“Paradise” Written by Mizuki Shigeru ：His Friendship with the Tolai People Generated by The Asian-Pacific War

This paper focuses on the representation of “Paradise” by Mizuki Shigeru, and analyzes his essays and manga which he wrote about his friendship with the Tolai people. In the Asian-Pacific War, Mizuki was dispatched as a soldier in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea. There, he struck up a friendship with Topetoro and his family who were island inhabitants called the Tolai people. After the war ended Mizuki returned to Japan then revisited Rabaul in 1971 where their friendship resumed. Mizuki wrote about the Tolai peoples’ life as a “Paradise” many times in his essays and manga after meeting them again. First, this paper examines Mizuki’s work where he wrote about Topetoro’s life as a “Paradise”, the primary target of which was readers who hadn’t experienced the Asian-pacific war. Next, this paper analyzes the changing narrative episodes about Topetoro in Mizuki’s essays, and argues that this change was affected by Topetoro’s death. Finally, this paper examines Mizuki’s fictional representation of “Paradise” in the Manga Yumesaki Annai Neko after Topetoro’s death. There were many Japanese people who revisited war zones after the 1970s, but Mizuki’s purpose of meeting local inhabitants again was not common. This paper argues that significance of Mizuki’s special experiences documented in his essays and Manga.