Barefoot Gen Vol.1: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima: No. 1 (Barefoot Gen) - Keiji Nakazawa

Please read this book!

Volumes 1 & 2 of Nakazawa's famous comic series about a boy called 'Gen' and his life in Hiroshima during the WWII and soon after the atomic bomb. The first two volumes of this series are probably the most important ones. After I read them, I just had to lend them to everyone I knew. If you read this story, you'll realise how silly to hear some popular opiniton 'Dropping two atomic bombs in Japan was necessary to end the war'. The author Nakazawa says that each and every event illustrated here is a true story. You'll see, for example, that two young brothers fight against each other for a little grain of rice. Gen trying to encourage a girl who used to be dreaming about one day becoming a professional dancer, but now her face was badly burnt by the bomb, although she still didn't know it - he refuses to let her see the mirror.
The bombs were dropped onto civilians in the two cities, and, in Hiroshima alone, 100,000 people, including children, elderly people and western prisoners of war, were killed instantly, and the pain they suffered from it was tremendous. The way some of Gen's family members, including a new born baby sister, were slowly dying is simply too sad to look at. But the reality is that it actually took place and was caused by human hands.
I sincerely hope that many people will find the opportunity to read this book at least once in their life-time, and I strongly believe that this book will enlighten the whole world with the message: 'What really happens when a nuclear bomb is dropped onto humanity', which hasn't really been talked about in history books for some reason. But I think it's time to face reality.

Telling the tale of the people in front of the bomb...

I discovered this title in my local libary years ago and fell in love. A deeply moving tale of the lessons and pressures of the real life of a worldly different, yet eerly similar, family at war. A true testiment to the devastation that war creates and the lives lost.

This winding epic is a must for all serious Graphic Novel/Comic/Manga collector, or anyone who appresiates the impact Hiroshima had on history.

Moving account of Hiroshima pre A-bomb.

This comic book (some may call it graphic novel, I don't) is an account of how it was to live in Japan during the war.

Rationing, indoctrination, racism, conformism and alienation are all there, the nastiness of the war is revealed at a level we don't see very often, that of civilian daily life.

Absolutely fantastic book that should be mandatory reading for the warmonger closest to your heart.

Splendid insights into everyday life in traumatic times

You don't have be a manga fan to enjoy these books – very much like Spiegelman & Maus.
Ignoring the graphic art itself, these books give an excellent insight into what was happening in Japan, with the trials and tribulations of everyday life, before, during and after the Atomic Bomb attacks.

Think you have seen it all? Think again

I had no inkling of what lay in store when I borrowed this marvellous book from my brother. I read it in one sitting and was totally absorbed by the story of Gen, his family and their neighbours in Hiroshima. The author paints a fascinating portrait of Japanese wartime society, the petty domestic concerns of the people, their faith in victory and their belief in their leaders which to me seems totally authentic. He charts the dropping of the bomb and its aftermath in shocking detail and reveals the pain and anguish of the survivors. I challenge readers not to be deeply effected by this tale of loss, love and survival.