Barefoot Gen

AUTHOR: Nakazawa, Keiji

ARTIST: Keiji Nakazawa (illustrator)

PUBLISHER: Shueisha (Japanese); Last Gasp Books (English)

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION:Hadashi no Gen, 1973-1974, 1975-1987

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: English translation, 2004-2010

Publication History

Barefoot Gen was originally written in Japanese by Keiji Nakazawa and serialized in a Tokyo magazine beginning in 1973. Several English speakers became interested in the work and published an English version in 1978. Volunteer translators have ensured that the series has been published in several different languages. Early English-language volumes were also published by Educomics, New Society Publishers, and Penguin. Last Gasp Books of San Francisco published the complete series in ten volumes between 2004 and 2010.

Plot

Barefoot Gen tells the story of Gen Nakaoka, a boy who witnesses the August 6, 1945, atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan. Author Nakazawa’s own life experience as a hibakusha (“survivor of the bomb”) informs much of the narrative. The first volume relates the events leading up to the bombing of the city through Gen’s eyes, and nine subsequent volumes explore Gen’s life in the aftermath of the bomb, chronicling the period between 1945 and 1953.

In the beginning, Gen and his family live a happy but difficult life in Hiroshima during World War II (1939-1945). He shares a home with his father, Daikichi; his pregnant mother, Kimie; his younger brother, Shinji; two older brothers, Akira and Koji; and an older sister, Eiko. Gen’s father is a vocal antiwar activist, and his opposition to the war draws unwelcome attention to the family. The narrative occasionally shifts outside of Gen’s perspective to educate the audience about the history of both the war and the atomic bomb.

Near the end of the first volume, the atomic bomb is detonated, and Gen loses his father, sister, and brother Shinji to the ensuing fires. His brother Akira had been evacuated prior to the attack, and Koji is serving in the navy at the time of the bombing. Gen saves his mother with the help of a neighbor, the Korean-born Mr. Pak, and delivers his baby sister, Tomoko, in the horrific aftermath of the bomb.

In Volume 2, Gen tries to procure rice for his nursing mother. Along the way, he serves as a witness to the atrocities of the bomb and to the anxiety induced by its mysterious effects. As Volume 3 begins, Gen, his mother, and Tomoko find refuge at the home of Kimie’s childhood friend. In an effort to make money, Gen cares for a badly burned painter whose family refuses to go near him for fear of catching radiation sickness. Gen’s family also takes in a young orphan named Ryuta, who reminds them of Shinji.

In Volume 5, Kimie and Koji have found jobs, but their employers cannot pay them. Gen attends school sporadically and writes essays about the horrors of the bomb. He helps Ryuta and other orphans build a home where they can collectively work and live. Ryuta, Katsuko, and Musubi live with Natsue, a girl Gen saved from suicide, and Matsukichi, an elderly writer whose remaining life goal is to publish a novel about the atrocity of the bomb. The American occupiers are depicted as vultures who, through the auspices of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC), prey on the dead and dying but give nothing in return.

Kimie soon grows ill, and in Volume 6, the family rallies around her. Koji goes to work in a coal mine, and Gen takes on various odd jobs. Koji succumbs to alcoholism, so the younger children must raise money for Kimie’s medical care. Katsuko and Natsue begin to sew dresses, and Ryuta robs gangsters to get money for the dying Kimie. Gen manages to secure a publisher for Matsukichi’s novel.

As Volume 7 opens, Ryuta has recently escaped from his reformatory prison, and he joins Gen in publishing Matsukichi’s novel. Matsukichi dies shortly thereafter, and Gen and Ryuta are taken into American custody and interrogated about the novel and their role in its publication. After mistakenly being labeled insane, Gen and Ryuta are set free; afterward, they begin to sabotage American vehicles by putting sugar in the gas tanks. Kimie is released from the hospital but is told that she has only four months to live. The family visits Kyoto, where she dies.

In Volume 8, Gen enters junior high as the Korean War begins. The Hiroshima Carp, a local baseball team, serves as a locus of hope for Ryuta. Katsuko and Natsue make dresses that Ryuta and Musubi sell on the streets of Hiroshima, and Gen gets further schooling in political activism from his teacher, Mr. Ohta. Gen finds that his house is to be torn down to build a road and is ultimately left alone, as Akira moves to Osaka and Koji marries.

In Volume 9, Gen fights to save his house, but workers tear it down. He is further demoralized when Natsue dies from the lingering effects of radiation exposure. The ABCC comes to collect her body, but Gen refuses to let her go and buries her ashes with his family. Gen finds his calling in art and becomes determined to use the medium for ideological expression.

As Volume 10 opens, Ryuta, Katsuko, and Musubi have saved nearly enough money to open a dress shop. Gen graduates from junior high school, but he disrupts the graduation ceremony by declaring the emperor a war criminal. Musubi becomes addicted to drugs and rapidly depletes his partners’ savings. Gen falls in love with a young woman named Mitsuko, whose father forbids their relationship; Mitsuko ignores her father, but she soon dies from radiation sickness. Ryuta and Katsuko forgive Musubi for taking money from their business, and he later dies from a brutal beating at the hands of gangsters. In response, Ryuta kills several members of the gang and then flees to Tokyo with Katsuko. In the end, Gen decides that to realize his dreams, he must also go to Tokyo.

Volumes

• Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima (2004). Covers the events leading up the atomic bombing and the day of the bomb, focusing on the mindless devotion to the war displayed by many Japanese, the heroism of Gen’s pacifist father, and the horrors of the bomb.

• Barefoot Gen:The Day After (2004). Details the aftermath of the bombing and highlights both atrocity and resilience.

• Barefoot Gen:Life After the Bomb (2005). Details life for Gen and his family in the weeks after the bombing, focusing on the horrors of war and the possibilities of embracing hope.

• Barefoot Gen:Out of the Ashes (2005). Covers the two years after the bombing, critiquing American hegemony while showing how active opposition can produce meaningful change.

• Barefoot Gen:The Never-Ending War (2007). Covers late 1947 to early 1948, depicting the struggles of the atomic-bomb orphans and analyzing the social costs of the bomb.

• Barefoot Gen:Writing the Truth (2008). Deals with events in 1948 and1949, including Ryuta’s incarceration and the return of Natsue.

• Barefoot Gen:Bones into Dust (2009). Continues to depict the events of 1949, including the death of Gen’s mother, which serves as the culmination of a long-developing theme of assigning equal blame to Japanese warmongering and American acts of atrocity.

• Barefoot Gen:Merchants of Death (2009). Spans the latter half of 1950 and examines several lingering social issues, including the costs of drug addiction among returned soldiers and the importance of activism in securing peace in a nuclear world.

• Barefoot Gen:Breaking Down Borders (2010). Covers late 1950 to 1951, depicting Gen’s awakening to his Artistic potential.

• Barefoot Gen:Never Give Up (2010). Begins in March of 1953 and details the events leading up to Gen’s departure for Tokyo, continuing to examine themes of peace, resilience, and the horrors of war.

Characters

• Gen Nakaoka, the protagonist, is a second-grader living in Hiroshima, Japan, when his world is upended by the atomic bombing of that city. While he loses family in the attack, he remains relentlessly optimistic. Nakazawa’s alter ego, Gen both helps characters in need and critiques those who do not fully understand the devastating effects of the bomb.

• Daikichi Nakaoka is Gen’s father. He dies the day of the bombing, but his memory plays an important role in Gen’s development. He always told Gen to be like wheat: No matter how much he is trampled on, he must rise up again.

• Kimie Nakaoka is Gen’s mother. She survives the bomb and gives birth that same day. She is loving and selfless, and her death from radiation sickness provokes family members to go their separate ways.

• Koji Nakaoka is Gen’s eldest brother. He joins the navy against the wishes of his pacifist father and survives the war. He tries to work to help the family but struggles with alcoholism and gambling. He eventually marries.

• Akira Nakaoka is Gen’s older brother. He is evacuated from the city with his classmates prior to the bombing, thus surviving. He ultimately leaves for Osaka to become a “peace merchant.”

• Eiko Nakaoka is Gen’s older sister. She dies the day of the bombing.

• Shinji Nakaoka is Gen’s younger brother. He dies the day of the bombing.

• Natsue Ohara is a young girl who was seriously burned during the bombing and remains scarred. Gen saves her from suicide. Later, he saves her again and convinces her to move in with some other orphans, with whom she starts making dresses. She dies from radiation sickness.

• Ryuta Kondo is the leader of a gang of orphans. He so strongly resembles Gen’s brother Shinji that Gen convinces Ryuta to live with him. He confronts various gang members throughout the series. He helps Katsuko and Natsue run their dress business and eventually leaves for Tokyo with Katsuko.

• Katsuko is an atom-bomb orphan who lives with the other children. She is ashamed of the scars she developed due to the bombing. She discovers a talent for dressmaking and hopes for a future with Ryuta.

• Musubi is an orphan who helps run the dress business. He becomes addicted to drugs and dies after an assault by gang members.

• Mr. Pak is Gen’s Korean neighbor. He saves Gen and Kimie after the bombing and reappears throughout the series as an aid to Gen and a reminder of the difficulties Koreans faced during and after the war.

• Tomoko Nakaoka is Gen’s baby sister, born the day of the bomb. She becomes a rallying point for hope but succumbs to radiation sickness.

• Matsukichi Hirayama is the orphans’ adopted father. He writes a book bearing witness to the atrocity of the bomb before dying from radiation sickness.

• The Chairman is a leader in Gen’s neighborhood who openly slanders Gen’s pacifist father. He appears infrequently, but throughout the series, he serves as the embodiment of the ruling elite’s hypocrisy.

• Mitsuko Nakao is Gen’s love interest. Her death from radiation sickness causes her warmonger father to become a peaceful man.

• Mr. Ohta is Gen’s politically involved teacher. He serves as a rallying point for student activism

Artistic Style

Nakazawa’s artwork is in line with the modern manga style that developed after World War II, featuring starkly drawn characters with large eyes and exaggerated depictions of emotion. Antagonists are sometimes drawn without pupils and appear demonic and shadowy. Nakazawa has admitted to being influenced by legendary manga artist Osamu Tezuka, an influence that can be seen in Barefoot Gen. The entire series is drawn in black and white, and the images remain largely consistent throughout all ten volumes.

The panels are read in the traditional Western style (left to right), making the series accessible to newcomers to manga. Nakazawa uses the spacing of the panels to great effect. In particular, in depictions of the day of the bombing, Nakazawa’s panels break wide open to better illustrate the horrors of the bomb. A burning horse literally breaks through a panel, and the mushroom cloud from the bomb rises vertically over the entire page. Nakazawa depicts the terrible impact of the bombing by drawing people with sloughed-off skin, festering wounds, and severe burns. His visual depiction of the bombing and its aftermath is the most powerful element of the series.

Themes

Barefoot Gen is a coming-of-age story that is deeply concerned with the effects of living in a nuclear world. From its explosion to its mysterious effects on people after the war, the atomic bomb haunts the entire series. Nonetheless, the series is not nihilistic. The main theme of Barefoot Gen is resilience, and this is emphasized by Gen’s father’s metaphor of a wheat stalk. Despite the death surrounding him, Gen always fights on and encourages others to do the same. “Gen” means “root” or “source” in Japanese, and Nakazawa envisioned Gen as a locus for antiwar ideologies.

The series moves beyond simple resilience to develop a deeply pacifist viewpoint. An omniscient narrator sometimes takes control of the story and provides history lessons for readers about the corruption of Japanese and American leaders and the importance of activism. At times, the narrator addresses readers directly and urges them to remain vigilant so that nuclear weapons are never used again.

Barefoot Gen also explores themes of power and hegemony and moves seamlessly from critiques of the emperor to denunciations of American occupying forces. Critiques of power are examined from multiple angles: Gen’s teachers are often portrayed as mindless purveyors of militarist propaganda, and the gangsters who control the black market are depicted as selfish and heartless. Gen attacks power imbalances wherever he sees them, serving as a voice of the common people.

Impact

Barefoot Gen has been credited as the first full-length manga to be translated into English. Through the efforts of Project Gen and Last Gasp Books, all ten volumes are readily available through major retailers. The series has been translated into several languages and adapted into different media, increasing the breadth of its dissemination. It is particularly popular in Japan, where it is commonly read by schoolchildren. After the Chernobyl disaster (1986), the series also became popular with many Russians.

In the introduction to the Last Gasp Books edition of the series, American graphic novelist Art Spiegelman links Barefoot Gen with his own graphic novel, Maus (1986, 1991), characterizing both works as graphic narratives that bear witness against twentieth century mass atrocity. Despite its ideological ambitions for the eradication of nuclear weapons, Barefoot Gen has been unsuccessful in bringing about nuclear disarmament. Nevertheless, the series remains a powerful testimony to the lasting effects of the atomic bomb, and Nakazawa’s personal history as a survivor of the bombing gives the story added credence.

Films

Barefoot Gen. Directed by Mori Masaki. Mad House/Gen Productions, 1983. This anime adaptation comprises two volumes and is easily accessible in English. The first volume is true to the ethos of the series in that it focuses on both the atrocity of the bomb and themes of resilience; however, several characters are eliminated because the story is so condensed.

Barefoot Gen 2. Directed by Toshio Hirata and Akio Sakai. Mad House/Gen Productions, 1986. As in the first volume, Volume 2 honors the manga’s themes but condenses characters to a significant extent. The anime film is often linked with Isao Takahata’s influential Grave of the Fireflies (1988), also about World War II Japan.

Television Series

Barefoot Gen. Directed by Masaki Nishiura and Shosuke Murakami. Fuji Television, 2007. This live-action Japanese television show adapts the basic story from the manga but was constrained by the inherent time limitations of television, causing Nakazawa to complain that the program blunted the impact of his message by omitting issues such as the fallibility of the emperor system.

Further Reading

Hasegawa, Machiko. The Wonderful World of Sazae-San (1997).

Spiegelman, Art. Maus (1986, 1991).

Tezuka, Osamu. Apollo’s Song (2007).

Bibliography

Berndt, Jaqueline, ed. Comic Worlds and the World of Comics: Towards Scholarship on a Global Scale. Kyoto: International Manga Research Center, Kyoto Seika University, 2010.

Hong, Christine. “Flashforward Democracy: American Exceptionalism and the Atomic Bomb in Barefoot Gen.” Comparative Literature Studies 46, no. 1 (March, 2009): 125-155.

Nakazawa, Keiji. Hiroshima: The Autobiography of Barefoot Gen. Translated by Richard H. Minear. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. “A Note from the Author.” In Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima. San Francisco: Last Gasp Books, 2004.