Barefoot Gen (Hadashi no Gen)

Keiji Nakazawa’s searing autobiographical manga, serialized in the Japanese magazine Project Gen across three issues from 1978 to 1979, follows a young boy named Gen and his family struggling to survive in the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Published just over three decades after the event, it stands as a raw, unflinching testament to the human cost of war, drawn directly from Nakazawa’s own childhood experience. Both written and illustrated by the author, the series is a foundational work of anti-war comics, known for its stark, expressive art and its refusal to look away from suffering.