Mein Kampf Manga Selling Well
While it is not a best seller, especially by manga standards, the manga version of Hitler’s most infamous writing, わが闘争
There have been calls recently to allow the publishing of Mein Kampf in Germany, which is something that has been forbidden since the end of World War II. On top of that the work is still under copyright, being held by the Bavarian Finance Ministry, but that will end in 2015. To head off Neo-Nazi groups who would twist the work to their ends, German Jewish author Rafael Seligmann has suggested publishing an annotated version to give readers an historical framework and educate people about the evil that was Hitler. So far, the proposal for lifting the ban has not been accepted. As for the manga version, it has been dismissed by the Ministry as the wrong medium to tell the story in.
Nazis and their imagery (Nazi chic) seem to show up with surprising frequency in Japan. I’ve seen swastikas (of a definitely non-Buddhist variety) on middle-schoolers’ pencil cases. I’ve seen Nazi flags hanging casually in special sections of book stores. And I’ve seen cosplay nazi girls, as well as odd guys in German uniforms* in the park. While I think it’s safe to say that interest in Nazis is by no means the norm, it does not seem to be met with the shock that it would be in the Western world. In short, I hope that the majority of people buying this manga are reading it for the right reasons: to learn and to not repeat the past, which should not be treated lightly in this case.
Japan, as far as I know, has no legally-enforced bans on glorifying it’s own past regime, the Japanese Empire of WWII–something that one foreigner recently tried, and more or less failed, to bring to the attention of right-wingers at Yasukuni. But at the same time, there is concern and criticism from vocal parties that despite the lack of a ban, the Japanese public is not sufficiently educated in school about the horrors of the past.
[Source: ANN]
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*In this case, the uniform is not of the SS variety, a but possibly a Wehrmacht uniform. It’s still an odd sight.
Contributor Bio: Claytonian blogs and vlogs about Japan, language, and news at The Hopeless Romantic.
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It seems there are pros and cons over this book .
売れる「わが闘争」漫画版 苦言も「歴史資料」の声も
2009年9月6日（朝日）
I neither do think that Japanese people “have interest in forming a neo-Nazi organization”, just because it’s something way too exotic and far away from Japanese’s people everyday preoccupations. Besides, I don’t think that antisemitism, which is a basic concept of nazism, would make any sense here.
Japanese right-wing nationalists have their own uniforms and beliefs, which I personally find way more scary that a very bad taste cosplay.
Maybe here the only thing that really shocks me here is the general ignorance (should I use the word “disdain” ?) of the population for what’s happening – or happened – in the rest of the world. Yeah, I know, 島国だから… Well, if Japan still want a permanent seat at the UN, they should definitely start to work on these…
I agree that the Japanese people should know how they will be perceived by the western people if they wear Nazi uniform, for instance.
But I’d like to point out that Japanese know,for instance, that Jews were massacred, black people have been discriminated but it is the meaning of the symbolic forms and prejudices western people are trying to suppress that the Japanese don’t know.
Few Japanese link black people with monkey, fried chicken,etc. a few Japanese might wear Nazi uniforms for aesthetic reason, a few Japanese might paint their face black to impersonate black people, but they don’t understand the messages the symbolic forms send in another countries.
And I am not sure if the symbols without evil message is evil just because the symbols are associated with malice message in another culture.
And I am not sure if it is necessary or desirable for the Japanese people to import prejudices and ideologies, albeit negatively, in order to suppress the symbolic forms the Japanese people happen to manifest without malice intention.
I think this is a difficult problem.
It seems to me in some cases it is not Japan but those local societies with prejudices and evil practice that should do something to eliminate them,
BTW I didn’t know right-wing nationalists have their own uniforms
While I by no means condone what the Nazis did, I still consider the whole imagery of the fashion, the color scheme, the uniforms, etc. of the regime to be undeniably cool when taken out of context and viewed from an objective standpoint. It sort of has an elegance and sense of style that is hard to find today.
So it’s understandable that people would want to dress up in it if they weren’t more knowledgeable about all the stigma associated with Nazism in the rest of thew world.
once Japan discriminated buraku ppl because of dirty image.
so was jew in europe.
dirty image makes prejudice and discrimination easily.
these flag, symbol and uniform has noting to do with guilty.
You have seen a normal Brown-Shirt Outfit?
German suit maker Hugo Boss designed the Nazi SA and SS uniforms, and they were one of the key tools in recruiting members of the Hitler Youth.
They may be fashionable, but they served a very creepy purpose.
Hugo Boss was only designer of SA Uniform. His design came from braun german uniforms of Lettow-Vorbeck forces.
SS uniform was designed by Karl Diebitsch and Walter Heck.
the thing what did HJ popular were gratis summer camps wiht heavy politicaly, social and millitary “education” and new social position wich youth used without to care about money and where they came from. later all youth organisations were forced to be under command of HJ.
Thanks for the clarification.
Oh good god. The picture makes it worse. Is it not bad enough they’re still apologizing for WWII war acts?
I don’t follow you at all.
well they killed a lot of people. 3 million jews and millions more died during the war.
Stalin killed millino more, for political reasons. :/
Isn’t the normal figure six million? WWII was pretty devistating to many populations on top of the death camps.
Does Hitler pilot a giant SS mech-suit in outer space?
Let’s get this out of the way for a reference (no offense intended):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Japanese_Workers_and_Welfare_Party
Is this in someway critical towards its source material? Afterall somebody thought of putting Ausschwitz on the cover page as a good idea.
Claytonian, I assume you have read this manga, right? What are your views on it?
I’m afraid the news of the sales numbers was the first mention I’ve heard made of this manga.
Much to my shame, I’ve not even gotten ahold of Osamu’s Adolf. I’ll make a point of trying to find it tomorrow.
Amazon has it in stock (one less now).
If you’re going to review it, you might want to check out the latest translation of original that came out recently.
It’s an interesting idea – kind of reminds me of the Beginners Documentary Comic Books series. (Heidegger for Beginners was quite good). Frankly, there was a time I would have sold my soul for a manga version of das Kapital.
I’d like to read it, but I’m afraid to order it. I’ll wait for a torrent to pop up.
there are a lot..have you tried searching?
There’s actually a nazi style cafe in South Korea I believe. Nazi imagery and the like just doesn’t seem to have the same impact in asia compared to europe.
The Swastika and nazi imagery are not more offensive that the stars and stripes or David star.
You’ve got to be kidding.
Israel and the USA also committed some kind of war crimes but comparing them to the Nazi Germany is an exaggeration.
Maybe if you compare them with Japan …
Even then. The trouble with the Nazis was not their normal generic war crimes, but the Holocaust – really, really BAD publicity for the swastika.
1/10…too overt and too predictable
lrn2troll
People read books for a lot of different reasons. I read Yamamoto Shichihei’s The Japanese and the Jews in 1989, not long after I first arrived in Japan, because Nihonjinron ideas were still prevalent at the time. I kept hearing all these extremely bizarre things about Japan’s “unique culture” and was trying to get to their source. Rather than converting me, The Japanese and the Jews made me dislike Nihonjinron all the more.
I would like to read the English translation of Mein Kampf. I made a half-hearted stab at it years ago, but put it down almost immediately–it’s no accident that Hitler is remembered as an evil genius and mass-murderer rather than a writer.
One thing I do know about Mein Kampf is that it does not promote the idea of the “big lie.” In fact, rather promoting the idea of the big lie, Hitler disparagingly attributes its use to the Jews.
If written in more detail about that here: Famous Misquotes.
Until Americans release the Natives from their “Reservations” nobody is going to really a damn.
This is pretty depressing. But I suspect that banning it will only increase its coolness — and sales.
But Eric (above) makes an interesting point: Mein Kampf is just about the crappiest writing imaginable — all sorts of meanderings and non sequiturs. The only way to make it halfway interesting is to put it in manga form. And the chic of the uniforms will no doubt attract a lot of kids.
God.
Some Asians admire the Nazi stuff under the cultural and historical perspective, putting the ideology aside.
However they should be aware that as a sign of an imperialist and genocide political movement they bring hatred and sorrow to many people.
I am surprised that no one has commented on Seligmann’s idea making an annotated version to bring the book into perspective for the modern reader. I think it’s a fabulous idea, and could only be improved upon by including photos of the wake of madness that followed Hitler.
I am even more surprised that this hasn’t reignited the Brockenman post from a while back. Is Kinnikuman to blame for this new wave of Nazi fashion?
It’s weird to see. When I go to comiket it always freaks me out a bit at first in the historical doujinshi section when you see 18-24 yr old kids dressed up as nazi ss soliders all the while they’re laughing and giggling and having a good time. I want to say comiket 75 I saw a japanese gentleman cosplaying Stalin. We saw him a few times wandering around and we referred to him as Japanese Stalin. Was a pretty good likeness for the most part. But yah it’s so bizarre to see it. Especially if you’re not prepared for it.
it does not seem to be met with the shock that it would be in the Western world—
lol.. what should i say..
http://www.spiegel.de/img/0,1020,425524,00.jpg
The wacko in the park photo – he’s wearing a Wehrmacht jacket and an SS cap as it is adorned with the ‘Totenkopf’. Mix-n-match to suit the season I guess.
Sadly, even cats are not immune from the lure of Nazi fashions:
http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/cgi-bin/seigboard.pl?30
This is what we get to enjoy in America:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzimIMdARCI&feature=PlayList&p=6B17D856BC9CD004
Japanese woman in black uniform is Waffen-SS.
I spoke with Axis History readers about shoulder boarder, ranks and collar tabs.
Readers say left collar tabs is SS-Sturmbannführer or (rank of) Major. Right collar tabs is SS mark since based on uniform.
http://www.axishistory.com/fileadmin/user_upload/c/collar-ss-ill-sturmbannfuhrer.jpg
Shoulder boarder on both shoulders is SS-Sturmbannführer.
http://www.axishistory.com/fileadmin/user_upload/s/shoulder-wss-ill-sturmbannf.jpg
http://www.axishistory.com/fileadmin/user_upload/s/shoulder-wss-sturmbannf-feldgendarmerie.jpg
Two Uniforms is belong to…
1) Waffen-SS SS-Sturmbannführer Black Uniform (Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler) without SS-Kampfbinde
2) Allgemeine-SS with SS Arm Band
SS-Kampfbinde mean SS Arm Band
http://www.axishistory.com/fileadmin/user_upload/s/ss-brassard.jpg
Visit to http://www.axishistory.com/
OK you’re scaring us now, with your fanaticism
There are many ignorant comments here. I fought on the bad side. All of us understood the issues. Make no mistake, success had the unspoken importance. There is nothing glamorous about death and destruction, especially human lives. I have lived over 60 years in shame for my duty and service.
That uniform is not SS. I put one on every day for five years. Hitler serves as an example as not to bury your head at evil around you. This disgraces modern Germans.
Look at it from my vantage point. I lived it.