Barefoot Gen - A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima

November 23rd, 2007

Author: Keiji Nakazawa
Publisher: Last Gasp

When I start to read Barefoot Gen, I knew very few things about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. I knew a little about Manhattan project, I learned in school that the B-29 plane that carried the bomb was named Elona Gay and that somehow the two bombs helped to end the war; I saw on TV that a nuclear explosion causes a huge mushroom cloud, that radiations are terribly bad for all live forms. That was about it.

Barefoot Gen is not always totally accurate when it comes to History; however it’s an incredible and unique testimony of what faced people who lived in Hiroshima at that time. Hopefully, the graphic novel form made it somehow lighter; otherwise it would be impossible to bear it.

What also stroked me, it is how difficult it was for Gen to make his way. As we always want to bury the dark part of our history or we try to ignore it. 20 years after his first publication in Japan, only the first 4 volumes were so far translated in English.

Gen grabbed me and I can’t get ride of him until I finished his whole story. Today however he is still haunting me.

Gen Barefoot is a masterpiece that anyone should read, at least to keep in mind what War and Nuclear bombing mean.

Entry Filed under: Critics