Features

by Rie Nii, Staff Writer


At the end of 1974, Mr. Nakazawa stopped producing installments of “Barefoot Gen,” which had been serialized in the manga magazine “Weekly Shonen Jump.”

Because of the oil shock, there was a shortage of paper. Magazines couldn’t be made without reducing the number of pages they contained. Under these circumstances, I was told I would have to skip several runs of my series. But I felt the story, which was reaching a high point, would lose steam. “Is this the way it’s going to be?” I thought. I hated the idea of publishing the series on an irregular basis because my runs were getting skipped, and for other reasons.

Besides, a weekly magazine has a very tight schedule. I was under pressure to meet a deadline every week. It was tough. At the same time, I didn’t want to employ a lot of assistants. I didn’t want to separate the act of developing the story from the act of drawing the pictures. So I was hoping I could create my manga for a monthly magazine.

In September 1975, Mr. Nakazawa resumed the “Barefoot Gen” serial.

About six months after I stopped drawing “Barefoot Gen” for “Weekly Shonen Jump,” a journalist of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper came to see me and asked if he could read it. He kept in touch and suggested that I continue drawing “Gen” if I had an idea for a sequel. The journalist then introduced me to the monthly magazine “Shimin” (“Citizens”). But the magazine lasted only a year and they told me they couldn’t pay me for my work. So I got nothing at all. It was a total washout. I had my savings, though, and I thought, “I can make this work. I just need to find another monthly magazine.” I’m an optimistic person, you know. Besides, even when the serial was suspended, ideas for the story were racing through my mind, faster and faster. So it was no different from when I was working on it.

Later, starting in July 1977, I drew “Gen” in the monthly magazine “Bunka Hyoron” for three and a half years. Again, I had trouble collecting my fees for the work. Then, for another three and half years, from April 1982, I drew “Gen” in the “Kyoiku Hyoron.” In all, it took more than ten years for me to finally conclude the series.

Mr. Nakazawa also had a hard time publishing “Barefoot Gen” in book form.

Why wouldn’t Shueisha, the publisher of “Weekly Shonen Jump,” issue the book form of “Barefoot Gen” even when they had already serialized the story in their magazine? They told me that they wouldn’t publish it as a book because then the name of the company would always be attached to it. If manga is printed only in magazine form, the story will disappear--it’s something to be “read and discarded.” The heads of the company didn’t want an overt connection to “Barefoot Gen” [presumably because the material could be seen as controversial].

As for my manga “Okinawa,” which also ran as a serial in “Weekly Shonen Jump,” it was about to be printed as a book when the management intervened. “The name ‘Shueisha’ will live forever [if the book is printed],” they said. I wondered what they were afraid of. They were repressing free speech.

In the end, an acquaintance of mine helped me publish “Gen” in book form through another publisher.

(Originally published on July 24, 2012)