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There're some Mamoru Oshii book lists on the Internet, but they don't have detailed explanations about the contents. My Mamoru Oshii book collection is far from complete, but I'd like to write some short summaries for each of those books.
I apologize in advance for grammatical errors and misinformation.
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title: 雷轟 rolling thunder PAX JAPONICA
release: 04/12/2006
publisher: Enterbrain
[contents]
novel part
Antietam, 1862
YAMATO station, 1969
afterword
essay part
TOKYO Fortification Project
PAX JAPONICA, Melancholy of the Hegemonic Power
The World of PAX JAPONICA: interview with Mamoru Oshii
commentary by Isaku Okabe
[review]
PAX JAPONICA is Oshii's new novel series, and Rolling Thunder is supposedly the first volume of that series.
Oshii intends to make a long saga like Kerberos. He also says that he tried to connect the Kerberos universe with the PAX JAPONICA universe, but it didn't work well. Anyway, it is an alternate history fiction series.
The story begins in the Battle of Antietam. In this universe, the CSA achieved a military victory through Robert Lee's attack on Washington. After that battle, the UK and France approved the CSA. Since the USA was divided into two countries, they didn't obtain hegemony in the 20th century.
After achieving control over Southeast Asia, Japan got into Vietnam War, like the USA did in real history. The protagonist of "Rolling Thunder" is a bomber pilot called Godo. He pilots A8M7 (a dead copy of He219A2) in the Vietnam War.
His mission is to bomb various bridges over and over. The pilots know that there are more critical targets in the enemy's land, but they're not allowed to attack those targets due to some political problems with the Soviet Union. That too is based on the real USA's history.
One day, Godo stops caring about the meaningless missions and decides to commit himself to the war more "seriously". He wants to pursue the "legitimacy of justice", not being controlled by the political games. He gets into a battle against MiG-17.
As I mentioned in the review of Panzer Cops Tokyo War, Oshii has been heavily influenced by Daisuke Sato. The story and the alternate history premises are so similar to one of Sato's novels. When Oshii and Sato talked with each other, Sato jokingly said that Oshii should pay a royalty of PAX JAPONICA to him. Later, Oshii said that Sato was half-serious.
The theme of PAX JAPONICA is Japan and the just wars. Oshii has repeatedly argued that the Japanese government and its people have avoided considering those two themes by using the peace principle as excuses. He believes that we can't think of justice and war without committing ourselves to them. And thus, current Japanese people have no right to speak about justice. We gave up the rights of our own will.
Bombers are symbols of "justice" in that kind of sense.
In the essay part, Oshii says this:
As Douhet said, only the bomber's side can control aerial bombardment, and that's the strategical merit of the bombing. Interception battle is essentially passive. It can stir people's emotions, especially Japanese people's desperate emotions. It can easily evoke catharsis. I have to admit that I too love it as an interceptor fanboy.
Needless to say, we should get over such emotions and empathy.
We need to awaken Japanese people, not intoxicating them.
In this extreme fantasy, we shouldn't become 'victims' anymore. We shouldn't enjoy the distorted images of the apocalypse. That mentality has been the toxic stabilizer of our history.
The desperate emotions and the admiration for experimental aircraft come from our defeatism.
We must kill Space Battleship Yamato's kamikaze attack spirit.
In this extreme fantasy, we should become victimizers and get over the past. I changed my stance on that theme.
I have to say, justice is not on the side of victims.
It is always the bomber's side that has to think of justice, not the victim's side.
History is written by winners. Only winners can pass the legitimacy down the generations.
Losers' history lacks legitimacy because they rely on the resentment advantage.
As you can see, that theme is related to Patlabor 2 the Movie. In the essay part, Oshii himself admits that he put the same theme into P2.
According to Makoto Noda's essay part, PAX JAPONICA started from a video art project. Mori Building Company asked Oshii to make a video art about the Roppongi district. Oshii made a short document called TOKYO Fortification Project and proposed it to Mori Building. Later, it was turned into two conceptual videos art called TOKYO SCANNER and TOKYO VEIN.
The video project was canceled at that time, so Oshii brought the idea into a couple of talk shows with Isaku Okabe. ("How to make TOKYO" and "Howling in the Night") Oshii explained the Fortification Project in the first show. In the second show, however, he said that the fortification doesn't work. He realized that Japan needs to own aerial bombers.
Those events happened during the production of INNOCENCE.
The novel itself is not recommendable to anime fans, to be honest. It is not a fun book to read without the background I explained. If you want to try it, I recommend reading the essay part first.
Anyway, it is an important step of Oshii's filmography/ bibliography.
