Barefoot Gen Volume 6: Writing the Truth


By Keiji Nakazawa (Last Gasp)
ISBN: 978-0-86719-597-2

Hadashi no Gen originally began in 1973, serialised in ShÅ«kan Shōnen Jampu (Weekly Boys Jump) following an occasional 1972 series of stand-alone stories in various magazines which included Kuroi Ame ni Utarete (Struck by Black Rain) and Aru Hi Totsuzen, (One Day, Suddenly). These led Shonen’s editor Tadasu Nagano to commission the 45 page Ore wa Mita (I Saw It) for a Monthly Jump special devoted to autobiographical works. Nagano realised that the author – an actual survivor of the first Atomic Bombing – had much more to say and commissioned the serial which has grown into this stunning epic.

The tale was always controversial in a country that too often prefers to ignore rather than confront its mistakes and indiscretions, and after 18 months Hadashi no Gen was removed from Jump, transferring first to Shimin (Citizen), Bunka Hyōron (Cultural Criticism), and Kyōiku Hyōron (Educational Criticism). Like his indomitable hero, Keiji Nakazawa never gave up and his persistence led to the first Japanese book collection in 1975, translated by the original Project Gen into English, and other languages including Norwegian, French German, Italian, Portuguese Swedish, Finnish, Indonesian, Tagalog and Esperanto. He completed the tale in 1985 and his dark chronicle has been since been adapted into three anime films, (1983 and 1987) and in 2007, a 2-part live action television drama.

Undoubtedly mirroring Nakazawa’s own creative journey this volume relates the false starts, little triumphs and perpetual set-backs following the bold declaration of old man Gramps to defy the American suppression policy and write a book about the effects and repercussions of atomic warfare.

The dying journalist had made Ryuta and his fellow bomb orphans his new family after his own children threw him out, but as he feels his death approaching and the kids (with the irrepressible Gen always in attendance) spend all their time begging and preying on the ubiquitous American G.I’s his resolve begins to falter. The kids have made enough money to buy black market food for him and Gen’s equally ailing mother, but their joy is ended when Ryuta’s pocket is picked by a better thief than he…

However, life is full of opportunities. They find a discarded stash of comestibles by the rail tracks, jettisoned from a train to prevent police officers from confiscating it. Despite their best efforts they too are arrested but Gen’s strident protestations about police corruption provokes a small riot and the kids escape with most of their windfall. Returning home fortune again turns away as Mrs. Nakaoka has weakened so much that she can no longer eat. Nothing can save her now but money. Lots and lots of it…

Whilst Gen tenderly ministers to her Ryuta explores another solution. The opportunistic gangs that would become indistinguishable from and largely supplant the traditional Yakuza have a brutal grip on Hiroshima’s rackets and are moving into politics. Working from gambling dens they are the largest repositories of cash in the slowly regenerating city. In an astounding feat of courage and stupidity the wayward lad single-handedly raids a casino, stealing a huge amount of money and brazenly kidnapping the Boss of Bosses.

It is an unforgivable affront and Ryuta is forever a marked man. The Yakuza turn Hiroshima upside down hunting for him and the boy is seemingly doomed until Gen conceives a unique solution. If Ryuta surrendered to the police and went to a state reformatory the Yakuza would be unable to find him…

Even with another loved one seemingly taken from Gen forever, his tragic defiance never wavers. By July 1948 he is eking out a regular pittance salvaging building materials from bomb-sites, with his mother in a hospital, paid for with the stolen Yakuza cash. Ryuta is safe in a penitentiary in Shimane Prefecture, whilst his fellow bomb orphans Natsuko and Musubi are still with Gramps, who is soldiering on.

Koji is gone. He left for the coal mines but they haven’t heard from him yet. Life is briefly tolerable, but Gen’s mood is spoiled when he finds another girl has committed suicide. This is a common and growing problem as radiation-deformity and growing prejudice make life intolerable for many survivors. Others simply cannot bear dying slowly and painfully…

On his way home he rescues another would be suicide from the river. It is Natsue, a young dance student he saved once before (Barefoot Gen: volume 2 The Day After, ISBN: 978-0-86719-619-1). Again he diverts her from her fatalistic intent, even after she unburdens herself by revealing her painfully familiar story. The big-hearted boy takes her to Gramps, who invites her to join his family of orphans. Both Natsue and Natsuko are talented seamstresses, and Gen determines to get them a sewing machine so they can earn some money…

The scrap metal trade has always been hovered on the line between legitimacy and larceny. When other salvagers reveal that copper can be easily “found” at the new Daido Shipyard, Gen and Musubi steal a boatload – but as always things do not end well. Even when they find a less risky source their treasure is hijacked by thieves until Gramps intervenes at risk of his life. Aware of how close to death he is Gen reaffirms his vow that the old man’s book “The End of Summer” will be published – no matter what.

At this moment a strange boy and girl burst in. She especially is horrified at the old man’s condition, and with a shock everybody finally realizes that Ryuta has escaped from prison and returned to them…

Possibly the most intriguing and revealing of Keiji Nakazawa’s ten volume graphic masterpiece, Barefoot Gen: Writing the Truth is mostly comprised of character asides as Gen often yields focus to the supporting cast whose personal stories add body and texture to the overall narrative. The long, hard and so-slow struggle to publish a book about the Atom Bombing of Hiroshima acts as a frame for a broader view of post-war Hiroshima, and the insights into cultural peccadilloes, particularly the rise of the organized gangster and politician, are irresistibly compelling.

The insights into the sordid criminal underbelly are subtly reminiscent of the early Graham Greene, and by seemingly moving slightly off his message Nakazawa actually drives home his points with far greater force. Barefoot Gen is positively Reithian in its ability to Educate, Inform and Entertain and its legacy will be as pervasive and long-lasting…


© 2008 Keiji Nakazawa. All Rights Reserved.