I first heard of this book through a short comic titled "Beginnings" by Raina Telgemeier. Read it here. In the comic, she talks about how affected she was by reading the book as a 9 year old. I decided to read it for myself.
First of all, it's a Hiroshima survivor's tale. We all know how this is going to end. Everybody dies. (Well, almost.)
I expected to fall in love with the characters, watch them be bombed, then be uplifted by the heroics of their survival.
I wasn't into the art at first. While the lines are bold and the scenery gorgeous, face and emotions are exaggerated. It's very comical and silly at times. Many people feel this alleviates the seriousness of the work, but it's a bit distracting for me.
What I didn't expect was the straight-forward, unapologetic way Nakazawa portrayed the family's struggle against starvation and the horrific end. This is NOT a book that leaves you with warm fuzzies about the survivors facing a new life. Nakazawa shows plainly the brutal way of life the Japanese had during war, the brainwashing and manipulation, the cold triumphs of scientists and America over the atom bomb.
What made this even more devastating is that, somewhere in the first half of the book, I completely forgot all about the bomb. Nakazawa's characters are realistic, the dialogue compelling and the art beautiful. The pace of the story is steady but seems broken up into days, each one propelling the plot faster forward.
It is easy to settle into this rhythm, forgetting that each sun that sets draws us closer to the bomb dropping.
Please support small businesses by purchasing Barefoot Gen by Keija Nakazawa at your local bookstore. If you must, it is also available on Amazon.com.
WOW, really sounds like a book worth reading if only to remind ourselves of the destruction we are capable of... learn from the past.
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