“Barefoot Gen” to appear in peace education materials in Hiroshima
Mar. 27, 2012
by Michiko Tanaka, Staff Writer
The Hiroshima Municipal Board of Education has made the decision to adopt a textbook based on the manga “Barefoot Gen” for the city’s unique peace education course geared to third graders. The story depicts how Gen, a boy about the same age as these students, lived life with vitality amid the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Facing the challenge of handing down the A-bomb experience to today’s children, the board of education hopes that turning to a story of a boy of a similar age will make the feelings of A-bomb survivors more familiar to the students. In the 2012 school year, four model schools will test the new material in classrooms, and the board of education plans to introduce the textbook in all municipal schools in the 2013 school year.
“Barefoot Gen” is an autobiographical work by Keiji Nakazawa, 73, a resident of Naka Ward, Hiroshima. The textbook will include excerpts from the manga story, including how the members of Gen’s family, though modest of means, supported one another prior to the bombing, and how some members of the family became trapped under the wreckage of their house when the blast occurred. The textbook will also provide space where students can write their interpretation of Gen’s feelings.
The board of education is planning to implement the Peace Education Program, a systematic approach to learning about peace, in all municipal elementary, junior high, and high schools in the school year starting in 2013. In the 2012 school year, a total of ten schools from these three levels will adopt the program on a trial basis.
The textbooks come in four levels, from elementary school through high school. In high school, students will learn about Mr. Nakazawa’s life and the message he has conveyed in his work. In the material designed for fifth graders, an anecdote is included about a fund-raising campaign which involved Hiroshima citizens helping the Hiroshima Carp, the city’s professional baseball team, overcome financial difficulties during its early years. Meanwhile, third-year junior high school students will study the state of nuclear weapons around the world and the efforts being made to abolish these weapons.
According to a survey conducted by the board of education in 2010, only 33 percent of students in the fourth to sixth grades of elementary school, and 55.7 percent of first-year to third-year junior high school students were able to correctly respond that the atomic bomb was dropped at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945. These percentages offering the correct answer were both record lows.
Mr. Nakazawa is delighted with the peace education effort, and commented: “I hope the children of Hiroshima will give serious thought to the atomic bombing, and as an author, I feel very honored that “Barefoot Gen” will be used as teaching material for this purpose.”
(Originally published on March 21, 2012)
The Hiroshima Municipal Board of Education has made the decision to adopt a textbook based on the manga “Barefoot Gen” for the city’s unique peace education course geared to third graders. The story depicts how Gen, a boy about the same age as these students, lived life with vitality amid the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Facing the challenge of handing down the A-bomb experience to today’s children, the board of education hopes that turning to a story of a boy of a similar age will make the feelings of A-bomb survivors more familiar to the students. In the 2012 school year, four model schools will test the new material in classrooms, and the board of education plans to introduce the textbook in all municipal schools in the 2013 school year.
“Barefoot Gen” is an autobiographical work by Keiji Nakazawa, 73, a resident of Naka Ward, Hiroshima. The textbook will include excerpts from the manga story, including how the members of Gen’s family, though modest of means, supported one another prior to the bombing, and how some members of the family became trapped under the wreckage of their house when the blast occurred. The textbook will also provide space where students can write their interpretation of Gen’s feelings.
The board of education is planning to implement the Peace Education Program, a systematic approach to learning about peace, in all municipal elementary, junior high, and high schools in the school year starting in 2013. In the 2012 school year, a total of ten schools from these three levels will adopt the program on a trial basis.
The textbooks come in four levels, from elementary school through high school. In high school, students will learn about Mr. Nakazawa’s life and the message he has conveyed in his work. In the material designed for fifth graders, an anecdote is included about a fund-raising campaign which involved Hiroshima citizens helping the Hiroshima Carp, the city’s professional baseball team, overcome financial difficulties during its early years. Meanwhile, third-year junior high school students will study the state of nuclear weapons around the world and the efforts being made to abolish these weapons.
According to a survey conducted by the board of education in 2010, only 33 percent of students in the fourth to sixth grades of elementary school, and 55.7 percent of first-year to third-year junior high school students were able to correctly respond that the atomic bomb was dropped at 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945. These percentages offering the correct answer were both record lows.
Mr. Nakazawa is delighted with the peace education effort, and commented: “I hope the children of Hiroshima will give serious thought to the atomic bombing, and as an author, I feel very honored that “Barefoot Gen” will be used as teaching material for this purpose.”
(Originally published on March 21, 2012)
