Gegege no Account Books
We Were Born After The War, And…

Date：23, Nov, 2015
Investigated and Written by Misaka Youhei
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A kind of essay manga written by Mizuki Shigeru well-known for “Gegege no Kitaro,” is “Gegege no Account Books (Kakei-bo).” He had made from 2011 to 2012, as his autobiography.

It began from organizing the materials at Mizuki Production. He ran an apartment when unmarried. So Shigeru needed to keep accounts. That was found by surprise while organizing and then, Mizuki decided to write about the times, based on the accounts.

Mizuki lost his left hand for bombing in the Great East Asian War, it is very famous. In “Gegege no Account Books,” there is an episode that he appended an artificial hand only once in his life. It was the time to marry with his wife.

I was born after the war, and a lot of Japanese people don’t know real war without the news today. Some old men talk about the Pacific War, although they have not been to the front and have experienced the war damage. Mizuki has been carried to, and his manner of talking is exactly peerless. He plainly keeps walking on the wild road. The manga seems able to appeal to the ones who have not experienced the war.

My private discovery is that money’s flow can describe life. People who keep diaries or weblogs often draw the memories up from these. Account books do not only that, and express a then connection between the life and society. Mizuki mentions about 300 million yen robbery (1968) in the manga. They often speak ill of money. However, it also works as a bridge between society and us.