Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part series on “Hadashi no Gen” (Barefoot Gen), Keiji Nakazawa’s manga series themed on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which began running in a comic magazine in June 1973.

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“Hadashi no Gen” (Barefoot Gen), based on Keiji Nakazawa’s experiences as an atomic bomb survivor, might never have seen the light of day if not for a comic magazine editor who also survived the devastation of World War II.

No major publishers showed an interest in carrying “Kuroi Ame ni Utarete” (Struck by Black Rain), the first manga themed on the atomic bombing created by Nakazawa (1939-2012), due partly to its graphic depictions. 

A few years later, Nakazawa took the draft of another manga about children of atomic bomb victims to Shueisha Inc., the publisher of the Shonen Jump weekly comic anthology.

Tadasu Nagano, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, wept and blew his nose as he read the draft, according to Nakazawa’s autobiography. He immediately decided to carry it in his magazine.

Nagano (1926-2001) also advised Nakazawa to produce a new manga that echoed his own experiences with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

“Leave a record (of the atomic bombing) for posterity,” Nagano was quoted as telling Nakazawa. “You are the only one who can portray it in manga.”

With the backing from Nagano, the autobiographical series “Hadashi no Gen” began its run in the June 4, 1973, issue of Shonen Jump.

Noritaka Yamaji, 75, the editor in charge of the manga, recalls that it was a unique piece in Shonen Jump, which primarily featured gag manga.

“Hadashi no Gen” did not rank high in a reader’s popularity poll.

While some readers were supportive, others said they did not want to read such a tragic story.

Some within the company questioned why Shonen Jump would continue to carry it, saying the magazine was designed to entertain readers, not depress them.

Nagano would disagree, saying, “The series has a significance of its own. Why don't you use a little imagination?”

Yamaji said Japanese appeared to be erasing the stigma of the atomic bombing from their memories as the country was in the final stages of nearly two decades of rapid economic growth.

“Nagano, who had survived the war, must have been thinking that it was not the way Japanese should be,” he said. “I believe he was thinking, ‘We can keep one manga series, out of more than 10 running in our magazine, regardless of whether it is popular with readers.’”

In his autobiography, Nakazawa wrote that he did his best to “tone down the brutality (of the war)” because he thought it would be meaningless if it made readers turn their backs. 

While Yamaji thought that the scenes immediately following the atomic bombing appeared too harsh, Nakazawa told him, “What we went through was far more disastrous. In these scenes, you don’t smell anything. You don’t hear anything, either.”

“Hadashi no Gen” ended its run after about 18 months due partly to the paper shortage caused by the 1973 oil crisis.

A number of people took it upon themselves to make the manga more widely read in Japan and abroad.

No publishers came forward to release “Hadashi no Gen” in book form. Nakazawa even considered publishing it privately. 

The book volumes finally started coming out in 1975 after manga critic Jun Ishiko negotiated a deal with Chobunsha Publishing Co.

Ishiko, 87, who had known Nakazawa even before he began working on “Hadashi no Gen,” wanted children to read the manga created by an atomic bomb survivor.

Takashi Yokota, who was covering atomic bomb-related issues for The Asahi Shimbun as a city news reporter, wrote an article about the manga in March 1975.

Yokota, also 87, had previously visited Nakazawa’s apartment in Tokyo and read the installments carried in Shonen Jump over its 18-month run.

He was surprised to find hundreds of letters from young readers stored in a closet.

“This is a manga of real value because children were moved so much,” Yokota thought. “Many adults make light of manga, but why not let this great work be known throughout Japan?”

The book version, which ran over 10 volumes, became a fixture in school and municipal libraries.

In 2001, the Russian version of “Hadashi no Gen” was completed thanks to Namie Asazuma, a Japanese-Russian translator in Kanazawa, who worked with Russian residents in Japan.

Asazuma translated a play about the atomic bombing with a Russian acquaintance in 1994. She was surprised because the play moved her partner to tears.

“The inhumane nature of atomic bombs remains unknown to the rest of the world,” Asazuma said she thought at the time.

Russian was the first foreign language in which all 10 volumes of “Hadashi no Gen” became available.

A Ukrainian woman who read the Russian version translated the manga into her native language.

Project Gen, a group of volunteer translators formed by Asazuma, started rolling out the English version in 2004.

“Hadashi no Gen” has been translated into 24 languages.

Asazuma, 80, treasures the last letter she received from Nakazawa, dated Dec. 9, 2012, 10 days before he died at the age of 73. It was dictated by his wife, Misayo, also 80.

“Gen is walking tall around the world in his bare feet (thanks to foreign-language versions),” Nakazawa noted. “Gen is determined to do all he can to abolish foolish wars and nuclear weapons. ... He will persevere strongly through anything.”

(This article was compiled from reports by Rikako Takai and Yuhei Kyono.)