Buy it at Amazon or Chapters . I was first introduced to Gen in the summer of 1985. While browsing for mutants at the comic book store, I happened upon a translated manga, an issue of Barefoot Gen . In it, Keiji Nakazawa, through the character of Gen Nakaoka, related the story of his surviving the bombing of Hiroshima. The movie, a condensed retelling of the manga, was released in Japanese cinemas years ago, and only recently released domestically on video by Streamline and Orion Home Video, along with a limited theatrical release.
Gen is the second youngest child in a poor Japanese family.
The movie opens shortly before the dropping of the bomb, with the family hungry for food as their rations dwindle. Enduring this and other wartime hardships, the family is still happy, secure in their love for one another. Then the bomb drops, decimating Hiroshima and killing Gen's family, save for Gen himself and his pregnant mother. Tomoko is born. Gen and his mother then set about the business of survival.