This is a small look at writer and artist, MITSUTERU YOKOYAMA'S, classic 1956 manga, "TETSUJIN 28-GO", and the 1963 Japanese anime series made from it. Which had to be "politically corrected" for American audiences, 18-years after the end of the Second World War, to become the English language anime, 1964's, "GIGANTOR".
Mitsuteru Yokoyama was born on June 18, 1934, in Kobe, Japan.
On December 7, 1941, in a surprise attack, the Japanese Imperial Navy bombed the American Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Along with the adjacent Army Base at Hickam Field, bringing Japan into the Second World War.
On April 18, 1942, 16, B-25 Mitchell bombers, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle, left the flight deck of the USS Hornet. The "Mitchell's" bombed the city of Tokyo, on the Japanese archipelago, bringing the war back to Japan.
Shortly after "The Doolittle Raid", Mitsuteru Yokoyama, with his family, was evacuated to the safety of Tottori Prefecture, on Honshu (Akitsushima, "Dragonfly Island"), the largest of Japan's four islands. On September 10, 1943, the magnitude 7, "Tottori earthquake", took place.
On March 16 and 17, 1945, as part of a series of "Strategic Bombing Raids", conducted by the United States Army Air Corps, 331, B-29 bombers, fire bombed the city of Kobe.
On June 5, 1945, 530 bombers, again fire bombed, and destroyed 3.8 square miles of Kobe.
The last American attack on the birthplace of Mitsuteru Yokoyama, was on Monday, July 30, 1945.
The Japanese formally surrendered, ending, the Second World War, on September 2, 1945. After two Atomic bombs were dropped by the United States, "Little Boy", on Hiroshima, August 6, 1945, and, "Fat Boy", on Nagasaki, August 9, 1945.
Before the Second World War in 1940, Kobe, was the 6th largest Japanese city, with a population of 967, 234, at the time of the 1945 Japanese surrender, the population of Kobe was shown as 379, 166.
The remembrances of a 11-years-old boy from Kobe, influenced his creation of the manga, "Tetsujin 28-go".
In a 1995 issue, month unknown, of "Ushio Magazine", is found the following quote by Yokoyama:
When I was a fifth-grader, the war ended and I returned home from Tottori Prefecture, where I had been evacuated. The city of Kobe had been totally flattened, reduced to ashes. People said it was because of the B-29 bombers...as a child, I was astonished by their terrifying, destructive power.
Besides his Second World War experiences, according to Anne Allison and Gary Gross, in their, 2006, "Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and Global Imagination", Mitsuteru Yokoyama had two other influences for his manga:
The first of the two influences, were Nazi Germany's "V-weapons".
Above the "V-1 Rocket", below, the "V-2".
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According to Allison and Gross, Yokoyama's second influence was director James Whale, 1931, classic horror motion picture, "Frankenstein".
Above, original poster for 1931's, "Frankenstein", below, cover of the March, 1959, issue of "Tetsujin 28-go".
Flashback:
The "Battle of Leyte Gulf", October 23rd through October 26, 1944, had disseminated the once powerful "Imperial Japanese Navy". In July, 1945, what was left of that Navy, was concentrated in Kure, a city in Hiroshima Prefecture. On July 24, 25, and 28, the attacks by the United States Third Fleet, sunk one aircraft carrier, three battleships, five cruisers, and other smaller Naval vessels. While, the British Pacific Fleet, on the same dates, attacked Japanese Naval bases on the other islands.
From that point forward, it had been up to the "Imperial Japanese Army" to fight the allies. Which brings me to:
MITSUTERU YOKOYAMA'S, 1956, "TETSUJIN 28-GO"
The Original Main Characters:
Shotaro Kaneda is a 10-years-old boy, and may partly be Mitsuteru Yokoyama, after having experienced all of the above. Shotaro is a respected "boy detective" throughout Tokyo. He is the controller for 'Tetsujin 28-go", and has developed a deep attachment to the robot. Probably, because the robot was created by Shotaro's father and the boy has no mother. Who she was and what became of her is not given.
Professor Shikishima was Dr. Kaneda's assistant and has become Shotaro's mentor and legal guardian. He is a married man with a son, Tetsuo. Shikishima has a habit of looking very stern and serious, but that appearance hides a loving and caring person.
Inspector Ootsuka is the Chief of the Tokyo Police. Ootsuka takes his responsibilities as Tokyo's police chief very seriously. However, like his close friend, Professor Shikishima, has a warm personality, and watches over the "boy detective", at times acting like his father.
Kenji Murasame is a former "Intelligence Officer", who assists both Shotaro and Ootosuka. In the manga, Kenji and his brother, Ryuusaku, are yakuza gang leaders. They have another brother, Tatsu. In the 2004 manga series, Kenji's brother's are murdered.
Professor Shutain Franken is the mad and reclusive scientist that builds the evil robot, "The Black Ox". One had to wonder, if Mitsuteru Yokoyama debated adding "Stein" to the professor's last name? When the 1960's manga series started, his name was changed to "Dr. Black Dog".
Superhuman Kelly is an American man. Who during the Second World War, volunteered to be turned into an android as part of a wartime experiment. As a result of the experiment, his body with the exception of his brain, is entirely robotic and is covered in bandages
The "Pacific War" is nearing its end, and the remaining leaders of the "Imperial Japanese Army" have come up with a possible means of defeating the allies. They want to use "Dr. Kaneda", and his assistant and friend, "Professor Shikishima's", 63-feet-tall robot, "Tetsujin 28-go" to fight for the homeland. "Tetsujin 1-go" through "27-go" were failures for one thing, or another, but the scientists are positive that "28" will work and a test was set-up.
However, before the they can test the giant robot. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki take place, Japan surrenders on the American battleship "USS Missouri", and the army's need for the robot has apparently ended.
Next, "Dr. Kaneda" and "Professor Shikishima", still go ahead with their test, and it is successful. "Dr. Kanedo", having been overworked by the army, has slowly become very ill. After he gives the robot's control box to his 10-years-old son, "Shotaro", the doctor passes away. With the help of the professor, the boy learns to control the robot, and becomes the "Boy Detective".
The main story lines for the July 1956 through May 1966 manga, include "Shotaro" and "Tetsujin 28-go" uncovering different groups of men from the Japanese army and navy planning to keep the war going and want the robot. Other ex-military are planning to sabotage the "Allied Occupation of Japan".
The "boy detective" does carry a gun, and at times drives a car. The stories get's away from the war after a while and there are other normal detective cases. Such as going after jewel thieves, and bank robbers. Along with battles with the "Black Ox" and other nefarious robots.
The following are examples of Mitsuteru Yokoyamna's art work for the manga series that is available in a 24-volume set.
Above are "Shotaro", "Tetsujin 28-go", and "Inspector Ootsuka".
TETSUJIN 28-GO The Live Action Series:
According to the website "Tokupedia", at:
https://tokusatsu.fandom.com/wiki/Tetsujin_28-go_(Live_Action)
This series of only 13-episodes, ran from February 1, 1960 through April 25, 1960, and was:
A loose adaptation of the first few volumes of the then ongoing Tetsujin 28 manga, the plot involves boy detective Shotaro Kaneda ending up in the control of a 2 meter World War II era robot "Tetsujin 28-go" and with help from the Japanese Self Defense Force and Shikishima Heavy Industries, he must stop the terror group "QX" (PX in the original manga) from using robots to terrorize Japan.
The Animated TETSUJIN 28-GO and GIGANTOR:
The original "Tetsujin 28-go" animated series, was shown on "Fuji Television", from October 20, 1963 through May 25, 1966. Initially there were 84-episodes, but it was decided to add an additional 13, for a total of 97-episodes. The anime series had one writer, Kinzo Okamoto, who based his individual story lines, some taking three-episodes to tell, upon the manga written by Mitsuteru Yokoyama.
Other sites had variations of the 1963 list, but I was unable to find one with all the titles, and more importantly the plots for the episodes. This changed, if I went for the later "New Tetsujin 28", October 3, 1980 through September 25, 1981, for 51-episodes, "Tetsujin 28 FX", April 5, 1992 through March 30, 1993, for 47-episodes, or the even later, "Tetsujin 28 Gao!", April 6, 2013 through March 26, 2016, for 151-episodes.
Back on January 1, 1963, "Fuji Television" premiered an anime program, based upon a manga by Osamu Tezuka, "Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy)". The original program ran through December 31, 1966, for 193-episodes . American television producer, Fred Ladd, negotiated to bring the series to the United States and have it dubbed into English. The English language series ran from September 7, 1963 through August 20, 1965, for 104-episodes. Ladd is also credited with bringing the term "ANIME" to the world.
Back in March 1959, "Marvel Comics", had released, "Tales of Suspense, Issue #39". That issue introduced their character of "Tony Stark" aka: "Iron Man". As a result, the English translation of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's robotic character's name, and title for the anime series, would face United States copyright infringement, and more importantly, confusion over which character was which? Fred Ladd, for the English language version of "Tetsujin 28-go", renamed the robot, "Gigantor", because of its giant size.
That was the easiest decision to be made by American producer Fred Ladd (actually Fred Laderman) for the English language dubbing.
The real problem facing Ladd, was the same one he faced with Tezuka's "Astro Boy". The subtle-anti-American sentiment found in some episodes of the original Japanese anime series by writer Kinzo Okamoto. Sentiment Okamoto based upon the Second World War experiences of Mitsuteru Yokoyama found in his original manga series.
Some of my readers today, not of my generation, might find it hard to understand, why, 18-years after Japan's surrender. Animosity toward American's still existed in Japan over the Second World War.
Flipping that anti-American sentiment to anti-Japanese:
On April 26, 1960, "Toho Studios", released the excellent motion picture, from the Japanese point of view, about Pearl Harbor and the Battle of Midway, "Hawaii-Midway Battle of the Sea and Sky: Storm in the Pacific Ocean". Over a year later, on Wednesday, December 6, 1961, an American re-edit of that motion picture, running twenty-minutes shorter, dubbed into English with some changed dialogue, was released. The purpose of producer Hugo Grimaldi's re-edit was to use the 20th Anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor to make money. He knew there was still some anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States over that Pearl Harbor attack.
Grimaldi's new film title was:
Because of that lingering anti-Japanese sentiment, Fred Ladd had to make the anime series, "Tetsujin 28-go", as unrelated to the Second World War, as Walt Disney's, "Son of Flubber", released January 16, 1963, was to it.
The following two links are perfect examples of the changes that had to be made.
Linked below, is Episode One, October 20, 1963, of the original "Tetsujin 28-go" anime series. There are no subtitles, but even if you don't know Japanese. Watch after the opening credits, as "Dr. Kaneda", on his death bed, is telling his son, "Shotaro", as in the original manga, about his robot and where to find it. It is designed to catch the Japanese audience's feelings and remembrances of the war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdOHaRYIQus
While Episode One, linked below, of "Gigantor", aired January 1, 1964, as "Struggle at the South Pole", see my mention of it above, starts with a semi-comic tone to it, has no father's death scene, and proceeds into a mystery about who and why foreign country bases at the South Pole are being attacked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmdUzVHEwno
"Gigantor" had only 52-episodes, starting on January 1, 1964 and running through February 21, 1964. The Americanization of "Tetsujin 28-go" had the setting changed from post-Second World War Tokyo, to the year 2000.
The Character Changes:
Shotaro Kaneda has now become American, still boy-detective, Jimmy Sparks. Depending upon the source, he is either 10, or 12-years-old.
Chief of Police, Inspector Ootsuka has now become Inspector Blooper.
Professor Shikishima has now become Dr. Bob Brilliant.
Kenji Murasame has now become the non-criminal, Dick Strong.
Instead of the more serious tone of "Tetsujin 28-go". The four work as a team of crime fighters. Who battle a group of villains with names such as "Dr. Katzmeow", "Big Fang", "Buttons", and Professor Stinger".
The 51-episodes of "New Tetsujin 28", were dubbed into English by Fred Ladd, to become "The New Adventures of Gigantor". These new "Gigantor" episodes were first shown on the "Sci-Fi Channel", starting on September 9, 1993, and the final episode was not broadcast until June 30, 1997.
As I started this article, this was just a taste of one program that started the worldwide craze for Japanese anime. All of these series are available for your viewing.
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