Barefoot Gen

Book Review: Barefoot Gen Volumes 1-4

Author: Keiji Nakazawa

Recommended for: Middle school and up (Younger with parental guidance)

Genre: Manga/Graphic Novel/Comic Book

Barefoot Gen is a 4 volume graphic novel (or comic book) about the effect of the Atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima and its inhabitants. The translations can sometimes feel a bit stiff, but the illustration is lively and vital. Out of the ashes of the atomic bomb, plucky protagonist Gen finds a way to carry on, even in the face of horror. This book shows that often children, more readily than adults, can push forward in the face of tragedy.

This 4-volume series is based on the real life experiences of author Keiji Nakazawa, who, like Gen, lost his father, brother, and sister on the day of the atomic bomb, and later lost his baby sister to radiation sickness. I found this series very revealing about how the Japanese people perceived the war and how they survived the horrors brought about by the atomic bomb.

I suggest this book with a few reservations. First of all, there are a lot of scenes in which grown-ups strike children across the face. It seems silly to trifle with that when the whole point of the book is to show how 150,000 people perished from the bomb, yet those scenes of parents and teachers smacking their children were in some ways more disturbing to me. Still, if you think your child can handle it, or if you think you can talk him/her through it, the benefits of reading the book make it quite worthwhile.