Barefoot Gen

"If I survive this... I’ll draw what happened. I’ll tell the world."

                                                                                                            – Keiji Nakazawa

Barefoot Gen is based on author Keiji Nakazawa’s real-life experience as a Hiroshima bombing survivor. Not only is its structure brilliant from a manga perspective, but its depictions are extremely realistic and compelling.

The story follows Gen as he navigates the charred remains of Hiroshima, bearing witness to unimaginable devastation. His journey, marked by loss, trauma, and quiet strength, echoes the experience of Nakazawa himself, who was six years old when the bomb fell. He lost most of his family and lived through the aftermath of a city scarred by radiation, grief, and abandonment. The emotional weight of that experience would later form the foundation of Barefoot Gen, first serialised in 1973, and recognised today as one of the most significant anti-war works in Japanese literature.

In 2023, the manga depicting the Hiroshima bombing, was removed from peace education materials used in Hiroshima City’s municipal primary, junior high, and high schools. The work has been a subject of controversy before, including a decade ago when conservatives criticised it, leading to restricted access in school libraries.

The removal of Barefoot Gen from the list of supplementary peace education came with much debate similar to when the Peace Memorial Museum removed its wax figures. At the root of such decisions seems to stem from a concern among some political actors of what this might foster by exposing children to the horrific, inhumane reality of the atomic bombing. The result is a pre-emptive atmosphere of censorship where stories are left untold.

Nakazawa's widow, Misayo, expressed shock that children's access to the work had been restricted, saying: "War is brutal. It expresses that in pictures, and I want people to keep reading it."

"If people can come to understand just how important peace is, then my role will be complete. No matter what happens, you must never go to war. War must never be waged under any circumstances. And especially nuclear weapons — just one of those being used wouldn’t be like Hiroshima or Nagasaki; the destruction would be far greater. We must raise a generation that is committed to eliminating them. I believe manga can play a part in that mission. If children can come to feel in their hearts, 'So this is what happened... we must make sure it never happens again,' then as a creator, I couldn’t ask for anything more."

                                                                                                            – Keiji Nakazawa