A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima by Keiji Nakazawa - Essay Example

?Barefoot Gen – A war story told by cartoons -- Prajakta Kanegaonkar There have been numerous stories of Second World War. This war has been like a long deep grained wound which has not and would not heal. It is very difficult for generations suffered in those wars to forget the atrocities, lack of food, loss of loved ones, sacrifices, and most importantly the constant insecurity of life. This war is remembered by both the generations of survivors. One who has so much suffered directly in it and were victims of it. They have been left scarred by the memories and do not want to talk about it at all. The second generation probably young at the moment of destruction, saw it all with own eyes, but was unable to comprehend the full extent of destruction that they went through. They grew up with the war inside them and the war grew its shadow all over their lives. It would take a lot of courage for someone to talk about it to people. Keiji Nakazawa is one such war survivor from Japan. He was the witness and victim of nuclear bomb explosion in Hiroshima. His entire family barring his mother was killed in the explosion and the aftermath. He at such tender age became the support system of the family. His mother was eight month’s pregnant at the time of the explosion. She was very weak and due to shock gave premature birth to a girl child. Nakazawa’s account of survival would not be different from many others who survived the horrendous explosion of nuclear bomb. He depicted his experiences in a cartoon series which was published later. The medium he chose to speak was animation and the experiences that were larger than life. This contradiction is never lost when one is reading this series of animation. Animation is not usually directed towards adults. But the subject and substance of this series is meant for adults and children alike. The style, the strokes and the dialogues are all meant for adults while the medium chosen is animation of life of an eight year old boy. One expects innocence when protagonist or central character of a story is eight years of age, which is not the case as we see innocence getting lost in the story. Although the experiences are of an eight year old, the life around him can hardly be termed as innocent. War is seen as constant hunger, endless hardships of life, deprivation, cruelty and yet managing to stay alive and afloat. The war depicted in this book is not the war with frontline battles, guns and tanks, survival of heroes who fight for their motherland and patriotism. War in this book is the dark reality of many unsung heroes and endless sacrifices they have to make, to make the war at the front end possible and going. Talking of war as merely one military fighting with another would immediately be termed as sacrilege, but to keep the military going, the society and the population of the country has to endlessly go on sacrificing their own livelihood. These sacrifices are no less important. For a society the unending war and its demands would weigh against their own struggle and war for survival during such demanding times. There comes a moment when a common man starts to think about the futility of the entire cause. When Gen’s father is taken into custody for his ‘treacherous’ thoughts about doubting success of his own country in the war, he questions the police about the extent of sacrifices he is expected to make. He has sacrificed two of his boys, his family doesn’t have anything to eat, he doesn’t know how to get food for his family, he doesn’t have money and his family has been stripped off of a few belongings they have. He ardently believes in peace because he can survive only when there is peace in his country. He questions if government does take into account the hardships it is inflicting on its own countrymen (Page 31, 32, 33). His cry is of despair and desolation. He knows nobody would want to answer this question because nobody has an answer to this question. It is probably easier to think with a blindfold that sacrifices are essential, by everyone around. Gen’s father is not a traitor. He says, ‘It is because I love japan, I don’t want her to get into a meaningless war’. There would be so many like him in the then Japanese society who wanted to raise this question. He raises it and is instantly being termed as a traitor. War in this book is thus depicted as war of survival for the people. There are many perspectives in this story which makes it moving for a reader. The children are so perpetually hungry that even in their dreams they dream of food (Page 19). Gen wants to join army because he believes that army and soldiers are the only ones who get to eat (Page 8). The father mocks the drills because he knows the futility of fighting an enemy equipped with machine guns with a spear (Page 12). He thinks it is waste of time for him because then he would utilize the same time to earn food for his ever starving family. The children do everything they can to help their parents cope. They work, stick together and do whatever they can for the family. The strong familial ties are very evident when they fight for each other and even stand up against the world for each other. War means power to the authorities and taking undue advantage of it. When Gen’s father is termed as traitor for voicing his thoughts aloud, the chairman’s son tries to bully the children going to the market. He tries to strip the young daughter of the family. The entire episode of Gen biting off his fingers to bones, his father being taken as a captivity, Gen and Shinji attacking the chairman, mother fighting chairman with a knife and finally ostracizing of the family by the society is another face of war altogether. Surprisingly Nakazawa seems to defend violence on domestic scale. He understands that for poor, survival comes only through defending themselves. In which case, Gen’s attacks on his attackers become justified. The destruction of war has long since begun for him and his family before the actual nuclear bomb blast that took place later. For militia as well the war is not easy. Finding rations and men for the troops is difficult. Every young adult who is barely sixteen is expected to enlist. The emergency training of the people becomes necessary. Sometimes for a solider it becomes easy to fight the battle because he knows and accepts the ultimate eventuality of death. For a common man though the hopes are pinned on the person fighting for him. He dies a slow death of deprivation and lost cause. Perhaps this is the biggest defeat of war. It is often observed that even if a particular country wins the war, the winning seems obsolete and futile. For a civilian it is an endless hope that is very demanding and drastic for his day to day survival. This is true for very society, every nation and every segment of the society. All this comes forth in this animated series. We are used to animations which are sweet, happy and cheerful. One really has to get used to reading gory details and after effects of war and nuclear explosion in animated series. The style of sketches is simple yet powerful. There is frequent use of an image of sun setting in the series. (Page 1, 8, 14) Was that to indicate that the sun was setting in the land of rising sun? The wincing expression of almost all the characters in Gen’s family accompanied by horror filled wide eyes keeps giving a premonition to the reader of what is going to happen in next pages. The series features in the genre of autobiographical animation of Nakazawa’s life. The graphics are simple and the story is emotionally powerful. The use of shading is also very vivid. The influence of Japanese art is very visible. The animation is done in manga style. The manga is read by all age groups in Japan and has a wide audience worldwide. It typically has an influence of old Japanese style of art but is very contemporary as well. One can see the influence of manga in the distinctive style of ‘line’. The animation proceeds from right to left like Japanese language. Another distinctive feature one notices is the tiny nose big eyes drawn to the character. This is mimicking of Disney and adapting it to manga style. All these features can be seen on page 21 where the frames proceed from right to left, clear distinct use of simple yet dark lines, again using of sun as an image, appropriate shading and contrasts of black against white to make a powerful impact. Thankfully it is a black and white series, because colours would have made a gory and dreadful impact on readers causing them to shun the book. As Scott McCloud says in his book, “Is animation or comic an art? If you are broad minded like me, then yes it is an art”. The statement is extremely true when you read Barefoot Gen. One image carries more powerful meaning than thousand words. All the volumes written on war and its after effects undoubtedly drive their point. However one animated series like Barefoot Gen on aftermath of nuclear explosion has given face to those nameless who suffered during and after the explosion, who otherwise would have been long forgotten unsung heroes. References: 1. Barefoot Gen vol.1: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima by Keiji Nakazawa ISBN: 0867196025  2. Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud ISBN: 006097625X Read More