US Edition 
Manga diplomacy: US military courts Japanese children with cartoon
The US military is using manga-style comic books to promote to Japanese children its view on the importance of Washington and Tokyo's half-century security alliance.
The storyline of the new series features an American boy called Usa-kun - a word play on USA and "usagi", Japanese for rabbit - who wears a hooded jacket with bunny ears and befriends a Japanese girl, Anzu Arai.
In the first issue of "Our Alliance - A Lasting Partnership", to be published online on Wednesday, the boy tells Anzu that he has come to defend her home because they are "important friends".
The United States is publishing the Japanese-language comic as both nations mark the 50th anniversary of their security treaty, and two days before the 65th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
US-Japan ties have been strained for the past year as a new centre-Left government in Japan for months publicly toyed with the idea of moving a controversial US airbase off the southern island of Okinawa.
In the four-part comic series, the two main characters "explore and learn about the US military in Japan and its role in the US-Japan alliance," according to a statement from the US forces.
The US military chose the manga format because it is "a very common way of communicating in Japan," said Major Neal Fisher, deputy director of the US forces' public affairs office in Japan.
The United States, which defeated Japan in the Second World War and then occupied the country, has 47,000 troops stationed in the country.