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Barefoot Gen (はだしのゲン, Hadashi no Gen) is a Japanese historical manga series by Keiji Nakazawa. Loosely based on Nakazawa's own experiences as a Hiroshima survivor, the series begins in 1945 in and around Hiroshima, Japan, where the six-year-old boy Gen Nakaoka lives with his family. After Hiroshima is destroyed by atomic bombing, Gen and other survivors are left to deal with the aftermath. It ran in several magazines, including Weekly Shōnen Jump, from 1973 to 1987. It was subsequently adapted into three live action film adaptations directed by Tengo Yamada, which were released between 1976 and 1980. Madhouse released two anime films, one in 1983 and one in 1986. In 2007, a live action television drama series adaptation aired in Japan on Fuji TV over two nights, August 10 and 11.

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Barefoot Gen
Original Japanese first volume of Barefoot Gen.
はだしのゲン (Hadashi no Gen)
Genre	Historical[1]
Manga
Written by	Keiji Nakazawa
Published by	Shueisha Chuokoron-Shinsha
English publisher	NA Educomics New Society Publishers Last Gasp
Magazine	Weekly Shōnen Jump Shimin Bunka Hyōron Kyōiku Hyōron
Demographic	Shōnen, seinen
Original run	May 22, 1973 – 1987
Volumes	10
Novel
Hadashi no Gen wa Pikadon wo wasurenai (Barefoot Gen will never forget about the Bomb)
Written by	Keiji Nakazawa
Published by	Iwanami Shoten
Published	July 1982
Novel
Hadashi no Gen heno Tegami (A letter to Barefoot Gen)
Written by	Keiji Nakazawa
Published by	KyouikuShiryo Publishing
Published	July 1991
Novel
Jiden Hadashi no Gen (Autobiography of Barefoot Gen)
Written by	Keiji Nakazawa
Published by	KyouikuShiryo Publishing
Published	July 1994
Novel
Hadashi no Gen in Hiroshima (Barefoot Gen in Hiroshima)
Written by	Keiji Nakazawa Kyo Kijima
Published by	Kodansha
Published	July 1999
Novel
Hadashi no Gen ga ita Fukei (Seen where Barefoot Gen was)
Written by	Kazuma Yoshimura Yoshiaki Fukuma
Published by	Azusa Syuppansya
Published	July 2006
Television drama
Barefoot Gen
Directed by	Nishiura Masaki Murakami Masanori
Original network	Fuji TV
Original run	August 10, 2007 – August 11, 2007
Episodes	2
Novel
Hadashi no Gen wa Hiroshima wo Wasurenai (Barefoot Gen will never forget about Hiroshima)
Written by	Keiji Nakazawa
Published by	Iwanami Shoten
Published	August 2008
Live-action films
Barefoot Gen (1976) Barefoot Gen: Explosion of Tears (1977) Barefoot Gen Part 3: Battle of Hiroshima (1980)
Anime films
Barefoot Gen (1983) Barefoot Gen 2 (1986)

Publication history

Cartoonist Keiji Nakazawa created the feature Ore wa Mita (translated into English as I Saw It), an eyewitness account of the atomic-bomb devastation in Japan, in the monthly manga Monthly Shōnen Jump in 1972. In the United States it was published through Educomics in 1982.[2] Nakazawa went on to serialize the longer, autobiographical Hadashi No Gen (Barefoot Gen)[2] beginning in the June 4, 1973 edition of Weekly Shōnen Jump manga magazine,[3] It was cancelled after a year and a half, and moved to three other less widely distributed magazines: Shimin (Citizen), Bunka Hyōron (Cultural Criticism), and Kyōiku Hyōron (Educational Criticism).^{[citation needed]} It was published in book collections in Japan beginning in 1975.

Plot

In Volume 1 of Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima, the story begins in Hiroshima in April, 1945, during the final months of World War II. Six-year-old Gen Nakaoka and his family live in poverty and struggle to make ends meet. Gen's father Daikichi urges them to "live like wheat," which always grows strong despite being trod on. Daikichi is critical of the war. When he shows up drunk to a mandatory combat drill and talks back to his instructor, the Nakaokas are branded as traitors and become subject to harassment and discrimination by their neighbors. To restore his family's honor, Gen's older brother Koji joins the Navy against Daikichi's wishes, where he is subjected to a brutal training regimen by his commanding officer, which causes one of Koji's friends to kill himself. On August 6, the atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. Gen's father and siblings perish in the fires, but he and his mother escape. The shock causes her to give premature birth; Gen names his new sister Tomoko, so she will grow up to have lots of friends ('Tomo' means 'friend.').

In Volume 2: The Day After, in the days following the attack, Gen and his mother witness the horrors wrought by the bomb. Hiroshima lies in ruins, and the city is full of people dead and dying from severe burns and radiation sickness. Gen meets a girl named Natsue, whose face has been severely burned. She attempts to commit suicide, but Gen convinces her to continue living. Gen and his mother adopt an orphan named Ryuta, who by sheer coincidence looks identical to Gen's deceased 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. However, Kiyo's stingy mother-in-law conspires with her spoiled grandchildren to drive the Nakaokas out, falsely accusing first the children, and then Kimie, of stealing rice that the grandchildren had themselves stolen.

In Volume 3: Life After the Bomb, the family look for a vacancy in vain, since they cannot pay. In remorse, Kiyo invites them back, but her mother-in-law demands rent. Gen looks for work to pay it. A man hires him to look after his brother Seiji, who has been burnt from head to toe and lives in squalor. Though Seiji is reluctant at first, he warms up to Gen over time: The boy learns Seiji is an artist who has lost the will to live because his burns have left him unable to hold a brush. With Gen's help, Seiji learns to paint with his teeth but, eventually, he dies of his wounds. On August 14, Emperor Hirohito announces Japan's surrender over the radio, ending the war. When Kimie needs a doctor, Gen can find none who will help without payment in money or food.

In Volume 4: Out of the Ashes, following Japan's surrender, American occupation forces arrive to help the nation rebuild. Gen and Ryuta, fearing rumours they've heard about the Americans, arm themselves with a pistol they find in an abandoned weapons cache. They learn the Americans aren't as bad as they'd thought when they're given free candy, but they also witness a group of American soldiers harvesting organs from corpses for medical research. Kiyo's mother-in-law evicts the Nakaokas again after Gen gets into a fight with her grandchildren, and they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. Gen and Ryuta attempt to kill a dog to provide sufficient protein after they learn that they and the whole family are dying of malnutrition, but cannot bring themselves to do it. They try to steal American food, but the cans turn out to contain balloons. They try again to steal from the Americans with help from someone who turns out to be part of the local Yakuza (black market gangsters). After the Yakuza betray them, Ryuta kills two of them with the pistol they found. The head of a rival gang takes him in, and he leaves money outside Gen's front door before going off with the gangsters to avoid arrest. Returning to school, Gen and a girl, Michiko, are both mocked for being bald. Coming to her defence, he is challenged by a bully to a duel/dare. Both must climb a tall tower, and the first to return with a pigeon's egg will win. The tower crumbles beneath them as they climb. Gen saves the bully, who now owes him. He discovers that the girl's sister was raped by an American soldier and became a whore [sic] to provide food for Michiko. Gen learns that Tomoko has been kidnapped. He learns a Buddhist prayer because he's been told that praying to the Buddha will help him find Tomoko, and tries it though he thinks it superstition. He follows the bully, whom he suspects knows something, and finds that a large number of victims of Hiroshima have been using her as their Princess to trick dying women into believing their missing babies have been found, and as an inspiration to the kidnappers to stop drinking. This is a little more than six months after the Bomb was dropped, when many who had survived are suddenly dying. He is able to pray over a newly dead woman, which makes them sorry, but still unwilling to return Tomoko, until she starts vomiting blood. The doctor says she's dying. In a blink, from being just over six months after, it's suddenly the 2nd anniversary of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, in the midst of the doctor's visit. He says Tomoko's only chance is with expensive American medicine costing 100,000 yen. The kidnappers can't raise enough. The bully makes a list of the dying, and Gen tries to earn money chanting Buddhist prayers, but it's not enough. Mr. Pak, the Korean neighbor from Volume 1 makes a surprise visit, and hands Gen 100,000 yen and American milk. He's been doing well on the black market. Gen returns to his family with the money, but finds Tomoko is dead. He refuses to believe it, then refuses to speak, until he discovers that his hair is growing back, and remembers what his father told him, that he must keep growing, like wheat that grows straight and tall after being trampled.

In Volume 5: The Never-Ending War, in December 1947, Gen is in school when Ryuta appears, who has become a juvenile delinquent, doing odd jobs for the Yakuza. Gen meets orphans with Ryuta, including Katsuko, a girl scarred by burns from the bomb. As an orphan and a hibakusha, she is subject to discrimination and cannot go to school; Gen lends her his books and promises to teach her himself. On December 7, the Emperor visits Hiroshima, and the streets are lined with children waving homemade flags. Ryuta and other orphans learn to shoot a pistol since the head gangster, Masa, wants them to kill his rival, 'Mitey'. Donguri shoots Mitey and is killed. Gen encourages the others flee, but Masa follows them. Ryuta shoots Masa in the shoulder and his henchman in the leg to get them to let them go. They have built their own house, along with Gen, who doesn't wish to be a burden on his mother, where they live with an old man cast away by his relatives for being too ill from radiation to work. For New Year's Day, 1947, rice cakes are distributed free, but the true cost is to cheer for the Emperor who got Japan into the war, a cost too high for Gen to pay. He defies his teacher, speaking out his father's beliefs. The same local official who had called Gen's father a traitor for being for peace, who Gen then rescued the day the Bomb was dropped, who then refused to help free Gen's father, brother, and sister, is now running for office claiming he was always for peace. Gen exposes him, and is thrown out of the meeting. Gen's mother is ill, and the doctor says the only way to help her is to take her to the American-run Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission [ABCC], but Gen and his mother are against accepting American help. His older brother insists that she fight to live so she can raise the younger children to upright adulthood. The orphans decide to try to earn money shining shoes to help Gen's mother, and he sings to drum up business, but they are chased by orphan-catchers trying to take them to an orphanage. They assume Gen is an orphan, too. They escape, and ask the old man to become their father, "Papa," so they won't be orphans anymore, vulnerable to being hauled off. The old man is a novelist, but no one will publish his newest novel, because it is critical of the Americans for dropping the Bomb. Gen's mother goes to the ABCC, which gives her no help, only treating her as a specimen to be studied. Gen wonders why the doctor sent her there. He rescues a girl from bullies who call her a vulture. He learns that this is because her father collects dead victims of Hiroshima to take to the ABCC in order to make a living. Corrupt doctors get a kickback when they send people to the ABCC in the form of free medicine that they can sell at high prices. Gen sees boys fishing out skulls from the river and polishing them up to sell to the ABCC. At first he finds it sacreligious, but then decides the Americans deserve to be haunted, and any way to make money and survive at their expense is justified. He tries to make amends to the skulls by chanting prayers so they can go to heaven. He teaches the other children how to catch shrimp, as his mother lies seemingly at the point of death.

In Volume 6: Writing the Truth, the Hiroshima orphans put on a show of their misery to American soldiers to sell skulls of victims. They sell out, and look forward to buying lots of food, but a pickpocket robs them on the train. To their surprise, huge bags of food are thrown off the train they got off of once they discovered the theft. It's blackmarket food that wouldn't get through a checkpoint. They try to sneak some for themselves by stuffing smaller amounts to simulate a baby and pregnancy, but get caught. It turns out, however, that the police eat black-market rice too, since it's impossible to survive otherwise, and the orphans are able to escape them. No word comes from oldest brother Koji, who went off to work in the dangerous mines to earn money. He is drinking and gambling destructively. When Gen gets back home with rice, he finds that his mother is spitting up blood and has collapsed. They again need money they don't have for a doctor. Ryuta sticks up a casino to pay for Kimie's treatment, and the mob is after him, so he must flee Hiroshima. But every exit is staked, so he gives himself up to the police, who are the only ones who can insure he is not killed, and put in a reformatory. In July, 1948, in Hiroshima City, Gen is tearing down a wall to collect bricks, as well as scrap iron to earn a living. A girl has hanged herself because of the radiation scars that made everyone treat her as a monster. Gen worries that Katsuko will try again. He writes Koji for money to help with their mother's hospital bills. He sees a girl put stones in her sleeves, preparing to throw herself into the river, and rescues her. It's Natsue! But she forgets her own woes when Gen hurts himself. She is angry at everyone who has treated her cruelly, and Gen decides to take her back to join the orphans, asking Katsuko to keep an eye on her. Gen is accused of being a thief when he sticks his head in a window to smell the beef he can't afford. Natsue tries again, so he takes her and Katsuko to see someone with arms wrapped in bandages, sewing with only her feet and mouth. They decide to learn to sew too, and open a clothing store. Gen isn't getting much for scrap, and sees other orphans getting paid well for copper, so he looks for where they got it. They steal it by boat from a shipyard, but the first time Gen and an orphan, Musubi, try, the shipyard owners are already watching and catch them, intending to beat them to death. They throw stones in the river, pretending to have jumped in and drowned. Then they fill their boat with too much copper, and it sinks. They go to a shooting range and dig up spent copper bullets, but dangerous men have already claimed the place. "Papa" declares he's ready to fight to the death for the orphans, who alone have treated him like a human being after Hiroshima, and scares the men off. He reveals that he's already about to die anyway from radiation. Gen and Musubi buy a sewing machine for Katsuko and Natsue only to find Papa slumped over in blood. His only regret is that he can't see his anti-American novel, THE END OF SUMMER, published. It is now four years since the Bomb was dropped, but people keep dying from the radioactivity. Ryuta and Noro, a slowpoke, escape from the Reformatory. They trick a man and woman into leaving their clothing by the river, then steal it so they don't look like two boys to those searching for them, but like a couple. Noro has sworn to kill his uncle who killed Noro's sister and sent him to the Reformatory. Ryuta is not recognised in his girlish disguise when he reaches home to discover Papa is in a coma. Gen is determined to publish the book somehow, although he's been turned down by every publisher.

Volume 7: Bones into Dust

Themes

This section possibly contains original research. (August 2016)

Major themes throughout the work are power, hegemony, resistance and loyalty.

Gen's family suffers as all families do in war. They must conduct themselves as proper members of society, as all Japanese are instructed in paying tribute to the Emperor. But because of a belief that their involvement in the war is due to the greed of the rich ruling class, Gen's father rejects the military propaganda and the family comes to be treated as traitors. Gen's family struggles with their bond of loyalty to each other and to a government that is willing to send teenagers on suicide missions in battle. This push and pull relationship is seen many times as Gen is ridiculed in school, mimicking his father's views on Japan's role in the war, and then is subsequently punished by his father for spouting things he learned through rote brainwashing in school.

Many of these themes are put into a much harsher perspective when portrayed alongside themes of the struggle between war and peace.

Takayuki Kawaguchi (川口 隆行, Kawaguchi Takayuki), author of "Barefoot Gen and ‘A bomb literature’ re-recollecting the nuclear experience," (「はだしのゲン」と「原爆文学」 ――原爆体験の再記憶化をめぐって, “Hadashi no Gen” to “Genbaku Bungaku”—Genbaku Taiken no Saikiokuka o Megutte) believes that the characters Katsuko and Natsue coopt but change the stereotypical "Hiroshima Maiden" story, as typified in Black Rain, as although courageous, Katsuko and Natsue are severely scarred both physically and mentally.[4]

Translations

A volunteer pacifist organization, Project Gen, formed in Tokyo in 1976 to produce English translations.[5] Leonard Rifas' EduComics (together with World Color Press) published it that same year as Gen of Hiroshima, the "first full-length translation of a manga from Japanese into English to be published in the West."[5][6] It was unpopular, and the series was cancelled after two volumes.[7]

The group Rondo Gen published an Esperanto translation as Nudpieda Gen (Barefoot Gen) in 1982. The chief translator was Izumi Yukio.

The German Rowohlt Verlag published only the first volume in 1982 under their mass-market label "rororo". Carlsen Comics tried it again in 2004 but cancelled the publication after four volumes. Both publishers took the name Barfuß durch Hiroshima (Barefoot through Hiroshima).

The first volume was published in Norwegian in 1986 by GEVION norsk forlag A/S.[8] The Norwegian title is Gen, Gutten fra Hiroshima (Gen, the Boy from Hiroshima). A similar edition in Swedish (Gen – Pojken från Hiroshima) was published in 1985 by Alvglans förlag, which may have been the earliest published manga in Swedish.[9]

The first volume was published in Finnish in 1985 by Jalava, becoming the first Japanese comic to be published in Finland, but publishing was likewise abandoned. The Finnish title is Hiroshiman poika (The Son of Hiroshima), and Finnish translation was done by Kaija-Leena Ogihara. In 2006 Jalava republished the first volume (with its original translation) and continued with publication of second volume.

All 10 volumes were published in Poland by Waneko in 2004–2011 under the title Hiroszima 1945: Bosonogi Gen.[10]

An Arabic translation was published in Egypt by Maher El-Sherbini, a professor in the department of Japanese Language and Japanese literature at Cairo University, he began the project in 1992 when he was an exchange student at the Hiroshima University Graduate School of Letters, where he had completed his master’s and doctorate’s degrees. The first volume was released in January 2015 and since then all 10 Volumes have been translated.[11]

New Society Publishers produced a second English-language run of the series in graphic novel format (as Barefoot Gen: The Cartoon Story of Hiroshima) starting in 1988.[5]

New English edition

A new English translation has been released by Last Gasp (starting in 2004) with an introduction by Art Spiegelman, who has compared the work to his own work, Maus (which is about the experiences of Spiegelman's father during the Holocaust in Europe).[12]

• Barefoot Gen Vol. 1: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima (paperback ed.). Last Gasp. 2004 [1972/1973]. ISBN 0-86719-602-5.
• Barefoot Gen Vol. 2: The Day After (paperback ed.). Last Gasp. 2004 [1972/1973]. ISBN 0-86719-619-X.
• Barefoot Gen Vol. 3: Life After The Bomb (paperback ed.). Last Gasp. 2005 [1972/1973]. ISBN 978-0-86719-594-1. OL 8330688M.
• Barefoot Gen Vol. 4: Out Of The Ashes (paperback ed.). Last Gasp. 2005 [1972/1973]. ISBN 0-86719-595-9. OL 20389870M.
• Barefoot Gen Vol. 5: The Never-Ending War (paperback ed.). Last Gasp. 2007 [1972/1973]. ISBN 978-0-86719-596-5. OL 23085379M.
• Barefoot Gen Vol. 6: Writing the Truth (paperback ed.). Last Gasp. 2008 [1972/1973]. ISBN 978-0-86719-597-2.
• Barefoot Gen Vol. 7: Bones Into Dust (paperback ed.). Last Gasp. 2008 [1972/1973]. ISBN 978-0-86719-598-9.
• Barefoot Gen Vol. 8: Merchants of Death (paperback ed.). Last Gasp. 2009 [1972/1973]. ISBN 978-0-86719-599-6.
• Barefoot Gen Vol. 9: Breaking Down Borders (paperback ed.). Last Gasp. 2010 [1972/1973]. ISBN 978-0-86719-600-9.
• Barefoot Gen Vol. 10: Never Give Up (paperback ed.). Last Gasp. 2010 [1972/1973]. ISBN 978-0-86719-601-6.

Nakazawa planned to present a set of the series to US President Barack Obama to caution against nuclear proliferation.[13]

Media

Films

Live-action

In 1976, 1977 and 1980, Tengo Yamada directed three live-action film adaptations. In 2009, a Hollywood producer expressed interest in a studio version of the manga.[14]

• Barefoot Gen (1976)
• Barefoot Gen: Explosion of Tears (1977)
• Barefoot Gen: Part 3 Battle of Hiroshima (1980)

Animated films

Two animated films were based on the manga, in 1983 and 1986, both directed by Mori Masaki for a production company that Nakazawa founded.

• Barefoot Gen (1983)
• Barefoot Gen 2 (1986)

Barefoot Gen 2 is set three years after the bomb fell. It focuses on the continuing survival of Gen and orphans in Hiroshima.

Initially released individually on dub-only VHS tape by Streamline Pictures, and then dub-only DVD by Image Entertainment, Geneon eventually sold bilingual versions of the film on DVD as a set. On September 18, 2017, Discotek Media announced via Facebook that both films would be coming to blu ray with both the Japanese and English languages available in it.[15] The single disc set was released on December 26 of that year.

TV drama

A two episode TV drama was produced by Fuji Television in 2007 and was aired over two days.

• Barefoot Gen (2007)

Books

10 books have been published about Barefoot Gen.

Theatre productions

There have been a number of stage play adaptations of Barefoot Gen produced in Japan.

In July 1996 the first stage adaptation in English was premiered at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, UK. The production was a collaboration between the Crucible Theatre and Theatre Zenshinza, Tokyo, Japan. In 1994 British theatre director Bryn Jones travelled to Japan to request Mr. Nakazawa's permission to adapt the first volume as a play. Permission was granted and Jones returned to Sheffield to prepare the production; research, design and dramatisation with the Crucible company, Tatsuo Suzuki and Fusako Kurahara. Mr. Nakazawa subsequently travelled to the UK to attend final rehearsals and gave post show talks after the opening performances. The final manuscript was adapted and dramatised by Tatsuo Suzuki and Bryn Jones and translated by Fusako Kurahara. The production received a Japan Festival Award 1997 for outstanding achievements in furthering the understanding of Japanese culture in the United Kingdom.

Operas and musicals

Some operas and musicals of Barefoot Gen have been on show.

Reception

The manga has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.[16]

Controversy

In December 2012, access to Barefoot Gen became restricted in elementary schools and junior high schools[17] of Matsue city in Japan,[18] after a claim was made that Barefoot Gen "describes atrocities by Japanese troops that did not take place".[19] This was reviewed after 44 of 49 school principals polled in the city wanted the restriction removed[20] – the curb was later lifted in August 2013.[21]

Nakazawa’s widow, Misayo, had expressed shock that children’s access to the work was being curbed, explaining that "War is brutal. It expresses that in pictures, and I want people to keep reading it."[22]

See also

• Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum
• White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (2007)
• Grave of the Fireflies

References

External links

• Full manga of Barefoot Gen at the Internet Archive
• Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen) at IMDb
• "はだしのゲン (Hadashi no Gen)" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Archived from the original on 18 July 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-19.
• Group of Volunteers Translating and Publishing a Comic Barefoot Gen

На других языках

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- [en] Barefoot Gen

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[ru] Босоногий Гэн

«Босоногий Гэн» (яп. はだしのゲン Хадаси но Гэн) — манга Кэйдзи Накадзавы, выпускавшаяся в 1973—1974 годах и повествующая о жизни мальчика Гэна и его семьи до и после атомной бомбардировки Хиросимы Соединенными Штатами Америки 6 августа 1945 года. Сюжет полон автобиографических параллелей с жизнью самого Накадзавы, который был свидетелем бомбардировки в Хиросиме[2][3].

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