Barefoot Gen

Infobox animanga/Header
name = Barefoot Gen


caption =
ja_name = はだしのゲン
ja_name_trans = Hadashi no Gen
genre = Drama, Anti-warInfobox animanga/Manga
title =
author = Keiji NAKAZAWA
publisher = flagicon|Japan Shueisha flagicon|Japan Chuokoron-Shinsha (tankōbon)
publisher_en = flagicon|United States flagicon|Canada Educomics (expired) flagicon|United States flagicon|Canada New Society Publishers (expired)
flagicon|United States flagicon|Canada Last Gasp
publisher other = flagicon|Brazil Conrad flagicon|Sweden Alvglans Förlag flagicon|Norway Gevion norsk forlag flagicon|Germany Carlsen Verlag flagicon|Indonesia Yayasan Obor Indonesia flagicon|Finland Jalava flagicon|Poland Waneko
demographic = Shōnen
magazine = flagicon|Japan Weekly Shōnen Jump
first = June 4 1973
last = 1974
volumes = 10 (first edition) [Ann manga|2713. Accessed 2006-12-05.] Infobox animanga/Movie
title =
director = Mori Masaki
studio = Madhouse
licensor = flagicon|United States Orion Home Video (original)
flagicon|USA Geneon (new)
released = July 21 1983
runtime = 83 min.Infobox animanga/Movie
title =
director = Toshio Hirata
studio = Madhouse
licensor = flagicon|United States Orion Home Video (original)
flagicon|USA Geneon (new)
released = June 1987
runtime = Infobox animanga/Drama
title =
director = Nishiura Masaki, Murakami Masanori
network = flagicon|Japan Fuji TV
first = August 10 2007
last = August 11 2007
slot = Friday, Saturday 21:00
episodes = 2 Episode SpecialNihongo|"Barefoot Gen"|はだしのゲン|Hadashi no Gen is a Japanese manga series by Keiji Nakazawa. It run in several magazines, including "Weekly Shonen Jump", from 1973 to 1985. 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 1987. In 2007, a live action television drama series adaptation aired in Japan on Fuji TV over two nights, August 10 and 11.

The series begins in 1945 in and around Hiroshima, Japan, where the six-year-old boy Gen lives with his family. After Hiroshima is destroyed by atomic bombing, Gen and other survivors are left to deal with the aftermath. The story is loosely based on Nakazawa's own experiences as a Hiroshima survivor.

History

"Hadashi no Gen" was originally serialized beginning in 1973 in the mass-market manga anthology "Weekly Shōnen Jump" ("Shūkan Shōnen Jampu"), which had earlier published Nakazawa's autobiographical Hiroshima story "Ore wa Mita" ("I Saw It"). 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). It was published in book collections in Japan beginning in 1975. A volunteer organization, Project Gen, formed in 1976 to produce English translations, which were released in four volumes. This made Barefoot Gen one of the first manga released in English. Fact|date=June 2008

The first volume was published in Norwegian in 1986 by [http://www.tegneserier.no/default.asp?ID=35&lib=forlag GEVION norsk forlag A/S] . The Norwegian title is "Gen, Gutten fra Hiroshima" (Gen, the Boy from Hiroshima).

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 has continued with publication of later volumes.

A new English translation has been released 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). Last Gasp will eventually release ten volumes.

Themes

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.

Films

General Plot theme in most film adaptations

The story begins on August 4, 1945, with the everyday life of Gen, his younger brother Shinji, their father, older sister, and pregnant mother during the Second World War. The beginning of the plot mainly focuses on the family's struggle to afford food ration cards and other items due to food shortages throughout Japan, and points out that fact that Hiroshima has not yet been attacked by an air raid fire bombing like the other Japanese cities of similar size and importance. Gen and Shinji try and help their family by working tirelessly in the family's wheat field, or attempting to find food to feed their pregnant mother, who has grown ill from malnutrition. On the night of the August 5th, the family is awakened by an air raid and take refuge in their bomb shelter, though after some time, it is clear this is yet another false alarm. During the ordeal, Gen's father states his fears concerning the constant passing of enemy aircraft with no attack to follow and is mostly afraid that Hiroshima is being saved for something special. The next morning, Gen presents a wooden ship he has made to Shinji, promising to take him to the river to set it afloat after he returns from school, and leaving his home around 7:40 in the morning. Upon reaching the school, Gen takes notice of a passing B29 aircraft and discusses with a female friend the oddity of its passing over the city with no air raid siren warning accompanying it, as was often common. As this occurs, his father, sister, and brother watch and discuss an army of ants enter their home in large numbers, while his mother hangs clothes off a clothesline on a second floor balcony of the house. Suddenly, Gen, his friend, and his family are all blinded by a flash of white light which is then closely followed by the explosion, flinging Gen underneath a ruined wall, throwing his mother off the balcony, and burying his father and siblings under the house. After the explosion scene ends, a long sequence documenting the immediate horrors of the bomb begins: including the death of his female friend, his amazement at the enormous destruction of the city surrounding him, and the sight of deformed and extremely burned people wandering the streets. The sequence also includes the death of all of Gen's family apart from him and his mother after all of them are trapped in the rubble of their burning home, with Gen powerless to save them. Soon after, Gen and his mother are taken to a safer area by a neighbor, where his mother gives premature birth to a baby girl. Gen leaves to find items and a midwife but is unable to and aides in the birth himself. He then leaves his mother and newborn sister in search for food or help but is unable to find anyone or anything as everyone is injured or dead and everything is destroyed or on fire. Later that night, Gen is unable to sleep due to the wailing of burned survivors nearby. He and his mother decide to get up and give the people water, as they are clamoring out of thirst, only to discover that they die soon after drinking it and so stop handing the water out. By August 8th, Gen finds that soldiers have entered the city and are distributing rice, but gets there too late, only to find them collecting corpses and burning the dead. He finds a fireman's hat which becomes a signature part of his character, and is then horrified to find a soldier is shivering cold in the intense summer heat, losing his hair, and vomiting blood. He takes the soldier to the red cross hospital only to find out that he is being left for dead by the doctors there, as his unknown sickness cannot be cured. Simultaneously, his mother attempts to find milk for the baby as her breasts have run dry, and clamors to find a feeding mother to give her some, only to find a baby attempting to nurse from his or her dead mother's corpse. Another woman then attacks her and attempts to kill the baby, but quickly changes her mind, pointing out her baby has died and she has reacted out of despair. In her change of heart, she breastfeeds the baby.

After several days of wondering around for food, Gen finds a ration storehouse containing rice, only to find that most of it has been seared by the heat of the blast. After digging through and onto the lower bags in the stack, he then finds that some have not been seared and takes them to his mother to eat along with some fresh vegetables. Gen and his mother then decide to name the baby Tomoko, meaning friend, as Gen hopes she will be surrounded by many friends all her life, and the two remark on the growing number of pyres being burned with the dead by soldiers. Gen and his mother then take refuge in a makeshift shack, and on August 16, dig up the skulls of their dead family members from the ruins of the former home. As they do so, a passing family announces the surrender of Japan, to which Gen and his mother respond angrily; his mother emphasizing that it was too late now to surrender after this carnage. Soon after, Gen discovers his hair has started to fall out, and remembering the stricken soldier, panics, only to be reassured by his mother.

In the shack, Gen, his mother, and little sister eat as little of the rationed rice as possible in an attempt to save it, when a small boy, Ryukio, attempts to steal the rice. Gen stops him and brings his back only to be shocked by his physical resemblance to Shinji. After speaking with the boy and feeding him, Gen and his mother learn he is orphaned and decide to keep him with them, Gen's mother stating that she would wish for someone to mind after Shinji in a similar situation. The following day, Gen and Ryukio head out to find food as their sister is suffering from malnutrition due to lack of milk, and are picked up by a man from out of town who takes them to tend for his sick brother, another bomb survivor, for 10 Yen per day. The two accept and find the man they will take care of is crude, rotting, and angry, his family rejecting him and his attitude. Despite his harshness, Gen and Ryukio decide to stay and take care of him regardless, and Gen even spends the night with him, inspiring him to paint once again. Due to their commitment where others hired to care for him gave up or failed, the man's brother pays them 100 Yen, and the boys head out to find milk quickly, in hopes of bringing it back to feed Gen's sister. Unfortunately, they arrive with the milk too late, as Tomoko has already died of malnutrition. Her body is then burned in a pyre, and Gen clamors out to his father for guidance.

Soon after, Gen is cheered up by Ryukio who has come to call him older brother, something which makes Gen feel proud and gives him a strong connection to his new friend. Despite hearing that no grass would grow in Hiroshima for seventy years, Gen and Ryukio find that weeds are starting to grow, and Gen is excited to discover his hair is also growing back. In his new found optimism, Gen remembers the promise he made to Shinji of taking him to the river after school, and so, he builds a new wooden boat, placing a candle on to the top. Two weeks after the bomb, Gen takes Ryukio and his mother to the river, where they light the candle and release the boat, together the watch the flame in the sunset, a symbol meant to express that beyond all terrible experiences, lies hope.

Production

Despite the serious subject matter of this film, the animation style is very childish in comparison to other anime. Often action, dialogue and the images are almost expressionistic to add to the impact of the film. The falling of the bomb is shown first from the American point of view which is very orderly and impassive. Then, when the bomb explodes, the view is from the Japanese showing powerful images of people being vaporized, buildings exploding and multi-color explosions.

equels

* In 1976 Tengo Yamada directed a live-action version.
* Two animated films were based on the manga, Barefoot Gen (film) (1983) and Barefoot Gen 2 (1986), both directed by Mori Masaki for a production company that Nakazawa founded.

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

Editions

Barefoot Gen Series
*Barefoot Gen #1: A Cartoon Story Of Hiroshima (ISBN 0-86719-602-5)
*Barefoot Gen #2: The Day After (ISBN 0-86719-619-X)
*Barefoot Gen #3: Life After The Bomb (ISBN 0-86719-594-0)
*Barefoot Gen #4: Out Of The Ashes (ISBN 0-86719-595-9)
*Barefoot Gen #5: The Never-Ending War (17 April 2008, ISBN-10: 0867195967)
*Barefoot Gen #6: Writing the Truth (17 April 2008, ISBN-10: 0867195975)
*Barefoot Gen #7: (Not published in English)
*Barefoot Gen #8: (Not published in English)
*Barefoot Gen #9: (Not published in English)
*Barefoot Gen #10: (Not published in English)

References

ee also

*Honkawa Elementary School Peace Museum
*"" (2007)
*"Grave of the Fireflies"

External links

*
*
* [http://www.lastgasp.com/d/24085/ Barefoot Gen Vol. 1 at Last Gasp]