Shigeru Mizuki's White Flag Manga Gets Anime Special on NHK
The NHK Special broadcast pairs Mizuki's unverified account of a wartime surrender with documentary research, putting the manga's contested history directly into a factual program.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime News Network.
NHK will air an anime special based on Shigeru Mizuki's World War II manga "White Flag" as part of its NHK Special documentary program on Sunday, August 16. The special, titled "The White Flag at Iwo Jima," adapts Mizuki's story about a lieutenant who surrenders to save his troops and is executed for treason. The documentary will also present research on American and Japanese reports of a surrender at Iwo Jima.
NHK announced the special on Friday, with the anime set to air on Sunday, August 16. The program will combine the animated adaptation of Mizuki's story with research into both American and Japanese reports of a raised white flag and a surrender at Iwo Jima.
Mizuki's manga follows Lieutenant Nishiōeda, who raises the white flag after the Battle of Iwo Jima to spare his troops, defying orders to fight to the death. He was executed for treason. Mizuki wrote in an afterword that the story came from a tale he heard about a friend of his older brother, an Imperial Japanese Navy officer, and that the story has never been verified.
The character first appeared in Mizuki's 1964 story "Two Lieutenants," and was reworked into "White Flag" for Garo magazine in 1968. Kodansha compiled the story into a 2010 book also titled White Flag.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- Anime News Network News Shigeru Mizuki's 'White Flag' WW2 Manga Gets Anime Special on Sunday