Keiji Nakazawa

Keiji Nakazawa (中沢 å•"æ²», Nakazawa Keiji, March 14, 1939 â€" December 19, 2012) was a Japanese manga artist and writer.

Biography

He was born in Hiroshima and was in the city when it was destroyed by an atomic bomb in 1945. All of his family members who had not evacuated died as a result of the explosion after they became trapped under the debris of their house, except for his mother, as well as an infant sister who died several weeks afterward. In 1961, Nakazawa moved to Tokyo to become a full-time cartoonist, and produced short pieces for manga anthologies such as Shōnen Gaho, Shōnen King, and Bokura.

Following the death of his mother in 1966, Nakazawa returned to his memories of the destruction of Hiroshima and began to express them in his stories. Kuroi Ame ni Utarete (Struck by Black Rain), the first of a series of five books, was a fictional story of Hiroshima survivors involved in the postwar black market. Nakazawa chose to portray his own experience directly in the 1972 story Ore wa Mita, published in Monthly Shōnen Jump. The story was translated into English and published as a one-shot comic book by Educomics as I Saw It.

Immediately after completing I Saw It, Nakazawa began his major work, Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen). This series, which eventually filled ten volumes, was based on the same events as I Saw It but fictionalized, with the young Gen as a stand-in for the author. Barefoot Gen depicted the bombing and its aftermath in extremely graphic detail, with Gen's experiences being even more harrowing than Nakazawa's own. It also turned a critical eye on the militarization of Japanese society during World War II and on the sometimes abusive dynamics of the traditional family. Barefoot Gen was adapted into a trilogy of live action movies, two animated films and a live action TV drama.

Nakazawa announced his retirement in September 2009, citing deteriorating diabetes and cataract conditions. He cancelled plans for a Barefoot Gen sequel. In September 2010, Nakazawa was diagnosed with lung cancer and in July 2011, metastasis from lung cancer was found. He died on December 19, 2012.

Works

• Ano Machi Kono Machi (あの街ã"の街)
• Kuroi Chinmoku no hate ni (é»'い沈黙の果てに)
• One Day, I Saw A Blue Sky (いつか見たé'い空, Itsuka Mita Aoi Sora)
• Okinawa (オキナワ)
• Struck by Black Rain (é»'い雨にうたれて, Kuroi ame ni Utarete)
• Geki's River (ゲキの河, Geki no Kawa)
• Chinchin Densha no Shi (チンチン電車の詩)
• Maboroshi no 36 Go (幻の36号)
• Under the Eucalyptus Trees (ユーカリの木の下で, YÅ«kari no Kinoshita de)
• I Saw It (おれは見た, Ore wa Mita)
• The flow of the Black River (é»'い河の流れに, Kuroi Kawa no Nagare ni)
• A Flock of Black Doves (é»'い鳩の群れに, Kuroi Hato no Mure ni)
• Ītama Ippon (いいタマ一本)
• Suddenly, One Day (ある日突然に, Aru Nichi Totsuzen ni)
• Knowledge and Broadsword (チエと段平, Chie to Danbira)
• There is a Story of Love (ある恋の物語, Aru Koi no Monogatari)
• Good Morning (おはよう, Ohayō)
• Stupid Baseball (野球バカ, YakyÅ« Baka)
• Ano Machi Kono Machi (あの街ã"の街)
• Guzu Roku Kōshinkyoku (グズ六行進曲)
• Genkotsu Iwata (ã'ã‚"ã"つ岩太)
• Hiroshima Carp Birth Story (広島カープ誕ç"Ÿç‰©èªž, Hiroshima Kāpu Tanjō Monogatari)
• Madcap (悪太郎, Aku Tarō)
• O Konomi Hachi-chan (お好み八ちゃã‚")
• Itsuka Mita Aoi Sora (いつか見たé'い空)
• Otoko Nara Shōri no Utawo (ç"·ãªã‚‰å‹åˆ©ã®æ­Œã‚')
• Stupid Curry (カレーバカ, KarÄ" Baka)
• Us Forever (われら永遠に, Warera Eien ni)
• Advance! Donganden (進め!!ドンガンデン, Susume!! Donganden)
• Adventurous Baby Jim (å†'険児ジム, Bōken Jijimu)
• Son of Godzilla, Monster Island Battle (怪獣島の決戦 ゴジラの息子, KaijÅ« Shima no Kessen Gojira no Musuko)
• There was a Black Summer (クロがいた夏, Kuro Gaita Natsu)
• Murasaki Shoku no Pika (むらさき色のãƒ"ã‚«)
• Barefoot Gen (はだしのゲン, Hadashi no Gen)

Legacy

Nakazawa was the subject of the Japanese documentary, Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima (2011), directed by Yuko Ishida.