Customer Reviews

Barefoot Gen, Vol. 4: Out of the Ashes

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Japan has surrendered, the war is over, and American troops are securing the mainland. Gen and his family are suffering from malnutrition. The Americans aren't allowing Japanese police to carry weapons, so criminals and black-marketeers are running rampant. People are still dying from radiation poisoning. Gen's little sister is kidnapped. These are some, but not all, of the problems that Gen and his family are facing.

This book is powerful and moving, but it is heartwrenching and very difficult to read. Technically this book is fiction but Keiji Nakazawa did live through the bombing of Hiroshima and these stories are based on his experiences. It will make you cry.

Barefoot Gen: Out Of The Ashes is the final volume of a four part series. The atom bomb has been dropped on Hiroshima, destroying most of the city, killing many people, and causing others to become sick with radiation sickness. Gen's hair has fallen out from radiation exposure. He, his mother, and his newborn sister, no longer able to live in Hiroshima, are refugees in the town of Eba.

As this volume opens, the Emperor has just announced the surrender of Japan. Gen's two brothers return to live with them in Eba, one from the Navy and one from an evacuation camp. US soldiers are landing to study the results of the bomb. The distrust and hatred of the local community eventually becomes too much and the family moves back to what is left of Hiroshima. We see the U.S. occupation and the rebuilding of the city through the eyes of seven year old Gen.

Gen's compassion, humanity, and determination make this an inspiring book about the strength of the human spirit. The close loving values of his family are in sharp contrast to the amoral self interest of the black marketeers and the criminals who thrive in the disorder and poverty.

The work has been wonderfully translated from the Japanese original: Hadashi no Gen. It was originally published in serial form in 1972 and 1973 in Shukan Shonen Jampu, the largest weekly comic magazine in Japan, with a circulation of over two million. The drawings are all in black and white. This US edition was published as part of a movement to translate the book into other languages and spread its message. It is a powerful testimony to the strength of the human spirit and the horrors of nuclear war. There are a few introductory essays at the front of the book that help to put this book into perspective. It is a tragic but uplifting story that I highly recommend for anyone interested in the topic. This and the other volumes in the series are important books for their message on the dangers of nuclear war.

Barefoot Gen is the name of a series of novel-length cartoon books telling the story of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima through the eyes of a young Japanese boy who lived through the experience. (The story is autobiographical; the author is a Hiroshima survivor.) These books are splendidly touching and believable, and readers will walk away with a fuller understanding of the horrors of World War II, and all wars in general. There is no pro-Japanese bias nor is there a pro-U.S. bias: these works give a real rendering of how nightmarish that particular nuclear blast was. Keiji Nakazawa, the author, has given us a priceless treasure in creating these books which can be enjoyed by everyone aged ten and over; they will further your understanding of history and of the indomitability of the human spirit, and they will cement your opposition to the use of nuclear weapons

The survivors tale continues with vol. 4 out of the ashes. A very emotionally gripping story that's nearly impossible to put down. I can't wait to read Vol. 5!

Altogether depressing but very insightful. This series will make a war protester out of anyone.

Keiji Nakazawa, Barefoot Gen: Out of the Ashes (Last Gasp, 2005)

In the fourth and final volume of the Barefoot Gen series, Gen and his family have gone back to Hiroshima and, nine days after the detonation of the atomic bomb, are trying to pick up the pieces and move on with their lives. School has begun again, and Gen meets a whole new set of classmates, with the attendant budding friendships and immediate rivalries. Then, the unthinkable happens-- Gen's baby sister Tomoko is kidnapped. The bulk of the novel concerns Gen's attempts to find her, and the moral quandary in which he finds himself when he does.

As usual, Nakazawa's clean, crisp prose is often understated and compelling. The exception to this is in the final few pages, when a scene set up early in book one becomes relevant, and instead of letting the scene do the talking, Nakazawa gives Gen a "wow, look how relevant that was!" speech that ends the series on a slightly sour note. As usual, the characters are well-drawn and likable without being archetypes or ideals. Some of the ultimate fates of characters (telling you which ones would probably constitute a spoiler) are surprisingly realistic, and work very well considering those characters effectively drop out of the story, never to be seen again; rather than grating, it seems almost inevitable that in the chaos that is post-bomb Hiroshima, people will simply vanish into the night, never to be seen again.

This is a fine series, and well worth reading. If that final scene had been handled better, it might have been one of the best series I've read this year; as it is, it's a good one. *** ½