ABSTRACT
It may seem odd, even sacrilegious, to present Hadashi no Gen as an example of the roman in Japanese manga and anime that Eri Izawa describes in Chapter 7. For Gen is Keiji Nakazawa's emi autobiographical account of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, an event that claimed an estimated 100,000 lives, including those of the author's father, brother, and sister, and that even today is the world's most poignant symbol of the tragedy and folly of nuclear war. Gen is indeed a heartbreaking story which takes the reader, through the eyes of schoolboy Gen Nakaoka (Nakazawa's alter ego), through the persecution suffered by those who opposed the war, the devastation caused by the atomic blast, subsequent starvation and social disorder, the slower deaths of those afflicted with radiation sickness, and the lifelong discrimination faced by those who were "contaminated" by bombing. J Yet Hadashi no Gen is moving not just for the real-life tragedy it portrays so graphically-a portrayal that has hindered the comic's acceptance in the United States2-but for the indomitable spirit, the goodheartedness, the dreams, and even the humor of Gen and his friends, a group of street orphans growing up in survival mode in the aftermath of the nuclear destruction.
