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Features

My Life: Interview with Keiji Nakazawa, author of “Barefoot Gen,” Part 1

Gen is born after mother’s death

by Rie Nii, Staff Writer

Keiji Nakazawa, 73, an A-bomb survivor and manga artist who resides in downtown Hiroshima, continues to speak out against the atomic bombing and war through his best-known work entitled “Hadashi no Gen,” or “Barefoot Gen,” a story based on his own experience. More than 10 million copies of “Barefoot Gen” have been released in Japan, including pocket editions of various sizes. The story has found life in a range of other forms as well, including live-action films, animated films, TV dramas, plays, operas, and illustrated books. Additionally, the work has been translated into more than 20 languages, including English and Russian, making the story of “Barefoot Gen” one of the most widely-known A-bomb-related works in the world.

Forty years will soon have passed since I began drawing “Barefoot Gen” as a serial in the manga magazine “Weekly Shonen Jump.” Today, Gen is still running about barefoot in the world. Manga has now become a global culture with the power to convey the facts of the atomic bombing, if used properly. This is a positive development.

Mr. Nakazawa began to create manga about the atomic bombing in 1966, after his mother died.

I experienced a deep shock at the crematory, when I was retrieving my mother’s remains. There weren’t any bones left, just bone fragments. I thought, “The atomic bombing not only threw my family into the abyss, it stole the precious bones of my mother.” [It is thought that the exposure to A-bomb radiation suffered by Mr. Nakazawa’s mother ate away at her bones, turning them brittle.] As if waging a war of vengeance, I created the piece “Kuroi Ame ni Utarete” (“Pelted by Black Rain”) in one sitting.

Later, the monthly “Shonen Jump” introduced a series in which manga artists would draw the story of their own lives. The magazine made me the “lead-off batter” and I created “Ore wa Mita” (“I Saw It”) in 1972. The chief editor of “Weekly Shonen Jump” read it and asked me if I would be willing to make a long-term serial, based on the story of my life. This is how “Barefoot Gen” was born, in June 1973.

The main character, the boy “Gen Nakaoka,” is based on Mr. Nakazawa.

Like Gen, I experienced the atomic bombing at a place just 1.2 kilometers from the hypocenter and miraculously survived the blast. The details of the family are the same, too. It’s true that I lost my father, my older sister, and my younger brother in the bombing. It’s also true that my younger sister was born on August 6.

I think it’s my duty to accurately convey these facts--the reality of the war and the atomic bombing--to the next generation. As I am a manga artist, I convey these things through the world of manga.

(Originally published on July 3, 2012)

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