Barefoot Gen
Barefoot Gen is a Japanese historical manga series written and illustrated by Keiji Nakazawa, loosely based on Nakazawa's experiences as a survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing. The series begins in 1945 in and around Hiroshima, Japan, where six-year-old Gen Nakaoka lives with his family. After Hiroshima is destroyed by the bombing, Gen and other survivors deal with the aftermath. The series was published in several magazines, including Weekly Shōnen Jump, from 1973 to 1987. It was adapted into three live-action film versions directed by Tengo Yamada, which were released between 1976 and 1980. Madhouse released two anime films, one in 1983 and the other in 1986. In August 2007, a two-night live-action television drama series aired in Japan on Fuji TV.
Cartoonist Keiji Nakazawa created Ore wa Mita, an eyewitness account of the atomic-bomb devastation in Japan, for Monthly Shōnen Jump in 1972. It was published in the United States by Educomics in 1982. Nakazawa began to serialize the longer, autobiographical Hadashi No Gen in the June 4, 1973 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump. It was canceled after a year and a half and moved to three other, less widely distributed magazines: Shimin, Bunka Hyōron, and Kyōiku Hyōron. The series began to appear in Japanese book collections in 1975.
Origins
Nakazawa was previously hesitant to publish an autobiographical account of the Hiroshima bombing. Much of his early work as an illustrator strayed far away from the topic of Hiroshima. However, his thoughts on the matter changed upon the death of his mother. After she was cremated, the bones that would usually remain were also turned to ash due to the radioactive cesium weakening her bones, which left Nakazawa distraught. This is what inspired him to finally face his past and start incorporating the bombings into his work. Nonetheless, his work still was not autobiographical for various reasons. He knew A-bomb survivors were often mistreated and looked down upon. He also worried that people would think he was trying to make a business off of his experiences. A mix of pressure from Shonen Jump editors and his increasingly pacifist views led him to finally begin to write his story in Barefoot Gen, with the first issue debuting in 1973.Plot
Volume 1: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima
The story begins in Hiroshima in April 1945. Six-year-old Gen Nakaoka and his family live in poverty, struggling to make ends meet. His father, Daikichi, urges them to "be like wheat" and is critical of the war. When he is drunk at a mandatory combat drill and talks back to his instructor, the Nakaokas are branded as traitors and become subjects to harassment and discrimination by their neighbors. To restore his family's honor, Gen's older brother Koji joins the Imperial Navy against Daikichi's wishes. He is subjected to a brutal training regimen by his commanding officer, which drives one of his friends to suicide. On August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. Daikichi and Gen's siblings are killed in the fires, but he and his mother Kimie escape thanks to a Korean neighbor Mr. Pak who was also discriminated and harassed by the neighbors like the Nakaokas for his nationality. The shock makes her give birth prematurely to Tomoko, his sister.Volume 2: The Day After
In the days after the attack, Gen and his mother see the horrors wrought by the bomb. Hiroshima is in ruins, full of people dead and dying from burns and radiation sickness. Gen meets Natsue, a girl who strongly resembles his dead sister. Her face is severely burned; she tries to commit suicide when she realizes it, but Gen convinces her to continue living. Gen leaves her to find rice, and his mother adopts Ryuta, an orphan who looks just like his younger brother Shinji. After Gen returns to their burnt-out home and retrieves the remains of his father and siblings, he and his family move in with Kimie's friend Kiyo. Kiyo's stingy mother-in-law conspires with her spoiled grandchildren to drive the Nakaokas out, falsely accusing the children and Kimie of stealing rice the grandchildren had actually stolen.Volume 3: Life After the Bomb
The family looks for housing in vain, since they cannot afford a place to stay. The remorseful Kiyo invites them back, but her mother-in-law demands rent. Gen looks for work to earn money. A man hires him to look after his brother Seiji, who has been burnt severely from head to toe and lives in squalor. Although Seiji is initially reluctant, he warms up to Gen over time. Gen learns that Seiji is an artist who has lost the will to live because his burns have left him unable to hold a brush. Gen helps Seiji learn to paint with his teeth, but the artist eventually dies of his injuries. On August 14, Emperor Hirohito announces Japan's surrender over the radio. When Kimie needs a doctor, Gen cannot find anyone who will help without payment in money or food.Volume 4: Out of the Ashes
After Japan's surrender, American occupation forces began to arrive to aid rebuilding efforts. After hearing rumors about the Americans, Gen and Ryuta arm themselves with a pistol they find in an abandoned weapons cache. Their fears ease when the Americans give them candy, but they see a group of American soldiers harvesting organs from corpses for medical research. Kiyo's mother-in-law again evicts Gen's family after Gen fights with her grandchildren, forcing the family to move into an abandoned bomb shelter. Gen, Ryuta and their family are dying of malnutrition, and they try to kill a dog for food but cannot do it. Gen and Ryuta steal cans of what they think is American food, but are condoms. They steal from the Americans again, with help from local yakuza. The yakuza betray Gen and Ryuta, forcing Ryuta to kill two gang members. Impressed with Ryuta, Masa takes him in. Before escaping with the yakuza, Ryuta leaves money outside Gen's door.Gen returns to school, where he and a girl named Michiko are ridiculed for being bald. He defends Michiko, and is challenged to climb a tall tower; the first to return with a pigeon's egg wins. As Gen and the bully climb, the tower starts to crumble beneath them and Gen saves the bully from falling. Michiko tells Gen that an American soldier had raped her sister, who afterwards became a prostitute to provide for Michiko. Gen returns home to find Tomoko missing.
Suspecting that the bully knows about Tomoko's disappearance, Gen follows him and learns that he is using Tomoko to trick mothers dying of acute radiation syndrome into thinking that she is their missing children. Tomoko develops radiation sickness, and her doctor says she will die without an expensive American medicine. Gen and the kidnappers cannot raise the money, but Gen's Korean neighbor Mr. Pak does. Gen returns to his family and finds Tomoko dead, but his hair is growing back.
Volume 5: The Never-Ending War
In December 1947, Ryuta visits Gen. Gen follows Ryuta and meets several orphans including Katsuko, a girl physically scarred by the bomb. As an orphaned hibakusha, she cannot attend school. Gen lends Katsuko his books, promising to teach her. Masa teaches Ryuta and the other orphans to shoot because he wants them to kill Mitey, his rival. Donguri kills Mitey; Gen encourages the others to flee, but Masa follows them. Ryuta shoots Masa and his henchman. The orphans build a makeshift house with Gen, who lives with them with an old man cast away by his relatives for being too ill from radiation to work. Rice cakes are distributed on New Year's Day to encourage cheers for Emperor Hirohito. Gen refuses to cheer because of his father's beliefs and Hirohito's decision to fight the war.He learns that the local official who called Gen's father a traitor for supporting peace and refused to help free Gen's father, brother, and sister from their house when the bomb fell is running for office, claiming that he was always for peace. Gen enters a campaign meeting, exposes the official, and is thrown out.
Gen's mother is ill and her doctor says her only hope is the American-run Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, but Gen and his mother refuse to accept American help at first. His mother then reluctantly goes to the ABCC, which offers no help apart from research. When Gen rescues a girl from bullies, he learns that her father collects victim bodies to sell to the ABCC. The commission rewards corrupt doctors with medicine in exchange for referrals, and Gen sees boys fishing skulls from the river to sell to the ABCC. He decides that surviving at American expense is justified, but teaches the other children to catch shrimp instead of skulls.
Volume 6: Writing the Truth
The Hiroshima orphans demonstrate their misery to American soldiers to sell the skulls of victims. They hope to buy lots of food, but a pickpocket robs them on the train. Huge bags of black-market food is thrown off the train they had just left. The orphans try to hide it, are caught, and escape the police.Koji, working in the mines, is drinking and gambling. Gen returns home with the rice to find his mother very ill, but they cannot afford a doctor. Ryuta robs a casino to pay for Kimie's treatment; the mob is after him, and he unsuccessfully tries to flee Hiroshima. He surrenders to the police.
In July 1948, Gen is tearing down a wall to collect bricks to sell. A girl has hanged herself because of radiation scars that made everyone treat her like a monster. Gen writes to Koji, asking for money for their mother's hospital bills. He saves Natsue from suicide and brings her back to the orphans, asking Katsuko to watch her. Gen is falsely accused of theft. Natsue attempts suicide again, and Gen brings her and Katsuko to see someone sewing with her feet and mouth. They decide to learn to sew and open a clothing store.
Gen sees other orphans paid well for copper stolen from a shipyard. Gen and Musubi are caught by the shipyard owners, who want to kill them. They escape, fill their boat with too much copper, and it sinks. Gen and Musubi buy a sewing machine for Katsuko and Natsue. Four years after the bombing, people are still dying from radiation sickness.