: Remembering how people overcame destruction and despair) with an excellent English adaptation by Pauline Baldwin.

There have been books and anime series about life in Hiroshima after the atomic bomb decimated the city but part of the problem for many people living outside of Japan and wanting to know more about the rebuilding efforts, a lot of publications are in Japanese.

Fortunately, I saw this manga at the shop and I had to pick it up! I can only wish that someday, the English adaptation will be available for people via Amazon in their country and native language, as this is an excellent source of knowing about what happened to Hiroshima after the atom bomb was dropped and how they rebuilt. But also the key figures involved in the restoration of Hiroshima and learning information of famous stores and locations that continue to exist today.

August 6, 1945 will be known as the day of Hiroshima’s revival.

The chapters are as follows:

Top Priority! Restoration! Water, Electricity and Gas
The Schoolgirls Who Ran the Streetcar
Twelve Banks Resumed Business in Two Days
Hiroshima’s Commerce Comes to Life
The Cornerstone of Transport, the Three-Wheeled Truck
Learning Together Again
Building a City of Peace
Cinema, Music, and Books – In Search of Spiritual Nourishment
Hiroshima’s Specialties Bring back the Smiles
Hiroshima Carp! The People’s Baseball Team

Reading this manga, I was absolutely captivated by the true stories of individuals who helped restore Hiroshima.

For those not familiar with Hiroshima, the area was established in 1589 by powerful warlord Terumoto Mori and from the late 1800’s, would serve as the military center of western Japan and was a metropolis with a population of more than 400,000 people.

On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb which exploded 600 meters above the city and radiated waves of heat. An enormous mushroom cloud rose 16,000 meters in the air and the temperature at the hypocenter under the blast reached 3000-4000C (5432F to 7232F). Powerful winds reached 440 meters per second and burned the city with fires everywhere and devoured everything near the hypocenter.

People were showered with radiation and black rain and those who were exposed to radiation died with a few days while others suffered from long-lasting effects.

For the first chapter, we learn about Kurou Hoino, an engineer for the water supply division of Hiroshima Waterworks Dept. He was delivery school supplies and when he heard a B-29 bomber, he pedaled on his bike as quickly as he could and knocked down by the blast.

All power, gas and water was stopped for Hiroshima.

Kurou remembered that there was a spare water pump connected to an internal combustion engine that was not on. He was able to get it on and make sure there was water in Hiroshima, but it was not enough water.

Despite being injured and severely burned, Kurou vowed to get water to the city and making sure the generators were working and he and others were able to spare Hiroshima a water crisis. While Kumano Kazuo, Deputy of Chief Operations Division and his men did all they can to bring power back to the city. While Yamauchi Takehiro and Hisanaga Saburo, both were Hiroshima Gas Company directors, and their men did all he could to bring gas back to Hiroshima.

While Kumano was able to bring back water with the single pump, for gas, they had to work months until they were able to dig all gas pipes and re-serviced them and by April of the following year, they were able to restore gas to the southern part of Hiroshima.

One of the interesting stories is “The Cornerstone of Transport, the Three-Wheeled Truck” about Matsuda Jujiro and how he previously developed the Matsuda-type water pump by Toyo Kogyo. His eldest son Tsuneji got his father to believe that motor vehicles are the pinnacle of the manufacturing world and they developed a three wheeled truck under the name Mazda and the three-wheeled truck, the Mazda DA was made. And how they came up with the name “Mazda”, which was derived from the family name and the Ahura Mazda, god of Zoroastrianism and led the world from darkness to enlightenment.

And how they would continue with technology, help during World War II and afterward, by developing small four-wheeled trucks.

Another favorite story was about how the baseball team, the Hiroshima Carp came to be.

When it comes to fandom and support, the Hiroshima Carp has the largest fandom of all NPB teams. How the team was developed after the war, the challenges they faced as they were not owned by any business, so people used their hard-earned money to fund the Carp and thus becoming known as the “People’s Baseball Team” before Mazda came in and they are now known as Hiroshima Toyo Carp.

But the manga goes through so many facets of the restoration of Hiroshima and how certain establishments in the city came to be. It’s really worth reading if you appreciate Hiroshima but also how the city and area became known for their peaceful efforts.

From the stories to Tezuka Productions style artwork courtesy of Aoki Takeo, “Hiroshima’s Revival: Remembering how people overcame destruction and despair” is a magnificent manga that I highly recommend for those who want to know how a decimated city would be reborn, go through many hardships and overcome challenges to restore Hiroshima.

Overall, this manga is highly recommended!