On 07/08/2015 04:46 PM, Kenneth M. Lin wrote:
I acquired translated version of Volume 9 and 10 but somehow #10
contained the same pages as #9 except with different cover.
It is now available online at least in part, Search on
Hadashi no Gen and you will find some of it. Strangely I borrowed
volumes one and two from the SF Public Library on Wednesday.
My previous post quoted below is about 2 years old so it is time
to remind people that this is one of the best autobiographical manga
stories around.
"Bobbie Sellers" wrote in message news:mneb4n$muk$1@dont-email.me...
Hi readers and writers,
It has been nearly a year since I last tried to get you to read this
manga about the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, I just
re-read the first volume of this story again. I think everyone should
all 10 volumes though the emotional intensity of the story is less
at the end.
Most of the first volume is devoted to the happy and industrious
family, the viciousness of the police forces and local government. We
get a glimpse of various other negative aspects of Wartime Japan.
The author of the story was only 6 years old when the
bomb was dropped and saved from death by being behind a concrete wall.
He was about a kilometer from the epicenter of the blast.
The boy in the story has two older brothers one joins the
military to escape the onus of traitor the father has been branded
with. He had been working in a munitions plant but was assaulted
and blamed for an explosion. The other was sent to the countryside
where he was beaten for being a townie by the hicks. The kids
in the countryside were being starved by the people in charge.
Gen's older sister is accused of theft and made to strip
in front of the teacher.
The author's father was a member of a pacifistic acting company
and all the members were tossed in jail. The father in the story is
a pacifist and makes geta (clogs) to earn a living for the family.
The last raises a question, "Why do the shoemaker's
children go barefoot"?
Read Barefoot Gen!
It is a great anti-war, anti-A+bomb story.
So is the nonfiction account, all text book, called
"Last Train from Hiroshima". After witnessing the horror of
Hiroshima the main characters take a train to Nagasaki.
Since this last story I have read several other
biographical account of Japan at war. Shigero Mizuki wrote
a great 4 volume story called Showa: History of Japan. He
had intended to be an artist but in the war he lost an arm,
contracted malaria and somehow survived. He says it was due
to protective youkai(monsters) that helped him. Part of
this story is in the manga "Onward to our Noble Deaths".
bliss
--
bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com
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