to bridge the gap between education and entertainment for Japanese children, with limited success, due to a lack of public support of the manga. This is most likely due to the conflict between the didactic nature of these manga and the preconceived notion that manga should be enjoyed entirely for its creative and entertaining appeal. manga naturally gravitated towards the rental book genre, known as . Consumers were enabled to borrow titles for a small fee from local shops, which can be seen as a "precursor of modern libraries". Postwar manga was available in a number of different avenues; from the aforementioned rental book stores, in candy stores, on the streets by peddlers or from a subscription with Tokyo-based magazines, which were typically issued monthly. A successful genre of manga was war manga, focusing on past historical periods. Printed media as a medium was limited in its timeliness; commentary on current issues was better suited to the evolving television medium. In response to the growing viewership of television sets, publishers set out to develop their readerships by carving out their own niche; focusing on past historical periods in a documentary style. This approach was successful; manga had devised a way to compete and keep up with the fast pace of television broadcasts. Not only did this configuration and retelling of past historical periods have a commercial success, it was also important for the Japanese people culturally. Facing an uncertain future following the Second World War, the Japanese people found pride in the retelling of their national past, using and other such mediums to paint images of heroic fighter plane pilots and war heroes. This positive reconfiguration served both as a memento of those that gave their lives for the nation and as a positive role model for Japanese youth moving forward into that uncertain future. References Japanese books Edo history Japanese words and phrases