Barefoot in Hiroshima

By Thomas Kenning
Hiroshima is one of those words so laden with meaning, so heavy with history, that its mere mention, without elaboration or context, conjures a vivid story of victory and devastation.  Most people can tell you in general terms what happened there.  But if you don’t know Keiji Nakazawa’s Barefoot Gen, you don’t know half the story.  This masterpiece of the manga form relates a semi-autobiographical account of Nakazawa’s experiences as a young boy growing up in Japan during and after the war.  The elderly hibakusha—literally, “bomb-affected person” or a-bomb survivor—Nakazawa d...