Read Barefoot Gen

The approaching anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing was not on my mind when I picked up the second volume of Barefoot Gen last week. It was much more mundane than that. I was simply waiting in the children's section of the library waiting for my son to select a book when curiosity spurred me to see if I had been wrong to abandon the series after experiencing the intensity of the first volume.

I read half the book in the library and signed it and volume three out immediately. I returned yesterday for four and five. As hard as it is to read about melted skin, the maggot infested flesh of the living, and radiation sickness, it is wrong to look away just because it makes the reader uncomfortable. To do so would mean missing out on the stories of not only the dead, but the survivors, who were re-victimized in the days following the bombing by their fellow Japanese. Avoiding their story, in fact, would just contribute to the re-victimization by allowing their suffering to be ignored.

Through it all, it is the amazingly resilient spirit of Gen who will give you hope in the worst moments, not only for his will to live, but in his ability to try save the lives of his fellow victims by infusing this will into them. Even when willpower alone fails to save a life, it often has the effect of making a human's last few moments of existence less lonely than it might have been. No matter how discouraged Gen feels, he always seems to find the inner strength to rally once again.

Avoid Barefoot Gen for its at times depressing, even enraging subject matter, and you risk also missing out on the story of its determined protagonist. It's not a trade worth making.