Echoes of a War Unlived: Interview with Manga Artist Kazuyoshi Takeda, Creator of Peleliu : Guernica of Paradise

Marking eighty years since the end of the war, the acclaimed war manga Peleliu: Guernica of Paradise has been adapted into a feature-length animated film. The story follows the young men on Peleliu Island in the final phase of the Pacific War during World War II, thrust into a brutal front where fifty thousand Japanese and American soldiers fought to the death. We spoke with the original author, Kazuyoshi Takeda―who served as supervising editor and co-screenwriter for the film―bout portraying war as someone who never experienced it, what he hopes to pass on to the children of today, and how Japanese manga and film have grappled with the theme of war.

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Some Interviewees Are No Longer with Us

――How do you feel about the film adaptation arriving at this eighty-year milestone?

I started drawing the original manga when I learned about Peleliu from the news that the emperor and empress visited the island for the seventieth postwar anniversary. I also interviewed people who had actually been to Peleliu and experienced the war there, but over these ten years some of them have passed away. That's what the span from 70 to 80 years means. I never set out expecting a film, but maybe that's exactly why I ended up taking on the role of conveying this story.

――The protagonist, Tamaru Hitoshi, serves as a "military commendations clerk," recording the final moments of his comrades as heroic deaths, a job that seems to overlap with the work of carrying memory forward in the piece itself.

For those who didn't live through the war to produce this film, the first step required in order to tell the story was making Tamaru a military commendations clerk. In the film version―especially at the beginning―we emphasize even more than in the manga that he's not much use in combat.

Coming at this as someone who didn't experience the war, I went through a lot of material on the premise that I can't truly know what it was like. I learned that military commendations clerks sometimes wrote letters to bereaved families describing deaths as heroic, even when the circumstances were different―and those letters are what remain on record. What we can read today isn't automatically the truth; unless you face it with an understanding of the context of the time, you can't really read it properly.

Yes, it's a war story and there are battle scenes anchoring the narrative, but our protagonist is Tamaru―someone who's not very useful in a fight―and by having him record his comrades, we made it clear how that act of recording leads, in its way, to saving everyone.

――At the Tokyo International Film Festival symposium "How Japanese Animation Has Portrayed War" in November 2025, you said you made it a priority to bring in the objectivity that only someone without firsthand experience can have―distinct from the reality carried by those who lived it. You also paid close attention to how you depict each soldier's "everyday."

That's right. When you're fighting, there's no room to maneuver―people have no choice but to react in the same human way, like ducking when a bomb falls. But in everyday life, people scatter into their individual quirks. It's the spirit of the original too, but I tried to draw daily life so that they wouldn't read as "soldiers" under a single label―each one should feel like a different person.

Reconfirming on Set My Wish for Children to See This Film

――In making the film, you worked with producer Hiromu Ishikawa of Toei, the animation studios, and co-screenwriter Junji Nishimura. What did you value most in that collaboration?

Everything I drew in the original has meaning to me―there aren't any throwaway scenes―so I honestly thought it would be impossible to compress this story into a single feature. But when Nishimura suggested we narrow the focus to Tamaru's point of view, it clicked. And when I asked myself again who I most wanted to watch this film, the first answer was children who don't yet know much about war. I wrote the manga with upper-elementary school readers in mind, and we followed that same compass in shaping the screenplay. I think that aligned with the producer's and the production team's wish to bring this work to as many people as possible.

――The protagonist, Tamaru, is voiced by actor Rihito Itagaki. Did his Gen Z perspective bring anything new?

I really love Itagaki's voice―I strongly urged the producer to cast him as Tamaru. He's much younger than I am, but you'd never know it; he's thoughtful, and he brings his own ideas and words to everything. When we appeared together at a teach-in preview screening at Ibaraki University's Mito Campus, where we spoke with university students about war, what he said really resonated with me as the original author: "If this gives people a reason to cherish the days when they can say 'I'm home,' that would mean a lot." I'm truly glad he gave voice to Tamaru.

Manga, Anime, and Film Cross Borders,
Bringing Diverse Perspectives on the Theme of War

――The French edition of the original manga has been published overseas and has reportedly sold around 100,000 copies. What kind of feedback have you received from readers?

In Europe, even people who know a lot about the European front of World War II often aren't familiar with the Pacific War, and I've heard that curiosity led them to read it. Like in Japan, I think many in the generation that didn't experience the war read it with fresh eyes. I also heard reactions that the approachable character designs actually make the horror of war come through all the more. The other day, when I had a chance to speak with President Surangel S. Whipps Jr. of Palau―which is where Peleliu Island is―he said that if only there were an English edition, they could read it too. I hope an English version will be published someday.

――How do you view overseas manga, anime, and films that take war as their subject?

In France, you see animations made about refugees who fled their countries, and in Germany, films with anti-war messages continue to be made from a variety of angles. I think it's really good that [in Europe] there's soil where smaller projects can take root. In Japan, my impression is that there are many war works where the focus is less on war itself and more on romanticized weapons and tactics―like the Zero fighter aircraft or the battleship Yamato. I'd like to see works like Shinya Tsukamoto's Fires on the Plain (2014) draw more attention and for more greater diversity in the war films being made.

If I were to name one overseas work that left an impression on me, it would be Under sandet (English title Land of Mine; 2015). It tells the story of German boy soldiers, from the defeated side, clearing the land mines the German army left on the Danish coast. Especially in Germany, there are many works that depict not direct combat but the effects of war and the various things around it. They've given me chances to learn things I didn't know.

――Japanese manga and animated films are popular overseas. What possibilities do you see when the subject is war?

Right. Manga and film―as entertainment―have great power to cross language and culture and appeal directly to emotion, widening the gateway. I believe they hold tremendous potential for passing on memory.

Peleliu: Guernica of Paradise
Set on Peleliu Island (now part of the Republic of Palau) in the final phase of the Pacific War. The twenty-one-year-old soldier Tamaru, who aspires to become a manga artist, is appointed military commendations clerk, responsible for recording fallen comrades' last moments as "heroic deaths" for their bereaved families. Driven back by fierce US attacks, the Japanese army also suffers from hunger, thirst, and infectious disease. In these extreme conditions, Tamaru forges a bond with his dependable peer, the senior private Yoshiki―but...Of the initial 10,000 Japanese troops, only thirty-four survived. Through Tamaru's eyes, the film portrays the paths of young men who lived through a battlefield of madness. Theatrical release: December 5, 2025.　https://peleliu-movie.jp/

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