Read The Book- SPOILERS


After reading the English language version of "Barefoot Gen- Volume 1", 2 days ago, I went on line to look up the availability of other volumes. I came to discover that there was an anime and live action film based on the book. I was able to immediately locate and rent the anime DVD. I was very disappointed. While the film is very compelling in it's own right, the fact that it doesn't follow the book really pissed me off. What were they thinking? Sometimes movies don't follow books to the letter, but this is ridiculous. First of all, the brutality, shunning and shear misery the family endures due to the father's anti-war views, is almost non-existent in the film, as are several key characters: Mr. Pak the Korean, the oldest son,(who enlists in the Navy, to take some of the heat off his family), the neighborhood snitch and family. One thing the book does really well, is giving insight into the group-think mentality of the Japanese culture, and how as a result, the dropping of the A-bomb was perceived as inevitable by the U.S.. The "fight to the last man" and mass civilian suicide scenarios that played themselves out throughout the Pacific, along with the "Yankee devil" propaganda, are clearly shown in the book, but glaringly missing from the film. I'm wondering if the people responsible for the film tried to gloss things over and by doing so, avoided showing culpability on the part of the Japanese as a whole.
There are supposed to be 10 volumes to the Barefoot Gen story, and I'm going to try to locate and read them. I highly recommend reading at least the first one. It offers so much more than the film, and ends shortly after the A-bomb goes off.

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the books are great first I thought there was only four volumes I had to wait a long while to get the fourth but eventually I found out the series continues
I just finished volume 8.



















I wonder why the second movie wasn't dubbed in english

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I have to agree with this - the Japanese government was continuing it's 'Fight to the last man against the foreign devils!" propaganda not only before the atomic bombings but also inbetween the first and second one - at a point when the utter futility of civilian militias armed with bamboo spears must have been obvious.

Not to say that anyone 'deserved' their fate, but that the alternative - a hideously bloody conventional invasion of mainland Japan - was probably the worst of the two scenarios.

Of course, Barefoot Gen has been used by anti-nuclear groups almost since the publishing of the first Manga volume. It makes sense that they'd want to clear away the bits of it that didn't agree with their 'message'. Also the Japanese are rather reluctant to focus on the less than laudable elements of their society during World War II.

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GREAT POST TROLLKILLAH!!!

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It's been a while, but thanks!

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