Description
Barefoot Gen (はだしのゲン, Hadashi no Gen ) is a Japanese historical manga series by Keiji Nakazawa, loosely based on Nakazawa's own experiences as a Hiroshima survivor. The series begins in 1945 in and around Hiroshima, Japan, where the six-year-old boy Gen Nakaoka lives with his family. After Hiroshima is destroyed by atomic bombing, Gen and other survivors are left to deal with the aftermath. It ran in several magazines, including Weekly Shōnen Jump , from 1973 to 1987. It was subsequently adapted into three live action film adaptations directed by Tengo Yamada, which were released between 1976 and 1980. Madhouse released two anime films, one in 1983 and one in 1986. In August 2007, a live action television drama series adaptation aired in Japan on Fuji TV over two nights.
Cartoonist Keiji Nakazawa created the feature Ore wa Mita (translated into English as I Saw It ), an eyewitness account of the atomic-bomb devastation in Japan, in the monthly manga Monthly Shōnen Jump in 1972. It was published in the United States through Educomics in 1982. Nakazawa went on to serialize the longer, autobiographical Hadashi No Gen ( Barefoot Gen ) beginning in the June 4, 1973 edition of Weekly Shōnen Jump manga magazine. It was cancelled after a year and a half, moving to three other less widely distributed magazines: Shimin (Citizen), Bunka Hyōron (Cultural Criticism), and Kyōiku Hyōron (Educational Criticism). It was published in book collections in Japan beginning in 1975.
