Hikaru Kaze

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The wind, still as unrelenting as ever…
The wind was tenaciously striking against the heavy, murky and muggy earth… Without any ounce of pity, the wind was bringing his last glimmer of consciousness far away, so far away…
In a ray of light ...

Year XX of the Showa Era, the Moike village is suddenly struck by a mysterious disease: 12300 victims amongst whom 712 died. The investigation that lasted for 50 days did not allow to reveal the bacteria responsible for it. The local population remains helpless against this indescribable dread. Around 80% of the babies born 6 months later show severe deformities that would be caused by this disease. The investigation is to be closed despite the protestations of civilians all over the country. The commission charged to study the Moike disease is dissolved. In the village, defect babies keep seeing the light of day: it is only 9 years later that their numbers start to decrease. 10 years later, they would only be 2. From this day, in 32 years, there would not be any of these kinds again.
Gen Rokkoji is a young man born in a conservative family where men typically serve in the army and patriotism is the main value to uphold. At the polar opposite of these people, thinking this relationship of power as petty and hollow and decides to definitely leave his family house when he sees one of his classmates get beat up and killed unfairly on the street and this act be defended by his older brother. With ideals of liberty and a youth free from the brain-washing of the government, Gen now lives alone and starts working for a small publishing house. There, he learns from his boss of the Moike illness and will start to unravel the truth behind it and why the research team was suddenly shut down. But the search for this horrible reality is not without danger and the risks are severe as revealing it would mean losing all trust towards the state; chased by the military, sent to a psychiatric asylum, he will have to make the right choices and ally with the right people if he wants to see through his plan.


A first postscript suggests that Hikaru Kaze, released in 1970, was created to denounce the Japanese society of the time and that Tatsuhiko Yamagami meant it to be a sort of anti-governmental pamphlet.
“When Japan surrenders in 1945 and is occupied by Americans during the post-war period, it knows a short moment of democratization until 1949 when Mao Zedong enters into power. With communists now becoming a major threat, the US had to revise entirely its geopolitics and has to find new allies in the vicinities. That is how Japan became a pillar into the fight against the red menace.
This alliance with an old foe will sound the death of Japanese left-wing parties, Communist Party, Socialist Party and syndicates whose members will suffer from violent or even lethal repressive measures from the part of Japanese authorities – illustrated pretty well in the beginning of Ayako. With conservative members taking back the power, furthermore supported by a bureaucracy heavily influenced by fascist ideology of the 1930s, young citizens felt the urge to gather into radical student associations in the early 60s.
The anger of the Japanese youth were many : in part because of the educational system and the selection for university but also because the Vietnam War was at its peak and the support of the Japanese government to the Americans meant, for example, that they would let nuclear aircraft carrier in their docks. That was hard to accept for a generation still deeply traumatized by the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and could only see badly the fact that Japan became a tool of American imperialism.
Added to that, there were also some concerns regarding domestical matters. The return of Japanese conservative was followed with an economic boom that transformed Japan into a giant factory. Destroyed by Americans, it became, 20 years later, one of the world’s big power, confirmed when it held the 1964 Summer Olympics.
However, this economic frenzy is also accompanied with side effects: this liberalist and “all economic” model caused a lot of industrial pollution, particularly in the Minamata Bay where the mercury dumped out into the sea by a petrochemical factory, affecting more than 10 000 people and resulting in a lot of birth defects. This is clearly not an isolated case of dramatic industrial pollution as it also happened in Narita where the building of a new international airport led to a brutal expropriation of farmers and thus losing all their means of income. The anger of the people became general and could be felt all over the country.
1968 became a turning point in the fight and protest of the people, similarly to what would happen in a lot of other countries like the US, France or Slovakia in May 68. In the case of Japan, this revolution started as early as January with the arrival of the USS enterprise. Trained by the Zengakuren, the national association of students formed a few years earlier, students assaulted the American base that was taking care of it. In February, the Okinawa base located in the Pacific Ocean where the B52 bombs that were dropped daily in the Vietnam war became assaulted as well. In March, a violent confrontation between policers and students allied with farmers of Narita ensues. This movement of protest is at its peak in October in Tokyo when students and workers invade the Japanese Parliament as well as the U.S embassy, police stations and even the Shinjuku station. This riot will last 3 whole days in more than 300 cities.
January 1969 sounds the end of this conflict. Still, a small group of people still eager to fight will form an anti-imperialist group called the Sekigun or the United Red Army who will become well known in the 70s for joining the Palestinian fight and by leading an attack against the Tel-Aviv airport in 1972”


In the same way as a certain “Tomorrow’s Joe”, although it is not certain how big of an impact it had when it came out, Hikaru Kaze is politically charged and had a big influence on its readership, many testifying that it changed for the better their outlook on life and made their naïve selves aware of the mecanisms rooted in their society, and it is easy to see how while reading it because of how oppressive and harrowing it could manage to be and how some of Gen catchphrases are still relatable today.
Essentially Hikaru Kaze could be described as a Tezuka lookalike, borrowing a lot to his artstyle and to his more mature storytelling t. It still has a similar appeal to his more mature manga, this vintage timeless look, that effective graphic violence and this multi-layered scenario with lots of plot twists and change of situations, managing to keep a fluid progression throughout and manage to make us feel for the different characters, all in a way victims of their fate. This similarity that Tatsuhiko Yagami has with Tezuka could however be a big turnoff to some as the latter is still undeniably more talented, especially in his sense of paneling or in how he handles the tone of his stories.