What it was like on the ground during the Hiroshima bombing, illustrated

Seventy years ago, on August 6, 1945, Keiji Nakazawa (1939-2012) was a six year-old child living in Hiroshima when the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city. He and his mother were the only members of his family to survive the bombing and its aftermath. Nakazawa grew up to become one of Japan’s leading manga artists. In 1973 he began Barefoot Gen (pronounced with a hard “G”), a fictionalized version of his life in Japan during World War II and its aftermath. This excerpt depicts moments before and after the bomb was dropped. Note: contains graphic imagery.

The above appears in book one of a ten-part series. Its American publisher, Last Gasp, has a project to place a set in as many American schools and libraries as possible. You can learn how to contribute and nominate a library or school to receive the full series by going to www.barefootgen.net