Barefoot Gen Volume One – A Cartoon History of Hiroshima
Barefoot Gen Volume One – A Cartoon History of Hiroshima, by Kejii Nakazawa, Last Gasp
KEJII NAKAZAWA survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the American forces during the final days of World War II. He would grow up to be a respected comic strip artist in his native Japan, with many of his works reflecting his concerns regarding nuclear power, foremost among them the epic saga of Barefoot Gen.
For those who’ve grown up in the last twenty years, or are still doing so, nuclear power is generally assigned to works of hyper-fiction like sci-fi films or comics where you gain mutated super-powers from it and save the world from an even greater menace; or something the latest crop of well-paid politicians are offering sound-bites about regarding it being a wonderful choice as our main energy supply in future days.
To the latter, I say great when it’s working properly, but I’ve got this lasting memory of Chernobyl’s nuclear reactors blowing up, and some countries are still dealing with the aftermath of the radiation fallout from it to this day. To the former I’ll say go ask your grandparents if they remember anyone in your family who signed up for National Service, got shipped to Australia to put on some goggles and watch a nuclear bomb test, then found out later they caught cancer because of it.
Me, I’m not convinced.
Nakazawa saw the horrific reality of it all, and that’s when the bombs they made were a darned size smaller than the ones our world’s leaders’ scientists are capable of making these days.
Barefoot Gen is Nakazawa’s semi autobiographical take on the events he was part, and there were ten original collections. English language attempts have been made previously - Penguin tried putting out the series during the 90s when the first push towards putting graphic novels onto bookshelves in a big way was attempted, but those versions were abridged and didn’t really work; in fact this old git recalls reviewing it saying that for all its epic scope I preferred the copy of Nakazawa’s I Saw It!, a regular US sized comic put out by Edu Comics wherein the tale told was done more succinctly but genuinely more satisfying in getting its message over for me.
Well, venerable underground comix publisher Last Gasp is to be applauded for bringing out the series in unabridged form, for the story is enhanced by the complete director’s cut, as it were, being available now. And while we’re at it, a show of hands for my own local library in Yardley, Birmingham for being astute enough to have at least the first three volumes available on its shelves, and much read they are by the amount of “Date for Return” stamps inside them.
Volume One is far from all doom and gloom. It centres around Gen’s family, his parents and siblings, some of whom live with them, others who are away working for the war effort. Idealistically, it establishes its viewpoint from Gen’s father; a poor but hard working man he knows it is the machinations of businessmen and a power-hungry military elite who have lead them into the madness of war, and worse that there is no hope of Japan’s now winning.
It is through family life, our caring for the characters and understanding the daily problems they face that makes what will be the inevitable bombing all the more poignant.
Because of Gen’s father’s stance the family are castigated by others, a situation Gen and his younger brother often find hard to reconcile but get up to all manner of school boy antics to get by - escapades that wouldn’t be out of place in a classic Dennis the Menace or Roger the Dodger strip. But there is hardship too, and cruelty far too often, and there’s a level of violence of subjugation of liberties that’s hard not to feel upset about, even when it’s readily accepted as due punishment by some.
Suffice to say for some two hundred pages we are entreated to a family soap saga, with a world at war about them. And then the planes fly in; the bomb is dropped, and Nakazawa’s pleasant cartoon style changes to reflect the atrocity of the atomic fallout – Think you’ve seen one irradiated melting man too many to affect you? Then try the sole splash page of this book that shows a horse whinnying in pain as it catches fire. Not happy about that, fellow animal lovers? Well, you’re not meant to be, it’s intended to shock and upset you.
The pace increases as young Gen, having survived, runs home, avoiding further catastrophes himself but witnessing those others have faced, and when he gets there he sees his pregnant mother weeping before the knocked down shack that was their home with his father, brother and sister trapped under the wreckage, unable to help and with the ensuing flames about to engulf the family. This truly brings the dark poignancy of this story’s message home: it’s about the little people, you and me, trapped in a world we can’t change individually, while those who profit in violence carry on their own existence regardless.
Some forty pages later, this first volume promises not to end on a completely sour note and we see new life born as Gen’s mother delivers him a new sister prematurely.
Across 284 pages a reader can laugh and smile, share sadness, add a little education, and be left deciding for themselves how right or wrong the use of atomic bombs are, and start wondering about the long term effects of nuclear power itself.
Sponsored by Target Media.
