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In wanting to write fan fictions based on Osamu Tezuka's life during and after World War II, I've always been curious about the incident involving US Soldiers and what exactly led to the altercation. Between Tezuka's recounts and those who've wrote second hand, this is what apparently happened.

At the time, Tezuka was going through medical school due to the shortage of qualified doctors and at the behest of his mother. She felt it was wiser for him to have a second career should his desire to be an artist not be enough to support him.

His father had just returned from Manchuria and until he could find employment, Tezuka supported himself through school and his family's needs by drawing pin-up girls for US occupation soldiers. By accounts he did pretty well.

On the day of the incident, there were 4 soldiers. One was a repeat customer. All four were intoxicated.

While Tezuka was finishing a drawing for his return customer, another of the soldiers began to get billigerent because Tezuka wouldn't reply to his constant questioning...go figure since the soldier couldn't understand japanese and Tezuka spoke little english.

The irrate soldier snatched the drawing Tezuka was doing and started tearing it up. When Tezuka tried to stop him, they got into a brawl.

A second soldier jumped in and both of them beat Tezuka up.

The orriginal customer stopped the beating and pushed his buddies down the street. What happened after that is unknown since Tezuka never went into detail. I can sadly sumize though, given the abysmal legal history of the occupation, that nothing was done to help Tezuka but that's only specullation.

Another fact....the soldiers were most likely from the 123rd US Infantry Regiment, 33rd Infantry Division based in Takarazuka. In fact here is a film shot by an officer of the 123rd of the famous all female review back in 1948.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CXoUwHkB-0

The Regimental Command Post was in the Opera House itself under the command of Colonel Paul Serff.

the 1st and 2d Battalions of the 123rd were quartered in outlying parts of the city.

The home of the all woman's Takarazuka review in Tokyo was renamed the Ernie Pyle Theater by the Americans in honor of war correspondant Earnie Pyle who was killed on the island of Ie Shima near Okinawa. It was returned to its orriginal name at the end of the occupation.

Here's a picture of it.



The building is gone now. The plot taken up by apartment buildings.

As for the grand Opera house that was once the 123rd's HQ, here it is today.



As for the location of the 1st Battalion's encampment? In this picture and from US Army records, it's the grass and shrub embankment on the left of the photo. You can see the Opera House in the distance behind the high rise.



So I think it was probably soldiers from the 1st battalion who encountered Tezuka in that altercation.

Well now I know where the 2nd Battalion of the 123rd was stationed.

http://books.google.com/books?id=NfWDeMCT5wgC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=US+ARMY+TAKARAZUKA&source=bl&ots=uYqpgiQDMV&sig=veuXaw0NJx2h3yYlwM_t0ZrCdzw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iflLT82nE6KLiAKt2uGuDw&ved=0CEgQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=US%20ARMY%20TAKARAZUKA&f=false

Here's a book written by a soldier of Company K, 2nd Battalion in Nishinomiya. So it had to be soldiers from 1st Battalion.

In Tezuka's own drawings of the episode, there seems to have been a black soldier among the group who was the one Tezuka was drawing for. Since the Army was still segragated at the time, the black soldier was probably a mess cook, truck driver or regimental supply/support soldier of some capacity.

http://www.33rdinfantrydivision.org/documents/123rd_infantry_history.pdf

Here's the pictoral history of the 123rd Rgt. On page 37 in the book there's a picture of the Takarazuka theater all done up in what looks like German tiger striped paint!

The 1st Battalion initially started staying at the Opera house until 2 camps in Takarazuka were furnished, housing 800 soldiers (2 companies) a piece. Companies A and B occupied the spot along the Mako River in the photo above.

I love to learn more, the only thing I know that in one chapter of Astroboy, Tezuka ranted on how Americans thought Astroboy was to violent for tv he then started talking about the violence Americans committed he was also anoyyed by Americans belief that the Japanese eat other humans/ That is the short of my knowledge.

I wanted to update some of the photos I've taken regarding Tezuka's World War II and Occupation period.

[img][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/dannavy85/Bivoacofthe24thID1945takarazuka_zps57534586.jpg[/img][/IMG]

This photo is taken from the bridge that leads to the Takarazuka opera house and shows the river bank on the right that was the bivoac site of the 33rd US Infantry and later the 24th Infantry division during their occupation time.

[img][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/dannavy85/overheadoftheTakarazukaBivoac_zps32a4f3cb.jpg[/img][/IMG]

This overhead shot shows the bank again. All this used to be nothing but grassland but now they're building on it.

[img][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/dannavy85/museumoverhead_zpsb124a674.jpg[/img][/IMG]

Here's a nice overhead picture of the Tezuka museum and the amusement park (google Earth obviously)

[img][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/dannavy85/museumground_zps6e80f133.jpg[/img][/IMG]

The museum and the Phoenix statue from ground level. Google earth was actually nice enough to go inside the museum itself so you can go on a virtual tour of the place. : ) It is so cool.

Now this picture would be a close representation of what a B-29 bomber crew saw in April 1945 as they flew over their target, The massive Imperial Arsenal grounds surrounding Osaka Castle.

[img][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/dannavy85/b-29strikeonosaka_zpse679e6ff.jpg[/img][/IMG]

[img][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/dannavy85/osakarailyard_zps28de46ce.jpg[/img][/IMG]

This picture shows the JNR rail yards that Tezuka saw bombed while he was in an air raid warning tower above the asbestos plant he was working at as a teenager. Note in the picture the baseball diamond to the right, the fountain to the left and a small blue color roof building that's inside the castle grounds? The foundation of the asbestos factory is inside the wood lot that's shaped like a tadpole. I didn't have time to mark it out but a friend of mine in Japan will be sending photos of it.

Between videos posted on YouTube and Google maps I've electronically toured the museum, I hope to be able to do that for real some day. If I ever have to go to Beijing on business, and if there is a connecting flight home through Osaka, I will take advantage of that!

Moved this thread to General Discussion since it has more to do with Tezuka than Astro Boy.