Barefoot Gen 『はだしのゲン』
Barefoot Gen follows the young scion of the Nakaoka family, Gen, in his life before and after the bombing of Hiroshima. Often depicted in grisly detail, the comic ran for more than a year and was eventually collected in ten serialized volumes. In the story, Gen and his family live as pariahs in their neighborhood due to Gen's father's anti-war stance. As they struggle to survive, one day their lives are irrevocably changed as the first atomic bomb used on humans is dropped on the city. Now a crater of black ash and fire, Gen and his mother must rebuild their family in an uncertain world.
On that day, Gen and his family became hibakusha (people exposed to the a-bomb), and would forevermore occupy a new place in society. Barefoot Gen has been translated into multiple languages across the world and remains one of the important stories on the history of Hiroshima.
To date, there have been six film and TV versions of Barefoot Gen. For the purposes of this course, the 1983 animated film will be the focus of the discussion. Like Grave of the Fireflies, this is a story that the Japanese are often compelled to remake. As such, it becomes imperative to understand why that is.
Further Reading: The Autobiography of Barefoot Gen
Barefoot Gen is available at retailers such as Amazon.com.
