Origin of Astro Boy
In the summer of 1950 the managing editor of a Japanese monthly magazine called "Sho-nen" (Boy) asked Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989) to provide some work for the magazine.
Tezuka, the future Japanese king of "manga" (cartoons), could not easily come up with an idea for this work. He took so many pains to come to think that nuclear energy could be a good theme. The rising comic artist Tezuka wanted to depict a future country where nuclear energy would be used in a peaceful manner. It was because Tezuka spotted an article in a newspaper about hydrogen-bomb tests being conducted by America in a Pacific Ocean island.
Accordingly he decided to use a title "Atom Continent" for the work. In this context, Tezuka did not attach any meaning but a very basic physical entity which, in a multitude, constitutes a molecule to the word Atom. But the editorial office of the magazine advised that the word continent was too large in a scale and thus the title should be focused on an individual character. So, young Tezuka changed the title to "Ambassador Atom." However he had no clear and concrete images and visions about the work titled Ambassador Atom. It was just a passing idea.
As a deadline approached, Osamu Tezuka finally thought of a story: A great number of aliens visited the earth. They caused a big trouble with mankind. But a man called Ambassador Atom adjusted the discord between the two species. So the cartoon series of "Ambassador Atom" began.
But Ambassador Atom did not appear in the first three episodes. The story became complicated with many personalities taking part in it. And just before presenting Ambassador Atom in the fourth episode, Tezuka decided to make this central player a robot.
When this series ended, the managing editor of the magazine said to Osamu Tezuka, "You had better draw up a new title with a focus on the robot boy Atom. Our readers seem to love Atom the most among many figures in the series." But the future king of Japanese cartoons replied negatively: "But it is just a robot!" The monthly magazine editor emphasized that Tezuka should depict the robot as something that expressed every human emotion and pursued justice with passion. So, the manga or animation genius Tezuka realized that it was a very good idea, since he knew some preceding examples that a mere side player of a manga series became eventually a leading personality in a new title of work.
This is how Osamu Tezuka started to create the Japanese big-hit manga personality "Tetsuwan Atom" (Atom with iron arms). The work was later presented in TV broadcasting as the first major animation product for TV in Japan. Then in 1963 or so Robot-Boy Atom was introduced into the US through NBC under a new name of Astro Boy.
Osamu Tezuka is now respected by every manga or animation artist in Japan. And undoubtedly one of his outstanding cartoon works is "Tetsuwan Atom" (Atom with iron arms), since it was first created and appeared in public as Ambassador Atom in 1951.
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Act 7:29 Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.
Act 7:30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.
Act 7:31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the LORD came unto him,
Act 7:32 Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.