ABSTRACT
The discourse analysis of Adolf demonstrates how Tezuka represents the nation as a set of narratives, for example, by the postcolonial theorist Homi Bhabha and thus reveals the layers of postcolonial discourse within Japan's graphic-novel tradition. Bhabha's suggestion that 'it is in the emergence of the interstices, the overlap and displacement of domains of difference, that the intersubjective and collective experiences of nationness, community interest, or cultural values are negotiated' is played out in the hybridity and interstitial elements of Adolf. The graphic novel reveals repeatedly that supposedly stable entities like nation, culture, and identity are volatile and, through giving voice to those absent from these narratives, like women, war orphans, and migrants, Tezuka challenges officially sanctioned national history. Thus postcolonial reading of Tezuka's Adolf is plausible and highlights the vital contribution of the literary discourse of Tezuka's graphic novels to the study of diasporic cultures during the Asia-Pacific War and, in particular, their cultural contextualization during the postwar era.
