Keiji Nakazawa

Keiji Nakazawa
Born (1939-03-14)March 14, 1939
Naka-ku, Hiroshima, Japan
Died December 19, 2012(2012-12-19) (aged 73)
Nationality Japanese
Occupation Manga artist
Known for Barefoot Gen

Keiji Nakazawa (中沢 啓治 Nakazawa Keiji, March 14, 1939 – 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.[1] 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.[2]

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.[1] 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.[2]

Immediately after completing I Saw It, Nakazawa began his major work, Hadashi no Gen (Barefoot Gen).[2] 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.[3]

Nakazawa announced his retirement in September 2009, citing deteriorating diabetes and cataract conditions.[1] He cancelled plans for a Barefoot Gen sequel.[3] 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

Legacy

Nakazawa was the subject of the Japanese documentary, Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima (2011), directed by Yuko Ishida.[4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "ゲンの作者が漫画家引退" [Gen author, artist retires]. Chugoku Shimbun. September 16, 2009. Archived from the original on September 22, 2009. Retrieved October 26, 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 Gleason, Alan (October 15, 2003). "Keiji Nakazawa". The Comics Journal (256). Retrieved September 16, 2009.
  3. 1 2 "Barefoot Gens Nakazawa Drops Sequel Due to Cataract". Anime News Network. September 15, 2009. Retrieved September 16, 2009.
  4. ↑ "Barefoot Gen's Hiroshima". Japanese Film Database. UniJapan. Retrieved 6 May 2014.

External links

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