Barefoot Gen - WikiHQ

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 (translated into English as I Saw It), 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 (Barefoot Gen) It was canceled 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). 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. 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. The later chapters turn their focus to how survivors struggled to live after the bombing of Hiroshima, including the discrimination that drove characters into crime. Those not affected by the bombing feared survivors would get them sick from radiation, while those who turned to crime became thieves for the Yakuzas. along with observations of anti-Korean racism in Japan.

Translations

A volunteer pacifist organization, Project Gen, was formed in Tokyo in 1976 to produce English translations of the series. Translations began to be printed in 1978, made available in the US through James Peck of the War Resisters League in New York City; the translations ended with the fourth volume. Leonard Rifas' EduComics began publishing it in 1980 as Gen of Hiroshima, the "first full-length translation of a manga from Japanese into English to be published in the West." It was unpopular, however, and the series was canceled after two volumes.

The Rondo Gen group published an Esperanto translation as Nudpieda Gen (Barefoot Gen) in 1982. Its chief translator was Izumi Yukio. The German Rowohlt Verlag published the first volume in 1982 as a mass market paperback. Carlsen Comics began to publish the series in 2004, but canceled publication after four volumes. Both publishers used the title Barfuß durch Hiroshima (Barefoot through Hiroshima).

Its first volume was published in Norwegian in 1986 by GEVION norsk forlag A/S as Gen, Gutten fra Hiroshima (Gen, the Boy from Hiroshima). A Swedish edition (Gen – Pojken från Hiroshima) was published in 1985 by Alvglans förlag as, possibly, the earliest published manga in that language.

The first volume was published in Finnish in 1985 by Jalava, and was the first Japanese comic published in Finland. Its Finnish title is Hiroshiman poika (Son of Hiroshima), translated by Kaija-Leena Ogihara. In 2006, Jalava republished the first volume (with its original translation) and published the second volume. All 10 volumes were published in Poland by Waneko from 2004 to 2011 as Hiroszima 1945: Bosonogi Gen.

An Arabic translation was published in Egypt by Maher El-Sherbini, a professor in Cairo University's department of Japanese language and literature. He began the project in 1992 as an exchange student at the Hiroshima University Graduate School of Letters, where he completed his master's and doctorate degrees. The first volume was published in January 2015, and all 10 volumes have been translated. New Society Publishers began to release a second English-language version of the series in graphic novel format (as Barefoot Gen: The Cartoon Story of Hiroshima) in 1988.

Nakazawa planned to present a set of the series to U.S. President Barack Obama as a caution against nuclear proliferation.

Other 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.

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

Animation

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

Barefoot Gen (1983)
Barefoot Gen 2 (1986)

Barefoot Gen 2, set three years after the bombing, focuses on the survival of Gen and the orphans in Hiroshima.

Initially released individually on dub-only VHS tape by Streamline Pictures and on dub-only DVD by Image Entertainment, Geneon offered bilingual versions of the film on DVD as a set. On December 26, 2017, Discotek Media released both movies on a single Blu-ray disc. This release once again presents the first movie in a bilingual format. The second movie is only presented in Japanese language with English subtitles, as is with the Geneon release.

Television

A two-episode TV drama was produced by Fuji Television in 2007.

Theatre

Several theatrical adaptations of Barefoot Gen have been produced in Japan. In July 1996, the first stage adaptation in English premiered at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield; the production was a collaboration between the Crucible and Tokyo's Theatre Zenshinza. British theatre director Bryn Jones traveled to Japan in 1994 for Nakazawa's permission to adapt the series' first volume for the stage. Jones returned to Sheffield to prepare the production's research, design, and dramatization with the Crucible company, Tatsuo Suzuki, and Fusako Kurahara. Nakazawa traveled to the UK to attend final rehearsals, and gave post-show talks after the opening performances. The final manuscript was adapted and dramatized by Suzuki and Jones, and was translated by Kurahara. The production received a Japan Festival Award in 1997 for outstanding achievement in furthering the understanding of Japanese culture in the United Kingdom.

Reception

Barefoot Gen was well received by the activist community of the time. The activist community used it as “an instrument in the struggle against nuclear weapons” as well as the “politically charged atmosphere of a country coming to terms with defeat in Vietnam”. The stark picture provided by the comic of being a survivor of Hiroshima lends credibility and usefulness to the activists movements. While affirming an anti nuclear bomb sentiment, it also promoted anti war ideals. It is used in activism at the end of the Vietnam war loss and in the midst of the cold war.

The manga has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. There was renewed interest in Barefoot Gen in 2023 after the release of Oppenheimer, a film about J. Robert Oppenheimer (the theoretical physicist known as the "father of the atomic bomb").

Controversy

In December 2012, access to Barefoot Gen became restricted in elementary and junior high schools in Matsue on the grounds that its depictions were too graphic for school children. Not only does the controversy address the manga itself, but it also brings into question Nazakawa's feelings towards the Japanese's actions, as well as who should be held accountable, providing even further points of controversy regarding the display of his stories to a younger audience. Other reasons on top of the display of graphic scenes, included a secondary group called the Citizens Against the Privileges of Korean Residents who argued against the display of this manga as they feared children would encounter and absorb ideas and understanding about history that this group would have deemed as misinformation. That being said, in terms of support, newspapers, including the Ryukyu Shinpo argued that the manga had deeper implications, comparing the banning of this book to previous historical events like Nazi book burnings. Controversy follows both the actual banning of the book as well as the aftermath and implications of the ban. The restriction was reviewed after 44 of the city's 49 school principals requested its removal, and it was lifted in August 2013. Nakazawa's widow, Misayo, expressed shock that children's access to the work had been restricted, saying: "War is brutal. It expresses that in pictures, and I want people to keep reading it."

References

External links

Full translated manga of
Group of volunteers translating and publishing a comic Barefoot Gen