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Documentary film on manga artist Keiji Nakazawa is completed with English subtitles

by Sakiko Masuda, Staff Writer

“Barefoot Gen’s Hiroshima,” a documentary film about manga artist Keiji Nakazawa, has been completed with English subtitles and the DVD is now on sale. Mr. Nakazawa died in December of last year at the age of 73. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Barefoot Gen, which first appeared in serial form in a Japanese magazine. The English subtitles for the film were added in the hope that people around the world will be moved to read his work and give consideration to peace issues.

The DVD was produced jointly by Tomo Corporation, a planning and production company located in Hiroshima, and Siglo, a film distributor based in Tokyo. These companies produced the Japanese-language version of the film in April 2011. The 77-minute film contains original drawings from Barefoot Gen and interviews with Mr. Nakazawa, in which he relates his childhood, his experience of the atomic bombing, and his desire for peace.

The DVD went on sale in Japan on February 14. It will also be screened in early March at the New York Peace Film Festival, the first such screening of the film outside Japan.

Kuniko Watanabe, 32, president of Tomo Corporation, commented, “Right up until the time he passed away, Mr. Nakazawa continued to convey his message of anger toward war and the atomic bombing. I admire his wish for peace and want to help convey his message to others. I hope this film will motivate people to read Mr. Nakazawa’s manga.”

For school settings, the DVD includes the 32-minute “Barefoot Gen’s Message,” also with English subtitles, which is composed mostly of the interview in which Mr. Nakazawa describes his A-bomb experience. The DVD for personal use costs 4,500 yen, while the library version, for libraries and schools, is priced at 20,000 yen. For further information, call Tomo Corporation at 082-502-0428 or send a message to tomo@tomo-corp.com.

(Originally published on February 18, 2013)

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