Surviving Hiroshima: An Hermeneutical Phenomenology of Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa
Surviving Hiroshima: An Hermeneutical Phenomenology of Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa

Summary/Abstract: In this paper, the author presents a philosophical analysis of the famous manga series, Barefoot Gen (Hadashi no Gen) by Keiji Nakazawa, which is the author’s quasi‑fictional memoir of his childhood as an atom bomb survivor in Hiroshima, Japan. Against the backdrop of larger issues of war and peace, Gen’s family struggles with his father’s ideological rebellion against the nation’s militaristic rule, leading to the family’s persecution. The story then chronicles the cataclysmic effects of the bomb, and the fates of Gen and other survivors as they live through the aftermath of the detonation and the hardships of the American occupation. The author's framework for critique follows Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutical phenomenology, which applies the descriptive method of phenomenology to cultural texts.

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