SHOWA 1939 - 1944 is the second volume of Shigeru Mizuki's historical and autobiographical account of the long-running Showa Era. It dissects Japan's entry into World War II after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and on a personal level, shows the end of Mizuki's idyllic childhood in the countryside when he’s drafted and shipped off to the tiny island of Rabaul in Papua New Guinea.