Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths

Also known as: Souin Gyokusai seyo!, 総員玉砕せよ!, Soin Gyokusai Seyo!, The Banzai! Charge, Operation Death, Opération Mort, Marcha para a morte!, Verso una Nobile Morte

by Shigeru Mizuki

Onward Towards Our Noble Deaths is his first book to be translated into English and is a semiautobiographical account of the desperate final weeks of a Japanese infantry unit at the end of World War II. The soldiers are told that they must go into battle and die for the honor of their country, with certain execution facing them if they return alive. Mizuki was a soldier himself (he was severely injured and lost an arm) and uses his experiences to convey the devastating consequences and moral depravity of the war. (Source: Drawn & Quarterly) Note: Won Best U.S. Edition of International Material at the Eisner Awards in 2012.