Peleliu: Rakuen no Guernica

Shouwa 19 (1944), summer. Tamaru, a soldier who aspired to be a manga artist, was on Peleliu Island at the end of the Pacific War. The island was a paradise covered with beautiful forests and surrounded by a sea of coral reefs. It was also a battlefield on which 50,000 soldiers from Japan and the United States killed each other. At that time, 40,000 elite US troops invaded in an attempt to seize the airfield, which was touted as the best in East Asia. A garrison of 10,000 Japanese troops was ordered to meet the aggressors and “thoroughly endure” the attack. What did they fight for and what was on their minds on this small island far from their homeland?!? A long-forgotten record of truth from young people who lived in the “war” era!

(Source: Hakusensha, translated)