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Jason Thompson's House of 1000 Manga - Eagle

In light of recent politics I think the article needed more clarification on the candidate's eligibility to run for the office of POTUS. The only thing I see is the opening phrase "son of an immigrant", which does not necessarily mean that our candidate was born in the USA, which as we all remember is a major prerequisite for the office.

Jason Thompson wrote:

Kaiji Kawaguchi…but Eagle (the "making of…" subtitle was added for the American edition) is his only work that's been translated, except for a rare Kodansha Bilingual edition of Zipang.

And the even more obscure part of chapter 5 of Silent Service, in Mangajin No. 13, with an introductory article by the redoubtable Frederik L. Schodt.

doc-watson42 wrote:

Jason Thompson wrote: Kaiji Kawaguchi…but Eagle (the "making of…" subtitle was added for the American edition) is his only work that's been translated, except for a rare Kodansha Bilingual edition of Zipang. And the even more obscure part of chapter 5 of Silent Service, in Mangajin No. 13, with an introductory article by the redoubtable Frederik L. Schodt.

My hat is off to you, sir! For those who don't want to track down old issues of Mangajin, Fred Schodt's short article on Silent Service in Dreamland Japan is good.

Kawaguchi, not incidentally, is also of the 1960s generation (his manga Medusa details the radical-police battles of his college days that at times raged through Shinjuku Station and Tokyo University).

I'm a little reluctant to add to this discussion, because to write all my thoughts about Eagle and its production would take a very long time. But since, realistically, readers are more likely in 2011 to encounter this article than to encounter the manga itself, I thought I might touch on a few of the elements mentioned in the review.

It was suggested that "today, it's not hard to picture a candidate from a non-white immigrant background getting questioned about what country he's loyal to, something Kawaguchi was too naive or noble to even imagine." However, I feel there are some elements of this in Eagle. The second gunman in the assassination attempt (who seems presented as mentally ill, unlike the first gunman who's driven by white-power ideology) talks to his family about not wanting them to have to move to Japan, which he seems to think would happen if Yamaoka were elected. The graffiti in Yamaoka's old neighborhood says "J A P G O H O M E!" suggesting that at least some people see him as not American, not just non-white.

Exactly what Yamaoka says to them about gun control is also interesting. Kawaguchi has a penchant in Eagle for sometimes using what might be called traditionally right-wing arguments for traditionally left-wing policy objectives--which might never work in real life (although there are examples--Republican Jack Kemp, for whom racial inequality was a serious issue, used to call himself a "bleeding-heart conservative"), but for which he deserves credit as a writer with ideas. For example, Senator Yamaoka does not stress the health or safety issues to argue gun control, as a more typical liberal Democrat might--in fact, he straight up tells the Texans, "guns don't commit crimes, people do," giving the contrasting examples of Morton Grove, IL and Kennesaw, GA to argue his point. Rather, Yamaoka accepts an idea the Tea Party would agree with: that the right to bear arms, at its core, represents more than the right to hunt game or even protect one's self against crime--it represents the sovereignty of the individual American. So why does he want stricter gun control? Because, he argues, this sacred principle is cheapened by the fact guns are, in his view, far too easy to get: "You and I here tonight are mortal men. Without wisdom, how can we stand here, and say we deserve that power to kill?" Having served in the Marines in Vietnam (as a volunteer), Yamaoka is shown as someone who has shot and killed people at close range, and who was himself shot and nearly killed; he doesn't speak about the effect of guns in the abstract, or as a policy wonk.

Kawaguchi, not incidentally, is also of the 1960s generation (his manga Medusa details the radical-police battles of his college days that at times raged through Shinjuku Station and Tokyo University). It might surprise people today, but the 1960s communiqués of the radical left Black Panther Party often quoted the Second Amendment. From today's political perspective, the Black Panthers were what we would call a "militia movement," believing in armed local self-defense against a government they viewed as oppressive. Tea Partiers have been spotted at rallies carrying guns, but the Panthers famously did the same thing at the California State Assembly building in 1967--not one but thirty of them showed up with rifles to protest a gun-control act then under consideration. I point this out not to weigh in on whether bearing arms in public is actually a good political tactic, but to note that what today is seen as a ultra-right gesture was, in Kawaguchi's youth, also an ultra-left gesture, and was defended using the same constitutional arguments.

I would also disagree that we never really see inside Yamaoka's head, or discover his human side; much of the final volume deals with this. Yamaoka is an idealist when it comes to what he wants to do as President, but the manga shows him as unscrupulous and reckless when it comes to how he's going to become President. His and McCoy's plan to confront the race issue and win the election is like something out of Glenn Beck (I mention this to point out that millions of Americans actually do believe in unrealistic, melodramatic, manga-like conspiracies--and by believing in them, make them part of political reality). Senator Yamaoka is egoistical and arrogant, the flip side of the charisma and self-confidence that has gotten him ever closer to the presidency. He clearly sees himself as a man of destiny, but, as you note, Eagle is the story of a family, and what nearly breaks him at the end is discovering what his messiah complex has done to his family. It seems to be where he realizes for the first time the destructive potential of his charisma (a great leader can lead people to their deaths even more easily than to a new life), which of course, can serve as a metaphor for Kawaguchi's view of America itself--certainly an amazing nation of extraordinary people, but how will it choose to use its greatness?

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(2) this is really just connected to (1), but also, I'm very cynical about the likelihood of Yamaoka's sweeping ambitions taking root in American politics; of course, "manga is fantasy," but I think Kawaguchi doesn't present Yamaoka's antiwar platform as the major challenge it would be in real life. The manga could *begin* from the point Yamaoka gives that speech -- that's like the first step climbing the mountain -- but instead, at that point the manga's already entering the final act and this potentially huge plot point is given short shrift. Of course, that's a slight exaggeration, since it does tie in to Yamaoka's character and all, and maybe I'm just projecting my own cynicism... but still.

I find this idea plausible in theory but I doubt it'd ever work in practice to convince someone that gun control is a good thing, since it doesn't take into account the huge anti-government feeling in America and in particular the libertarian edge of the anti-gun-control movement.

The thing is that you can't expect any work of fiction to be completely accurate. It's more important to get his point across than to have some guy say that while they won't be able to change America's foreign policy completely in the first year but they can get America moving in the direction they want. I mean what would it read like if Yamaoka stated that he won't be able to get America to change it's way but he will set the foundation for future people to complete his work? It would make Kawaguchi's viewpoint look weak. If Kawaguchi gets his point across than that should be enough.

I read the column on "Eagle" and there are some things I like to say. I remember read one part of this that has gotten a lot of attention. He gives a speech that not only attacks Vietnam veterans but also suggests that we hand off our defense to the U.N. I agree with Mr. Thompson that if any presidential candidate gave a speech like that his presidential run would be ended. But I also think that there are people that Yamaguchi and his fictional presidential candidate left out.
Not only would Vietnam veterans be angry at him but also Vietnamese,Cambodian,and Laotian refugees who live in this country and their American children. They would say that America tried to defend their countries but it was people like Yamaoka who let their countries be overrun by people like Ho Chi Minh and Pol Pot. They would also say that they had lost loved ones because of policies that Yamaoka supported.

Also,Korean immigrants and their families wouldn't like him either because they feel that if America had not fought the Korean War that all of Korea would have been under the control of the Kim dynasty and you probably have heard the horror stories of what life is like in North Korea. I think that Yamaguchi left those people out of his story probably didn't know that other Asians live in America or he didn't care to find out.