Barefoot Gen: Life After the Bomb: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima

Keiji Nakazawa, Barefoot Gen: Life After the Bomb (New Society, 1989) Volume 3 of Nakazawa's justly famous four-volume series sees life settling down for Gen Nakaoka and family, but "settling down" is a relative term. Gen's mother decides, like most of her neighbors, to flee Hirsohima and go to Eba, the nearest town of any size, to see if the family can find shelter, work, and food by staying with an old school friend of hers. The friend is more than happy to take them in, but her mother-in-law and two children take an instant dislike to the Nakaokas, and set about finding ways to drive them out. Gen gets a job caring for a bomb victim in town, and life, as much as it can, settles into a routine. Ryuji, who first made an appearance in The Day After, pops up again, as well. Unlike The Day After, New Society prefaced this one with only a "the story thus far" sheet, having presumably learned their lesson with volume 2, and Life After the Bomb is a far better book for it. Nakazawa's story is presented here unadorned, leaving the reader to ferret out the deeper meanings while watching Gen's transformation from the exuberant, but somewhat thoughtless, child of the first volume into the caring, responsible individual he becomes by the end of the series. It is a feature of good series that the characters tend to get stronger in their characterization as the series goes along, and Barefoot Gen is no exception to this rule; Gen, who started out (by design, one thinks) as something of a caricature, has become a real, three-dimensional character here, and that's a wonderful thing. *** ½

This is an incredibly moving graphic novel. In order to earn money to feed his mother and infant sister Gen agrees to take care of Mr. Seiji, an artist burned head to toe by the bomb. Mr. Seiji is kept in a room and left to die by his brother and his brother's family. The way in which Mr. Seiji's family treat him, calling him a monster, wishing he would would die so they could stop being incenvenienced, is in direct contrast to the way in which Gen takes care of his mother, and the orphan Ryuta who looks like his dead brother. The story is a perfect metaphor for humanity, civility, and the way in which people treat each other when times are difficult for everyone. The artwork his excellent. Nakazawa's somewhat cartoony style makes the horrors seem that much more horrific. The burn victims, both living and dead, the maggots crawling through a living person's dead flesh, people vomiting blood, all have an amazing stomach turning impact. And yet mixed in with all this is Gen's childish love, hope, and optimism. Despite the setting, he and Ryuta manage to find humor and sing songs. This is a fictional story, but it is based on Kaiji Nakazawa's real life experiences which he went through as a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing. The names of some of the characters are the names of his family. The stories he tells are harsh and real and painful and good. Literature, in any medium, doesn't get any better than this.

Barefoot Gen: Life After The Bomb is volume three of a four part series. The atom bomb has been dropped on Hiroshima, destroying most of the city, killing many people, and causing others to become sick with radiation sickness. Gen's hair is falling out from radiation exposure. He, his mother, and his newborn sister have to leave to survive. His mother can think of only one person to turn to, Kiyo, her childhood friend in the town of Eba. But the people of Eba are afraid the Hiroshima survivors have a strange contagious illness. Kiyo's family and the whole town treat them with suspicion and contempt.As refugees, Gen and his mother have to find food, money, and shelter in a hostile environment. He takes a job caring for a rich man's brother who has been quarantined and left to die by the family because he has radiation sickness. Gen's compassion, humanity, and determination make this an inspiring book about the strength of the human spirit. The close loving values of his family are in sharp contrast to the narrow-minded self interest of the people in the Eba community.The work has been wonderfully translated from the Japanese original: Hadashi no Gen. It was originally published in serial form in 1972 and 1973 in Shukan Shonen Jampu, the largest weekly comic magazine in Japan, with a circulation of over two million. The drawings are all in black and white. This US edition was published as part of a movement to translate the book into other languages and spread its message. It is a powerful testimony to the strength of the human spirit and the horrors of nuclear war. There are a few introductory essays at the front of the book that help to put this book into perspective. It is a tragic but uplifting story that I highly recommend for anyone interested in the topic. This and the other volumes in the series are important books for their message on the dangers of nuclear war.

A poignant story in cartoon form that brings home the horrors of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 yet manages to show the love and courage that survived through the story of Gen. 7 years old Gen and his mother survives the bombing but see the father and two brothers die before their eyes. Homeless, starving and ill they struggle to survive but never lose their humanity.An excellent book for children and adults.

This is not really a children's book- I would recommend this book to anyone from age 12 and up.I am Japanese, and I was given this book by my dad in Japanese when I was eight years old. I have not been able to forget this book since, so I was thrilled to come across this book in English and I had to get it!!! Having not read the book in almost two decades, it was like reading it all over again with a much more mature (hopefully) perspective. This book reduced me to tears again as it did the first time.This is a work about the universal theme of love, family, peace, hope, and war. Although it is set in World War II Japan, it is really not about "the" war and does not take any sides but rather represents war and its devastation from a very personal point of view, as seen by a young boy living in Hiroshima during world War II. In fact, this book was harshly criticized for being anti-patriotic in Japan when it was first published for refusing to take the Japanese side. Those criticisms disregard the whole point of the book, which is about war in general and the devastation of the people involved in it regardless of the side they are on. I was never able to forget this book after reading it as a child, and I can't recommend this book highly enough. Powerful. Riveting. I can read this a hundred times and be reduced to tears every time by its poignant message of peace.