BookDragon Blog

Volume One: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima
Volume Two: The Day After
Volume Three: Life After the Bomb
Volume Four: Out of the Ashes
Volume Five: The Never-Ending War
Volume Six: Writing the Truth
Volume Seven: Bones into Dust
Volume Eight: Merchants of Death

Atom bomb. Unimaginable horrors. Survival against all odds. Bearing witness. Hope for peace. Keiji Nakazawa was six when “Little Boy” decimated the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. This is his amazing testament.

“Gen haunts me,” the legendary Art Spiegelman, creator of the Pulitzer-winning Maus, begins his introduction to the new translation of the Japanese original, Hadashi no Gen. “His drafsmanship is somewhat graceless, even homely,” Spiegelman admits of author Nakazawa’s simple drawings … and you can’t help agreeing. The strangely repetitive pose of the characters with their arms thrown behind their head to signify joy is definitely disturbing, not to mention the abundance of casual violence the characters seem to unthinkingly inflict on one another. But, as Spiegelman also points out, “… it performs the essential magic trick of all good narrative art: the characters come to living, breathing life.” Volume by volume, these images of death and destruction that young Gen and his remaining family and friends somehow survive will haunt you forever, too.

Because Gen’s father actively opposes the war and he condemns the political machines that make victims of ordinary families, the whole family is labeled as traitors and constantly suffer abuse from their neighbors and local officials. Gen’s mother, Kimie, is eight months pregnant when the bomb hits, and his father, older sister, and young brother are caught in the rubble of their crumbled home. Gen and Kimie are forced to watch their burning death, as his father demands that they survive in order to save the unborn baby. In the wake of the unspeakable horror, Gen helps his mother deliver the premature daughter, whom he names Tomoko– after ‘tomo’ meaning ‘friend’ — because having lots of friends promises love and happiness in her new life.

While the bomb brings surrender and the end to war, survival begins yet a more fearsome struggle that brings out the worst in humanity. The aftereffects of the atom bomb create hell on earth. With a dire shortage of food, shelter, and medical resources, the price for survival is horrific at best. Page by page, Nakazawa’s images are searing. Somehow, Gen and his remaining family manage to care for one another, even welcoming others into their family who are even more in need. Ryuta takes dead brother Shinji’s place, while Natsue replaces sister Eiko in Gen’s heart. Mr. Pak, their long-suffering abused Korean neighbor to whom only Gen’s family showed any kindness, returns their friendship a hundred-fold after the war. Again and again, Gen shows that even in the very worst situations, love and kindness will ease the way … even towards inevitable death.

Project Gen, a non-profit, all-volunteer group made up of Japanese and Americans living in Tokyo, began the arduous task of translating Nakazawa’s graphic testimony into English in 1976, completing the first four of the original 10 volumes. By the 1990s, Project Gen had all but disappeared, but not before one or more volumes of Gen had been published in French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, Indonesian, Tagalog, and Esperanto. In 1994, Project Gen reemerged to translate all 10 volumes into Russian. In spring 2000, Project Gen began the full English translation with the latest team: Kazuko Futakuchi, Michael Gordon, Kyoko Honda, Yukari Kimura, Nobutoshi Kohara, Kiyoko Nishita, George Stenson, Michiko Tanaka, and Kazuko Yamada. By 2002, the new Project Gen team had a publishing deal with Last Gasp of San Francisco – a renegade publisher long known for their underground comic books – who had, amazingly enough, first published the original English translations.

Each volume ends with a reminder plea from Project Gen: “In the hope that humanity will never repeat the terrible tragedy of the atomic bombing, the volunteers of Project Gen want children and adults all over the world to hear Gen’s story. … Our prayer is that Barefoot Gen will contribute in some small way to the abolition of nuclear weapons before this new century is over.” Undoubtedly, that’s the ultimate power of good literature.

Watch this space: the final two volumes are forthcoming later this year. Click here for volume 9, and here for volume 10.

Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult, Adult

Published: 2004-2008 (United States)