Review: Barefoot Gen Vol. 1 & 2 by Keiji Nakazawa

13. & 21. Barefoot Gen Vol. 1 & 2 by Keiji Nakazawa
Publication: Last Gasp (September 2004) (originally published 1973), Paperback, 288pp / ISBN 0867196025 | Last Gasp (September 2004), Paperback, 240pp / ISBN 086719619X
Genre: Fiction, Graphic Novel, WWII
Rating:
Read: January 2010
Source: Library
Summary from Amazon:

Volume one of this ten-part series details the events leading up to and immediately following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Volume two, The Day After, focuses on the days following the bombing of Hiroshima, as the living victims struggle to survive in the aftermath.

Review

Don’t be fooled by the cover(s): this isn’t a happy-go-lucky story. It’s about the time immediately before, during, and after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima during WWII, and it’s graphic. It’s graphic in the art, yeah, but also in the emotions portrayed and the experiences held within.

See, Keiji Nakazawa has first-hand experience of atomic bombs and their effects because he was there when it happened. I’ll quote something from Wikipedia:

He was born in Hiroshima [in 1939] and was in the city when it was destroyed by an atomic bomb in 1945. All of his family members who had not been evacuated died in the bombing except for his mother and an infant sister who died several weeks after the bombing.

Barefoot Gen is his story, even more than just being the author/artist, and his emotions come through quite clearly. It’s a story about the bombing of Hiroshima, yes, but it’s also a story about the people that survived it (or didn’t), about family and war and everything else tied up into WWII. It’s horrifying and it’s heartbreaking, and I don’t think I’ve been this affected by a WWII story since reading Anne Frank’s diary. There’s something about seeing what happened to people during WWII that’s more effective than just words are. It was like being constantly punched in the gut.

It’s not all depressing, however (although it gets pretty freakin’ depressing). One of the themes is to not give up, even if you’ve been trampled on and pushed down. (The final volume is actually called “Never Give Up”.) There’s some wonderful scenes with Gen’s family in the first volume, especially with Gen’s father who’s an anti-war protester. And watching Gen staying courageous and hopeful even after everything that’s happened to him kept my heart warm, when otherwise I think I would have been sobbing after every page. The emotions in Barefoot Gen aren’t superficial, they’re deep and real, and they speak volumes.

The art isn’t overwhelmingly wonderful (it’s that weird 1970′s thing where everyone’s constantly sweating for some reason) and sometimes the dialogue takes right turns into soap opera territory. However, that’s pretty much the way manga was back then: done in a completely different way than we’re used to now. You just have to adjust for the differing sensibilities, I think. And since it’s the story that matters I think we all can look past Barefoot Gen‘s faults. It’s a really upsetting story, but one that’s important, and though I think it’ll be a while until I can make myself read the next volume (there’s ten total), I feel obligated as a human to read it, and to learn.

And

Find your own copy @ Amazon or IndieBound

Other reviews: Saffron Tree | Panel Patter | Read About Comics

Two things I kept thinking while reading Barefoot Gen (besides “this art kinda sucks”):
1. How the hell could we have let this happen?
2. We must never let it happen again.

I also thought it was really illuminating to be reading about what happened in other countries besides Germany/America/England/etc during WWII. For all the history classes I was forced to take in high school, I don’t think we ever learned anything about what was going on in Japan, why they joined the war, what happened after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, etc. Nothing about China or Korea. It was all just kind of “Pearl Harbor-D-Day-Allies-and then we bombed the crap out of them and won the war!” It just seems sort of…blinding.