Cartoonist Keiji Nakazawa was six years old when the atomic bomb was dropped on his hometown of Hiroshima. In this memoir, Nakazawa recounts his wartime childhood, and his experience surviving the atomic bomb. Nakazawa recounts the events in the days, months, and years after the bomb, and how he turned to cartooning to tell his story.
Keiji Nakazawa Book order
This author powerfully chronicles the horrors of war and its human cost through deeply personal, often autobiographical works. Marked by firsthand experience of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, his writing delves into themes of survival, the aftermath of conflict, and societal critique. He employs a raw, unflinching style, rendering suffering with graphic detail that immerses readers in the characters' harrowing journeys. His narratives serve as both a testament to past atrocities and a potent warning for the future.






- 2023
- 2023
Life in Hiroshima during the war was difficult for six-year-old Keiji and the Nakazawa family, but they made the best of it. On his way to school one bright August morning, Keiji was unaware his hometown would soon be turned into a world of horrors. That morning, he watched as a single airplane soared through the clear blue sky, carrying with it the most powerful weapon that had ever been created, the atomic bomb, code named "Little Boy." It was about to fall on Keiji's city, changing his life forever. This is the true story of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and it's effects, seen through the eyes of cartoonist Keiji Nakazawa.
- 2018
Barefoot Gen Volume 8: Hardcover Edition
- 264 pages
- 10 hours of reading
Beautiful new hardcover edition of Barefoot Gen Volume Eight! Striking new design with special sturdy binding.Barefoot Gen is the powerful, tragic, autobiographical story of the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath, seen through the eyes of the artist as a young boy growing up in Japan. The honest portrayal of emotions and experiences speaks to children and adults everywhere. Nakazawa's manga illustrates the true impact of nuclear weapons when used against a civilian population. It is vital reading for people of all ages, and especially for today's youth. By keeping this tragedy in our collective consciousness, we can strive to never repeat it and guide humanity towards a course of peace.Barefoot Gen Volume Eight ―"Merchants of Death" ― It's 1950 and Gen is now in middle school, where he meets both a progressive-minded schoolteacher at odds with his conservative superiors, and a brilliant but cynical classmate who challenges the teacher's -- and Gen's -- values at every turn. Gen also finds himself confronting the corrosive effects on postwar Hiroshima society of drugs and the arms industry. With the Korean War offering new business opportunities, a new generation of death merchants holds sway in Japan. Gen, his teacher mentor, and other peace-minded citizens are forced to struggle against red-baiting school officials, violent nationalists, and government censorship.
- 2015
Barefoot Gen Vol. 10: Never Give Up
- 354 pages
- 13 hours of reading
An all-new, unabridged translation of Keiji Nakazawa's account of the Hiroshima bombing and its aftermath, drawn from his own experiences. In this memoir, six year old Gen has lived practically his entire life in the shadow of war, yet he is not prepared for the horrors which follow. The graphic novel provides an honest and emotional portrayal of the various struggles of his family and other survivors against overwhelming odds. Introductory essays add additional information.
- 2015
In this graphic depiction of nuclear devastation, three survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima--Gen, his mother, and his baby sister--face rejection, hunger, and humiliation in their search for a place to live.
- 2015
Hiroshima
- 216 pages
- 8 hours of reading
This compelling autobiography tells the life story of famed manga artist Nakazawa Keiji. Born in Hiroshima in 1939, Nakazawa was six years old when on August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the atomic bomb. His gritty and stunning account of the horrific aftermath is powerfully told through the eyes of a child who lost most of his family and neighbors. In eminently readable and beautifully translated prose, the narrative continues through the brutally difficult years immediately after the war, his art apprenticeship in Tokyo, his pioneering "atomic-bomb" manga, and the creation of Barefoot Gen, the classic graphic novel based on Nakazawa's experiences before, during, and after the bomb. This first English-language translation of Nakazawa's autobiography includes twenty pages of excerpts from Barefoot Gen to give readers who don't know the manga a taste of its power and scope. A recent interview with the author brings his life up to the present. His trenchant hostility to Japanese imperialism, the emperor and the emperor system, and U.S. policy adds important nuance to the debate over Hiroshima. Despite the grimness of his early life, Nakazawa never succumbs to pessimism or defeatism. His trademark optimism and activism shine through in this inspirational work.
- 2009
Barefoot Gen Vol. 7
- 256 pages
- 9 hours of reading
Cartoonist Keiji Nakazawa was seven years old and living in Hiroshima in the early days of August 1945 when the city was destroyed by an atomic bomb dropped by the U.S.A. Starting a few months before that event, the ten-volume saga shows life in Japan after years of war and privations, as seen through the eyes of seven-year-old Gen Nakaoka
- 2009
Gen finds himself confronting the corrosive effects of drugs and the arms industry on 1950s Hiroshima
- 2008
In this graphic depiction of nuclear devastation, three survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima--Gen, his mother, and his baby sister--face rejection, hunger, and humiliation in their search for a place to live.
- 2008
Barefoot Gen #6: Writing The Truth
- 262 pages
- 10 hours of reading
In this graphic depiction of nuclear devastation, three survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima--Gen, his mother, and his baby sister--face rejection, hunger, and humiliation in their search for a place to live.
