Post by Airy Yeh on Nov 11, 2015 20:08:16 GMT
Barefoot Gen is an extremely important story about the life of Gen and his family in Japan during WWII, but it tells something about the nature of any war through its critique on the fixed mindset of the national politics and the effect of its biased regime on its people. Its message is captured at the end of volume 1 in such a captivating way with the birth of Tomoko right after her family's death. The message is that war should never occur because of all of the heartbreaking tragedies afflicted with it.
I came across this manga in second grade but I didn't read it because the book was so old and smelled terrible. I'm glad I read it now because I understand more about the political, social, and psychological nature of the story than I would have in second grade. I was surprised at how the story depicted the Japanese Nationalism in a negative manner and portrayed the Koreans and the Chinese with sympathy. I had assumed otherwise because it is a Japanese manga. I was pleasantly proven wrong. Many Japanese back then and some even now hated Koreans and some Koreans and many in other colonized nations can't forget the misconduct of the Japanese because of the horrible tragedies of the war. Mr. Pak and other Koreans were depicted as captives of the Japanese militants who were forced to work as slaves. I think the story was radical to portray Mr. Pak as someone who was a friend to Gen's family, despite his situation of forced captivity. This scene and most others throughout the story effectively criticizes the psychological biases and stereotypical thinking that pervaded the Japanese society during the war such as the Emperor worship and the hatred toward the foreign nations.
Gen, his father, and Mr. Pak are different from the others because they resist the common social ideas of the time for the sake of what they believe to be inherently true. In the other story by Oe Kenzaburo, the Black American soldier might have been the village's friend but was killed because the war situation called for it. Had it not for the war and the divided stances of the two enemy nations, he might have lived. It shows that how we think and act are greatly influenced by our situations and the social context that we live in. The Japanese society blindly believed in Japanese Nationalism, but that was the only way they knew how to think and feel. Barefoot Gen offers the "other" way of thinking while captivating us emotionally to point out its valuable criticisms of war. I love how Mr. Pak and Gen's family could be friends in the story.
I like how the story criticizes the militants of Japan and makes a point about how the militant's beliefs were not the wishes of the general Japanese. When reading history and learning about it, I always hear, "Japan did this, or the U.S. did that," but do not hear, "The Japanese government...or the U.S. government...," thus forget, that the nation's actions are not always the wishes of all of its people but may be the schemes of a represented, powerful few. I like how inspiring Gen and his family's radical stance during the war was in the story, which they received bullying for, but still fought positively.
Novels are different from manga because in a manga, the reader clearly sees what the author has in mind. Some of the grueling images of war may not be imaginable when I haven't seen war myself. The cartoons are not as realistic as photographs, but they still help me see what I've never seen before. In novels, I can imagine and "see," but that might not be what the author wants to convey. Also, manga is easier to read and less time-consuming.
Barefoot Gen reminded me of Hotaru no Hikaru, a Ghibli movie also about a family in Japan going through the war. It also reminded me of the statue I saw in the United Nations building that was brought from Nagasaki after the atomic bomb. It was a shocking sight how the statue had millions of deep holes all over the stone and I could only imagine how horrible it was to see the melting skin of those who had to go through it as is depicted in Barefoot Gen.
I came across this manga in second grade but I didn't read it because the book was so old and smelled terrible. I'm glad I read it now because I understand more about the political, social, and psychological nature of the story than I would have in second grade. I was surprised at how the story depicted the Japanese Nationalism in a negative manner and portrayed the Koreans and the Chinese with sympathy. I had assumed otherwise because it is a Japanese manga. I was pleasantly proven wrong. Many Japanese back then and some even now hated Koreans and some Koreans and many in other colonized nations can't forget the misconduct of the Japanese because of the horrible tragedies of the war. Mr. Pak and other Koreans were depicted as captives of the Japanese militants who were forced to work as slaves. I think the story was radical to portray Mr. Pak as someone who was a friend to Gen's family, despite his situation of forced captivity. This scene and most others throughout the story effectively criticizes the psychological biases and stereotypical thinking that pervaded the Japanese society during the war such as the Emperor worship and the hatred toward the foreign nations.
Gen, his father, and Mr. Pak are different from the others because they resist the common social ideas of the time for the sake of what they believe to be inherently true. In the other story by Oe Kenzaburo, the Black American soldier might have been the village's friend but was killed because the war situation called for it. Had it not for the war and the divided stances of the two enemy nations, he might have lived. It shows that how we think and act are greatly influenced by our situations and the social context that we live in. The Japanese society blindly believed in Japanese Nationalism, but that was the only way they knew how to think and feel. Barefoot Gen offers the "other" way of thinking while captivating us emotionally to point out its valuable criticisms of war. I love how Mr. Pak and Gen's family could be friends in the story.
I like how the story criticizes the militants of Japan and makes a point about how the militant's beliefs were not the wishes of the general Japanese. When reading history and learning about it, I always hear, "Japan did this, or the U.S. did that," but do not hear, "The Japanese government...or the U.S. government...," thus forget, that the nation's actions are not always the wishes of all of its people but may be the schemes of a represented, powerful few. I like how inspiring Gen and his family's radical stance during the war was in the story, which they received bullying for, but still fought positively.
Novels are different from manga because in a manga, the reader clearly sees what the author has in mind. Some of the grueling images of war may not be imaginable when I haven't seen war myself. The cartoons are not as realistic as photographs, but they still help me see what I've never seen before. In novels, I can imagine and "see," but that might not be what the author wants to convey. Also, manga is easier to read and less time-consuming.
Barefoot Gen reminded me of Hotaru no Hikaru, a Ghibli movie also about a family in Japan going through the war. It also reminded me of the statue I saw in the United Nations building that was brought from Nagasaki after the atomic bomb. It was a shocking sight how the statue had millions of deep holes all over the stone and I could only imagine how horrible it was to see the melting skin of those who had to go through it as is depicted in Barefoot Gen.