This is a beautiful book about a terrible subject. It's a fictionalized memoir of one unit of the Japanese Imperial army stationed on an island in Papua New Guinea during WWII. The soldiers, who are under-prepared, underfeed and under-informed, struggle against the unfamiliar climate and ecosystem. Before they even see the enemy many have died of fevers, malaria and freak accidents such as crocodile attacks and attempting to fish with hand grenades. But even the ones who survive these deadly mishaps are doomed, because they have a manic hotheaded commander who has his sights set on a suicide mission. The characters are drawn in a loose, cartoony style set against a hyper-realistic, gorgeously rendered background. Some of the drawings of sky and forest took my breath away. However, I struggled to tell the characters apart because of the minimal portrait style. I think I was less emotionally effected than I might have been since I was often unable to follow a character's path throughout the book.