Barefoot Gen Proposes For Japanese Identity

Abstract

Barefoot Gen is the influential, heartbreaking narrative of the bombing of Hiroshima in World War II, when the American atomic bomb was dropped on the city, visualized through the eyes of the artist as a seven years old young Japanese boy. This research paper aims to analyze the various aspects of Barefoot Gen, in the context of literature produced at that time, the literary genre of the novel and symbolism characterized in the manga. The theme of this manga is physical and psychological suffering of the common people during and post war. It proposes Japanese identity of stoicism in any circumstances, as without much food, money or medicine, Gen and his family have long been struggling, but regardless of destitutions, they strive to preserve an impression of normal life. Nakazawa who was himself a Hiroshima survivor, efficiently depicts the striving of living in these circumstances and illustrates how Japanese endeavors to be cheerful in terrible environment.

Table of Contents

Thesis Statement4

Introduction5

Discussion7

Cultural Representations of Japan and the West, through the Figure of the Child, in the Postwar Era7

Barefoot Gen and the Concept of Nuclear Apocalypse7

Environmentalism and Anti-War Protest8

Barefoot Gen and A-Bomb Literature9

Barefoot Gen and World War II10

Barefoot Gen and Japanese Identity- Japanese Stolidity and Personal Submission13

Barefoot Gen and Symbolism14

Conclusion15

References16

Barefoot Gen Proposes For Japanese Identity

Thesis Statement

One feeling they did seem to share, however, was a curious kind of elated community spirit . . . a pride in the way they and their fellow-survivors had stood up to a dreadful ordeal. (Hersey John, 1989)

Japan and Hiroshima are the similes, one representing the other. Barefoot Gen proposes for Japanese identity. The autobiographical manga of Nakazawa Keiji's Barefoot Gen is well-known for its harrowing portrayals of the destructions attributable to the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. (Ito, 2006, Ito and Omote, 2006, Yoshimura 2006) Nakazawa, a subsister himself, describes the effect of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Nakazawa, through his character Gen, illustrates how the Japanese people were anticipated to adapt to the war adventure devoid of question, how coldheartedly survivors were often handled, and how the remonstrations of other nations held the Americans back from deployment of more bombardments. Gen is portrayed by Nakazawa as featuring a character that never gives up and the capability to take the stand to the dreadfulness of Hiroshima. Gen's life is followed in the series from soon prior to the bombing to 1953. Gen is actually a symbol, representing the whole of Japanese people; their courage to tolerate happenings, to take stand against agony, atrocities and violence. Reads from front to back, the sequence in Barefoot Gen is drawn in written communication, which is quite dissimilar to the customary manga style that engenders it more accessible to booklovers.

Introduction

In the early 1970s, this innovative manga was first brought out in Japan. This is a semiautobiographical account of Nakazawa, who stayed alive in the atomic bombarding of Hiroshima. When the atomic bomb was dropped down on his native land of Hiroshima, the age of Keiji Nakazawa was ...