The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 6 | Issue 1 | Jan 01, 2008

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Barefoot Gen, The Atomic Bomb and I: The Hiroshima Legacy

Nakazawa Keiji

Barefoot Gen, the Atomic Bomb and I: TheHiroshima Legacy

Nakazawa Keiji interviewed by AsaiMotofumi, Translated by Richard H.Minear

Click here (https://apjjf.org/data/MicrosoftWord - genisangry.j.original.pdf) forJapanese original.

See below for video of Barefoot Gen

In August 2007 I asked Nakazawa Keiji, mangaartist and author of Barefoot Gen, for aninterview. Nakazawa was a first grader whenon August 6, 1945 he experienced the atomicbombing. In 1968 he published his first work onthe atomic bombing—Struck by Black Rain[Kuroi ame ni utarete]—and since then, he hasappealed to the public with many works on theatomic bombing. His masterpiece is BarefootGen, in which Gen is a stand-in for Nakazawahimself. His works from Barefoot Gen onconvey much bitter anger and sharp criticismtoward a postwar Japanese politics that hasnever sought to affix responsibility on thosewho carried out the dropping of the atomicbomb and the aggressive war (the U.S. thatdropped the atomic bomb, and the emperor andJapan’s wartime leaders who prosecuted thereckless war that incurred the dropping of theatomic bomb).

Nakazawa Keiji

A Father’s Influence

Asai: Would you speak about your father’sstrong influence on the formation of your ownthinking?

Nakazawa: Dad’s influence on the formation ofmy thinking was strong. Time and again he’dgrab me —I was still in first grade—and say,“This war is wrong” or “Japan’s absolutelygoing to lose; what condition will Japan be inwhen you’re older? The time will surely comewhen you’ll be able to eat your fill of white riceand soba.” At a time when we had only locustsand sweet potato vines to eat, we couldn’timagine that we’d ever see such a wonderfultime. But Dad said, “Japan will surely lose. Andafter the defeat, there’ll come a wonderfultime.” At mealtimes he’d make all of uschildren sit up straight and listen to him—somuch so that we grew sick of his voice. But wecouldn’t believe that the time would ever comewhen we’d “be able to eat our fill of white rice.”Still, I think Dad really did see that far ahead.In fact, Japan did lose, and today’s an age of

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gluttony.

During Dad’s visits to Kyoto, he talked, I think,with a leftwing theater group. In his youth hehad gone to Kyoto and studied Japanese-stylepainting of the Maruyama Okyo school andlacquerwork. He was always going to Kyoto, hebelonged to Takizawa Osamu’s new theater,and he appeared on stage. He performed atDoctors’ Hall in Hiroshima’s Shintenchi, and heappeared in such things as Shimazaki Toson’sBefore the Dawn [Yoakemae, 1929-1935] andGorki’s The Lower Depths. The new theaterwas leftwing, so it was of course undersurveillance by the authorities, and from what Ihear, right across from the theater office theT h o u g h t P o l i c e k e p t a n e y e o neverything—“Who went in?” One day theyrounded everyone up.

That day I was really frightened. It was themost frightening thing my child’s mind everencountered. I was about five. Her hair indisarray, Mom trembled, and seeing her, Ithought something terrible had happened toour family. Dad had been taken away. I stillcan’t forget the fear I felt at that moment. Theyear was 1944.

Dad was taken away and didn’t come back. Iasked Mom, “Why hasn’t Dad come home?” Shelied to us. Told us he’d gone for his militaryphysical. But it lasted too long. It was nearly ayear before he returned. Later, when I askedmembers of the troupe, he was shoved into adetention center and hazed a good bit. Hecame back with teeth loose and broken. Whenthey’re given food with salt, people canfunction; but given food without salt, they loseheart. I asked the members of the troupe andlearned that that’s the food he was given, andhe was tor tured, too ; he came homedespondent. Even after he came home, he stilltold us what he had before: “This war iswrong.” Dad was a stubborn and headstrongman. Even under torture he never recanted.Dad’s younger brother stood surety for him,

and he could come home. It was the end of1944.

With Mom he built a new home in FunairiHoncho, and that’s where we lived.

Thumbnail sketch of his mother:

Mom was a dandy. One of her classmates wasnamed Eda, and according toAuntie, Mom wore pleated skirts, rode in cars,went to the movies, went to cafes—“Yourmother lived a comfortable life in her youth.”But after coming as a bride to the house of anartist and having many children, she got angrywhen I drew pictures. Must have thought, I’llnever let him be an artist. She may have beenfed up with Dad, who was an artist. Her familyname was Miyake , and the Miyakesmanufactured children’s bicycles. That such anaff luent woman and my art ist fathermarried—there must have been some karmalinking them. Perhaps their temperamentsmatched.

The Nakazawa family:

I was the third son, after two brothers and onesister. After me came a brother and an infantsister born on the day of the atomic bomb. Onthe day the atomic bomb was dropped, Momwas in her ninth month, her tummy large. Dad’sattitude toward the children was consistentthroughout. My oldest brother did extremelywell in school, and his teacher said, “Please lethim continue his education.” Dad apparentlygot angry and was caustic: “A tradesmandoesn’t need education.” Mom intervened, andDad said, “Since you speak so highly of him,we’ll let him go,” and he entered Fourth HigherSchool. Mobilized out of school, he went to thenaval armory at Kure and did welding. Workedon a section of Battleship Yamato. He pridedhimself on actually having inserted his entirebody into the Yamato’s artillery turret. He’sstill in good health, lives in Kichijima.

My second oldest brother was then a third-

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grader. Back then, school evacuations beganwith third grade. I envied him, thinking that ifyou went to the countryside, you’d probably beable to eat your fill. But a letter came, and in ithe moaned that he was getting thinner andthinner and please send soybeans. So I heardDad say more than once, “I wonder if we shouldbring him back.” It was just before the atomicbomb. Had Dad brought him back, they’d havedied together in the atomic bombing. Even ifyou went to the countryside, you couldn’t eatyour fill: I realized that keenly.

The atomic bomb explodes

The death of his father and the others:

What differs about the death of my father fromBarefoot Gen is that I myself wasn’t at thescene. Mom told me about it, in gruesomedetail. It was in my head, so in the manga Idecided to have Gen be there and try to savehis father.

Gen’s father’s death

Mom always had nightmares about it. She saidit was unbearable—she could still hear mybrother’s cries. Saying “I’ll die with you,” shelocked my brother in her arms, but no matterhow she pulled, she couldn’t free him.Meanwhile, my brother said, “It’s hot!” andDad too said, “Do something!” My older sisterEiko, perhaps because she was pinned betweenbeams, said not a thing. At the time, Mom said,she herself was already crazed. She was crying,“I’ll die with you.” Fortunately, a neighborpassing by said to her, “Please stop; it’s no use.No need for you to die with them.” And, takingher by the hand, he got her to flee the spot.When she turned back, the flames were fierce,and she could hear clearly my brother’s cries,“Mother, it’s hot!” It was unbearable. Mom toldme this scene, bitterest of the bitter. A cruelway to kill.

Later Mom instructed me to go back andretrieve their bones, and with my oldestbrother, I went back, taking bucket and shovel,and dug in the place Mom specified. Myyounger brother’s skull was where Mom said itwould be. A child’s skull is truly a thing ofbeauty. But when under a hot sun I held thatskull, I felt the cold and truly shuddered. Myhair stood on end when I realized his head hadsizzled and burned with him not moving at all.Then, in the 4½-mat room we found Dad’sbones, and in the 6-mat room in back, my

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oldest sister’s bones. A girl’s skull has anexpression. Hers was truly gentle: “Ah, evenbones have expressions.” Mom said, “Eiko waslucky. She died instantly; hers was a good wayto die.”

When we went to retrieve their bones, thestench of death filled the air thereabouts.Because they hadn’t all burned up. There werestill bodies lying about. In every tank of fire-fighting water people had jumped in and weredead. What surprised me the most was thatright to the end they’d exhibited humanemotions: out of love, a mother held her childtight. Her corpse was bloated, swollen frombeing in the water, and the child’s face wassunk into the mother’s f lesh. When Iapproached Dobashi’s busy streets, corpsesfilled every water tank. That’s where thepleasure quarter was—they’d all probably stillbeen asleep when the bomb hit. So engulfed inflames, many of them must have jumped intothe water tanks. My oldest brother and Idecided to return through the city, andHiroshima’s seven rivers were all full of bodies.As I depicted it in the manga, the bellies wereall swollen. Gas developed, and the belliesbroke open because of the gas. Water pouredinto those holes, and the corpses sank.

The dead

The thing that horrified me most was thatmaggots bred and turned into flies. There wereso many flies! It became so black you almost

couldn’t open your eyes. And they attackedyou! Despite the atomic bomb, flies bred. It’sstrange, but maggots are really quick. In notime at all they were everywhere. Horrible,really. And that maggots should breed like thatin human bodies! If you wondered what thatwas moving in the sky, it was a swarm of flies.The only things moving in Hiroshima wereflames as corpses burned, and flies as theyswarmed.

A child clings to mother whose wounds bredmaggots

11 days after the bomb. Drawing by IchidaYuji.

Growing up in postwar Hiroshima

I switched to Honkawa Primary School, and insummers we dove off Aioi Bridge. In the bandof urchins, it was bad form not to diveheadfirst. If you jumped feet first, they said,“He’s no good.” So even though it was crazy,we dove headfirst. Dive off the railing, and youglided along the bottom. Where there was ariver of white bones. Even now if you dig there,you’ll turn up a ton of bones. Those areas havenever been swept, and even now there must belots of bones buried in the sand.

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Aioi bridge after the atomic bomb.

The atomic bombing was terrible, of course,but we also suffered afterward from hunger.For a while we stayed in Eba. After the war thefood shortage was really severe. At the river’smouth in Eba, when the tide went out, therestretched an array of rib bones. If you dugunder the rib bones, there were lots of short-necked crabs. They fed on the bodies. Lived offof human beings. We gathered the crabs for allwe were worth and with them appeased ourhunger. Would you say we were blessed by thesea?—there were the seven rivers, and it reallyhelped us appease our hunger.

I was bullied a lot because I wasn’t from Eba.Surrounded by local urchins and called,“Outsider! Outsider!” I had burns, and when Iwas struck there, bloody pus came spurtingout. The brats just laughed. Had it been one onone, I’m confident I’d never have lost, but sincethey bullied in a group, I had to put up with it. Ifeel I saw real human nature—rejecting theoutsider. Helping each other—that’s an illusion.Because they bullied in a bunch. So I feel I sawthe real nature of the Japanese.

Mom was hauled off to the police box forstealing an umbrella she didn’t steal and forcedto write an apology. She said, “We’ve got theone room—six mats, so go ahead, search all youwant,” but the guy who reported her said,

“She’s a sly cat from the city, so I’m reportingher!” I can never forget how Mom was made towrite an apology. Had I been an adult, I wouldhave jumped on him and given him a beating,but watching how things went, I felt sorry inmy child’s mind for Mom, who was in tears asshe wrote, “I’ll never take anything again!” andthen signed her name. That guy did it to harassher. I would have been killed had we stayed inEba, and we had to flee; so scavenging lumberfrom the military barracks, we built a hut intoday’s Honkawa—then it was cal ledTakajo—and set out on our postwar life.

Hiroshima was famous for needles: sewingmachine needles, dressmakers’ pins, and thelike. Seems there’s an art to sorting theseneedles. Mom had done it as a child and gotwork in a reopened needle factory, and thatwas the source of our postwar income. Myoldest brother knew welding from his time as amobilized student and earned some moneyworking in a local plant. He said, “I wanted togo to the university,” and complained, “Daddied, so I couldn’t.” I found it truly unbearable.Bu t Mom go t angry : “There was noalternative!”

In the last analysis I was raised by Mom and mybrother. From first grade on I cooked. It was aduty; I had to. It wasn’t like today’s cookingwith gas. I worked the bellows to get thefirewood burning, then cooked. Sliced sweetpotatoes into a bit of rice—that’s what I had todo, my duty. Mom worked. So my next olderbrother and I took turns cooking.

I entered kokumin gakko [grade school,1941-1946] in 1945. I was the last to enterkokumin gakko. All my primary school years welived in Takajo. I graduated from HonkawaPrimary School. Since it was the only schoolthat didn’t go up in flames in the atomicbombing, pupils came from all over the city.The ABCC [Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission]came for those pupils. Took the kids off—goodresearch subjects. Picked them up at school by

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car, then collected the children’s stools fore x a m i n a t i o n . W i t h o u t p a r e n t a lpermission—very high-handed. It began rightafter the ABCC was established in 1948.Honkawa Primary School students came fromall over the city, so they were ideal material forthe ABCC. They compared kids who had beenevacuated to the country and were healthy withhibakusha, took them both off. In my child’smind I knew the ABCC was suspect. I thoughtthat if you went there, you’d be givensomething delicious to eat, but I asked kidswho had gone and found they got nothing. Mybaby sister was named Yuko. For seven yearsthe ABCC team searched the city for her. In theseventh year they found us. “She died at fourmonths,” we told the guy, and he wasdisappointed. He said, “For seven years wesearched for that child.” The ABCC probablyneeded her because she was born on August 6.The ABCC—it was all about experimenting.They say the dropping of the atomic bombsaved millions of lives, but it was an atomicexperiment with the war as pretext. They madeatomic bombs of two types and experimented,using the war as pretext. That’s U.S. sophistry.The ABCC didn’t do anything for us.

The Emperor’s Visit to Hiroshima

In my writings there’s a fearsome anger towardpower, toward rulers, and I don’t trust peoplewho say nothing about the emperor system.The emperor system--that’s really what it’sabout. That emperor system, the horror of theemperor system, still exists today: Japanesesimply have to recognize that! And I’mhorrified that once again they’re fanning it,pulling it out. I remember well when theemperor came to Hiroshima in 1947. I wroteabout it in my autobiography. The school gavethe pupils one sheet of paper each. To do what?Take a six-inch compass and inscribe a circle,then color it in with red crayon. Find a piece ofbamboo and make a hinomaru flag. I asked,“What are we doing?” They said, “Tomorrowhis majesty the emperor is coming; line up on

Aioi Bridge.” Dad had told me all about theemperor system, so I thought, “This is the guywho destroyed Dad and the whole family.” Ilined up in the front row. A black Ford droveup, and the emperor came wearing a whitescarf in the cold wind. In that cold, I was hot asfire inside. “That guy caused us all this, killedDad,” and I wanted to fly at him. I still can’tforget that impulse. The teacher said, “Saybanzai! Say banzai!” “Are you kidding?” Withmy geta I kicked a fragment of roof tile. It hitthe tire and bounced off. I was angry. I’venever burned so in my whole l ife. So Iremember it well. It was cold, see. In the coldthe emperor comes all comfortable. I reallywanted to strangle the guy.

Asai: In Hiroshima greeting the emperor, therewas virtually no anger or hatred toward theemperor. Why not?

Nakazawa: Because of the prewar education.The prewar education changed the Japanesepeople completely. I feel acutely how horriblethat education was. I’m angry: “If that guy hadonly swallowed the Potsdam Proclamation,there would have been no atomic bombing.” Hesurvived in comfort, that impudent, shamelessguy. Some people did feel the anger I felttoward the emperor, but all of them probablydied in prison. I learned from Dad: the emperorsystem is horrible. When I asked why shouldJapanese have to bow and scrape so to theemperor, Dad replied, to unify Japan. Turn himinto a living god and make people worship him.That system. Since I heard things like that fromearly on, when I was lined up and made toshout Banzai!, I got really angry. The ragewelled up. That feelings like mine didn’tsurface in Hiroshima was probably becauseHiroshima was conservative. In HiroshimaPrefecture, there really is a prefecturaltrait—conservatism. Impossible. It’ll be verydifficult to change.

Marginalizing the Hibakusha

Asai: Looking at the process in which

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Hiroshima mayor Hamai Shinzo drew up thePeace City Construction Law and set aboutrebuilding Hiroshima, I get the sense that itwas not a reconstruction that took thehibakusha into careful consideration, thatreconstruction took priority.

Nakazawa: It really left the hibakusha out. Andin the Mayor Hamai era, virtually everyone washibakusha, so maybe they couldn’t think aboutcompensation.

Asai: When you consider that the population ofHiroshima, which the atomic bombing hadreduced radically, rebounded rapidly after thewar, and that the 70,000-80,000 hibakushadidn’t increase, it was the increase of non-hibakusha—repatriates and people coming herefrom other prefectures—that made it possiblefor the population to rebound rapidly. In the“empty decade” right after the war it was thenon-hibakusha who benefited from therecovery; it was a recovery in which hibakushawere chased to the fringes. That’s my feeling,at least, What do you think?

Nakazawa: You’re not mistaken. And in theprocess discrimination arose. With thediscrimination, it came to be the case that youcouldn’t talk about having been exposed to theatomic bombing. You simply couldn’t saypublicly that you were a hibakusha. Thediscrimination was fierce. You couldn’t speakout against it. I was living in Takajo, and I oftenheard stories, such as the neighbor’s daughterwho hanged herself. Discrimination. Dreadful.There were lots of incidents like that, in whichpeople had lost hope.

The Lucky Dragon Incident and the WorldAnti-Nuclear Movement

Asai: Ota Yoko’s City of Twilight, People ofTwilight [Yunagi no machi to hito to, 1955]depicts a group of hibakusha living in onehousehold in Motomachi in 1953. It was

reconstruction Hiroshima, with the hibakusharelegated to the edges. And the August 6commemoration, too: I get the sense that fromthe very first it was carried out without thehibakusha as main actors. How did you,someone who was there on August 6, feel?

Nakazawa: There was discrimination, and if youemphasized the atomic bombing openly, they’dgang up on you and say, “Don’t put on yourhibakusha face!”—a strange way to organize amovement. When there were hibakusha on theFukuryu-maru #5 [Japanese fishing ship, theLucky Dragon #5, that received fallout from aU.S. nuclear test at Bikini in 1954] and itbecame a big issue, Ota said, “Serves youright!” Meaning, now do you get it? That’s howbadly hibakusha were alienated.

Yomiuri newspaper reports on the LuckyDragon #5, March 16, 1954

Even if you wanted to speak, you couldn’t, andif you spoke, the result was discrimination.Discrimination meant they wouldn’t let youcomplain. An acquaintance of mine proposed toa Tokyo woman, and they celebrated thewedding in Tokyo. And no one came. There wasthat sense: it’s risky to say you’re a hibakusha.That was what the powerful wanted. Becausethere was discrimination, you couldn’t sayanything: that suited their convenience.Hibakusha were pressured not to assert

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themselves. Hibakusha first came to the fore atthe 1955 World Convention to Outlaw NuclearWeapons. After all, atomic tests were beingcarried out one after the other, and death ashwas falling; maybe it was the sense of dangerthat did it.

The World Convention to Outlaw NuclearWeapons broke up in 1963, and that, too, is astrange story. There were some who made theridiculous assertion that Soviet nukes werebeautiful and all other nukes bad. I couldn’tbuy that argument. How can it be a matter ofleft or right? Doesn’t the goal the abolition ofnuclear weapons apply to all?

Asai: At first hibakusha had great hopes of themovement to abolish nuclear weapons, and in1956 Hidankyo [confederation of hibakushaorganizations] also came into existence. Butthey fe l t great d i sappo intment anddisillusionment at the breakup of the movementto abolish nuclear weapons, were critical of it,and ended up turning their backs on themovement itself. Isn’t that the case?

Nakazawa: Yes, it was. They couldn’t go alongwith it. People like me felt, “What are thesepeople doing?” If we joined forces for theabolition of nuclear weapons, we’d be twice asstrong.

In 1961 I moved to Tokyo and, until Mom diedin 1966, thought I’d never return to Hiroshima.Return to Hiroshima, and you experience onlygruesome things. So I thought I’d die and beburied in Tokyo. Had Mom not existed, I mighthave become an ordinary yakuza or fallen bythe wayside in Hiroshima; when she died, I’daccomplished something because of her. Sheplayed a major role in my life. Her death was agreat shock, and I came back to Hiroshima.Thankful for Mom, I sent her body to thecrematorium; I thought I knew what a humanbody that’s been burned looks like. I’dretrieved Dad’s bones and my brother’s bones.I thought I’d get Mom’s skull or breastbone insimilar shape, too. But when her ashes came

from the crematory and were laid out on thetable, I found not a bone. I couldn’t find evenher skull. Thinking this couldn’t be so, Irummaged for all I was worth. There were onlyoccasional white fragments. And I got very,very angry: does radioactivity plunder evenbone marrow? It made off with the bones of mydear, dear Mom.

Discrimination against hibakusha

I shut my eyes entirely to the atomic bombing,but Tokyoites’ discrimination against hibakushawas awful. If you said that you were ahibakusha matter-of-factly, among friends, theymade weird faces. I’d never seen such coldeyes. I thought that was strange, but when Imentioned it to the Hidankyo people, they saidthat if someone says, “I’m a hibakusha,” Tokyopeople won’t touch the tea bowl from whichhe’s been drinking, because they’ll catchradioactivity. They’ll no longer get close to you.There are many ignorant people. When theytold me this, for the first time it clicked: “Yes,that’s how it is.” And I thought, never speak ofthe atomic bomb again! So for six years inTokyo I kept silent, and when Mom died andnone of her bones were left, I got really angry:both she and I had been bathed in radioactivity,so it made off with even the marrow of ourbones. The anger welled up all of a sudden:give me back my dear Mom’s bones! I thought,manga’s all I know how to do, so I’ll give it atry. And it was Struck by Black Rain that Iwrote in that anger. I wrote it to fling mygrudge at the U.S. Its contents were horrific,but that’s how I truly felt. I wrote it in hotanger and just couldn’t get it published. Ihoped to have high schoolers read it. If theyread it, they’d understand. So I took it aroundto the major magazines that aimed at the highschool student audience. I was told the contentwas good but it was too radical, and for a year Itook it around. I was about to give up, but Ithought again: even if it wasn’t one of themajor magazines, wouldn’t it do if it got read?And I took it to the publisher of Manga Punch,

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the porno magazine. The editor in chief therewas a very understanding person, “It moved megreatly.” But, “If I publish this, both Nakazawaand I will be picked up by the CIA.” It was amagazine for young people; “the guys”—truckdrivers, taxi drivers—read it.

Within the press, the reaction came back that itwas “new.” So it came about that I should writea “black rain” series.

Asai: Did you get reactions from readersfocusing on the hibakusha aspect?

Nakazawa: “D id such th ings rea l l yhappen?”—people expressed doubts like that.Which means they know absolutely nothingabout the atomic bombing. Since I write onlyabout what I had seen; it’s not fiction. Butalthough lots of people say Japan’s “the onlycountry to suffer atomic bombing,” it’s notunderstood in the least. On the contrary, I wasthe one who was shocked. I received letters,and they brought me up short. It was virtuallythe same as when I published Hadashi no Gen:“Is that true?” “Tell us more!”—the vastmajority of messages was like that. “I neverdreamed that war and atomic bombing were sobrutal.”

Barefoot Gen in School Libraries

Asai: Hadashi no Gen is in the libraries ofprimary and middle schools, and if they takecourage and read it, I think they’ll be able tounderstand Hiroshima better. How do you asauthor feel about that?

Nakazawa: After all, the overwhelming majoritybecame aware of war and atomic bombing viaHadashi no Gen. In that sense—I don’t pridemyself on it—but I’m a pioneer. Even thoughHiroshima figures in children’s literature,there’s nothing that takes it that far. I thinkmanga offers the best access. That people arebeing made aware of war and atomic bombingvia Hadashi no Gen: that’s the height of luckfor an author.

Barefoot Gen, the film

Asai: Why on earth does the Ministry ofEducation allow the libraries of primary andmiddle schools to keep work that’s so anti-warand anti-emperor system?

Nakazawa: I too find it strange. As for manga inschool libraries, Hadashi no Gen was the veryfirst. It paved the way. Thanks to Gen, it’spermeated by now to the average person. Forme, it’s a delight to think that something Iwrote has permeated that far.

Gen dramatized on TV

Asai: It was dramatized recently for TV. I feltthen the limits of TV dramatization…

Nakazawa: There certainly are limits. Theyremoved a core issue—the emperor system.Nothing to be done about that. I think theemperor system is absolutely intolerable.Japanese still haven’t passed their ownjudgment on the emperor system. I get angry.Even now it’s not too late. Unless we passjudgment on such issues….

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The Responsibility of the emperor

Asai: Pass judgment—how?

Nakazawa: By a people’s court, actually. TheJapanese people must ask many morequestions: how much, beginning with the greatTokyo air raid, the Japanese archipelagosuffered because of the emperor, how theemperor system is at the very source. To speakof constitutional revision, my position is thatit’s okay to change the clauses about theemperor—but only those clauses. The rest can’tbe changed. Article 9? Preposterous!Absolutely can’t be changed.

Asai: In your ‘Hadashi no Gen’ Autobiography[1994], you say that as you keep writing aboutthe atomic bombing, you sometimes need towrite light stuff.

Nakazawa: When I write scenes of the atomicbombing, the stench of the corpses comeswafting. The stench gets into my nose, andappalling corpses come after me, eyeballsgouged out, bloated; it’s really unbearable.Because I’m drawn back into the reality of thattime. My mood darkens. I don’t want to writeabout it again. At such times, I write light stuff.For a shift in mood.

Radiation Effects

Asai: In Suddenly One Day [Aru hi totsuzen ni]and Something Happens [Nanika ga okoru], thep r o t a g o n i s t s — s e c o n d - g e n e r a t i o nhibakusha—get leukemia. Did such thingsactually happen?

Nakazawa: It’s possible.

Asai: I’ve heard that as of now the RadiationEffects Research Foundation doesn’t recognizeeffects on the next generation.

Nakazawa: I think such effects exist. I worry. Iworried when my own children were bornbecause I was a hibakusha. I was uneasy—what

would I do if the radiation caused my child tobe born malformed?—but fortunately he wasborn whole. I try to have him get the second-generation hibakusha check-up. There’s amedical exam system for second-generationhibakusha; the exam itself is free of charge. Butwe were uneasy at the time my wife conceivedhim. We were also uneasy when we gotmarried. Fortunately, there were hibakusha inher family, too, so she was understanding. Iworried at the time we got married that therewould be opposition. Luckily, people wereunderstanding, and the marriage went offwithout a hitch. When the children married, Iworr ied secre t l y . Now we have twograndchildren.

Asai: You met Kurihara Sadako [notedHiroshima poet/activist, 1912-2005].

Nakazawa: She and I appeared once togetheron NHK TV. Eight years or so ago. On an NHKSpecial. A dialog. The location was HonkawaElementary School. We discussed theexperience of the atomic bomb. In broadHiroshima dialect, Kurihara said to me,“Nakazawa-san, good that you came back toHiroshima”—that’s how we began.

Asai: I thought Kurihara was a very honestHiroshima thinker.

Nakazawa: I too liked her. She wrote bitterlycritical things. Like me, I thought. She wrotesharply against the emperor system, too. Afterall, our dispositions matched. But in Hiroshimashe became isolated. If you say bitter things,organizations divide into left and right. Eventhough you’re stronger, if everyone getstogether…. Say something sharp, and peopledisagree, and label you. That no good. Thepeace movement has to be united. That’s why Inever join political parties. It’s something Ihate—that Japanese are so quick to applylabels. Immediately apply a label and they say,“he’s that faction or that one,” and dismiss him.No broadmindedness. If a job comes, I respondwith an “Okay.” But I never concern myself

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with political parties.

Asai: How did you come to want to return toHiroshima?

Nakazawa: Up until ten years ago I stayedabsolutely away from Hiroshima. Merely seeingthe city of Hiroshima brings back memories.The past. Seeing the rivers, I see in my mind’seye rivers of white bones. Or the good spots forcatching the crabs that grew fat on humanflesh. Such memories come back, and when Iwalk about, I remember, “This happened,”“That happened.” I can’t bear to remember thesmell of the corpses. I wanted to stay awayfrom Hiroshima. I can’t express that stench inwords. It brings back things I don’t want toremember. This frame of mind of mine is likelythe same as for other hibakusha. My formerteacher is here, and classmates gather for hisbirthdays. So I think, “Yes, Hiroshima’s okay.” Ihave friends here. Time has swept them away,those vivid memories. So I’ve come to want tobe buried in Hiroshima. I like the Inland Sea, soI’ll have them scatter my ashes. I don’t need atombstone.

Hiroshima, Auschwitz and Article 9

Asai: Why can’t Hiroshima become likeAuschwitz?

Nakazawa: Japanese aren’t persistent aboutremembering the war: isn’t that the case?When at Auschwitz I see mounds of eyeglassesor mounds of human hair, I think, “Whatpersistence!” There’s no such persistenceamong Japanese, not only about Hiroshima. Iwish Japanese had what it takes to pass thestory on. To erase history is to forget. I’d likethere to be at least enough persistence to passit on. I’d like to expect that of the Japanese. Ido expect it of the next generation. I’ve givenup on the older generation. I have hopes of thenext generation: reading Hadashi no Gen,they’re good enough to say, “What was that?”On that point I’m optimistic. I want them to puttheir imaginations to work; I absolutely want

them to inherit it. I want to pass the baton tothem. On this point, the trend in Japaneseeducation today is terrifying. I’m afraid the LDPand the opposition parties will never abandonthe idea of educational reform.

But defend Article 9 of the Constitutionabsolutely. Because it came to us bought withblood and tears. People say it was imposed onJapan by the U.S., but back then the peopleaccepted it, and there’s nothing more splendid.To forget that and think it’s okay to change itbecause it was imposed—that’s a huge mistake.What the peace constitution cost in the pain ofblood and tears! We simply must not get rid ofit. That’s been my thinking about Article 9,from middle school on. Precisely because of it,Japan lives in peace. At the time of thepromulgation of the constitution, I was inprimary school, and when I was told that ittransformed Japan into a country that no longerbears arms, will not have a military, will live inpeace, I thought, what a splendid constitution!And I remembered Dad. Indeed, what you learnfrom your parents is huge. Parents have toteach. Not rely on schoolteachers. Teachers askme how they should teach. What are theytalking about? I say they should at least say,“On August 6 an atom bomb was dropped onHiroshima.” How to convey that to students inmore expanded form: I say that’s the teachers’function. There are all sorts of teachingmaterials, so if they don’t do it, it’s negligenceon their part.

Asai: That’s hope for Japan; how aboutHiroshima?

Nakazawa: The conservative aspects ofHiroshima have to be changed. I thinkHiroshima people are really conservative. Thenumbers of reformists must increase. In orderto effect change, each person has to work awayat it. I’m a cartoonist, so cartoons are my onlyweapon. I think everyone has to appeal inwhatever position they’re in. Wouldn’t it benice if we gradually enlarged our imaginations!

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We have to believe in that possibility. Doubt isextremely strong, but we have to feel thatchange is possible. Inspire ourselves. And likeAuschwitz, Hiroshima too must sing out moreand more about human dignity.

The atomic bombing scene of the film BarefootGen is available on youtube.com. Click here(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJUksMX8qmc) to view.

Nakagawa Keiji is the creator of the originalB a r e f o o t G e n(http://www.amazon.com/Barefoot-Gen-One-Cart o o n -Hiroshima/dp/0867196025/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200845240&sr=8-1)ma n g a s e r i e s(https://apjjf.org/javascript:void(0);/*120084532

8765*). Four volumes are available in English.

Asai Motofumi is President of the HiroshimaPeace Institute.

He interviewed Nakagawa Keiji on August 20,2007. An abbreviated translation appeared inHiroshima Research News 10.2:4-5 (November2007).

Richard Minear is Professor of History, UMassAmherst and a Japan Focus Associate. Heedited and translated Hiroshima: ThreeW i t n e s s e s(http://www.amazon.com/Hiroshima-Witnesses-R i c h a r d - H -Minear/dp/069100837X/ref=ed_oe_p)

Posted on Japan Focus, January 20, 2008.