Japanese manga artist Tetsuya Chiba, known for his boxing masterpiece ‘Ashita no Joe,’ dies at 87

TOKYO (AP) — Legendary Japanese manga artist Tetsuya Chiba, who caused a national sensation with his boxing series “Ashita no Joe or Fighting for Tomorrow, a story about an orphan becoming a professional boxer, has died. He was 87. Chiba s masterpiece series became so popular that fans even attended a mock funeral for the protagonist Joe Yabuki s rival. Chiba died at a Tokyo hospital last Thursday, his publisher Kodansha Ltd. said Tuesday, without specifying the cause of his death. While he depicted aspiring young athletes fighting for their life and career, Chiba was a vocal supporter of peace and freedom of expression, telling stories of his harrowing memories of war as a child in autobiographical stories and manga. Months after he was born in Tokyo in January, 1939, his family moved to northeastern China and Chiba spent his early childhood there during Japan s occupation in the region, where his father worked at a printing factory. At age 6, Chiba and his family marked Japan s