Publication History
Hadashi no Gen the autobiography was originally serialized beginning in 1973 in the mass-market manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump (Shūkan Shōnen Jampu), which had earlier published Nakazawa's autobiographical Hiroshima story "Ore wa Mita" ("I Saw It"). It was cancelled after a year and a half, and moved to three other less widely distributed magazines: Shimin (Citizen), Bunka Hyōron (Cultural Criticism), and Kyōiku Hyōron (Educational Criticism). It was published in book collections in Japan beginning in 1975. A volunteer organization, Project Gen, formed in 1976 to produce English translations, which were released in four volumes. This made Barefoot Gen one of the first manga released in English, as well as other European languages.
The group Rondo Gen published an Esperanto translation as Nudpieda Gen (Barefoot Gen) in 1982. The chief translator was Izumi Yukio.
The German Rowohlt Verlag published only the first volume in 1982 under their mass-market label rororo. Carlsen Comics tried it again in 2004 but cancelled the publication after four volumes. Both publishers took the name "Barfuß durch Hiroshima" (Barefoot through Hiroshima).
The first volume was published in Norwegian in 1986 by GEVION norsk forlag A/S. The Norwegian title is "Gen, Gutten fra Hiroshima" (Gen, the Boy from Hiroshima). A similar edition in Swedish ("Gen – Pojken från Hiroshima'" was published in 1985 by Alvglans förlag, which may have been the earliest published manga in Swedish.
The first volume was published in Finnish in 1985 by Jalava, becoming the first Japanese comic to be published in Finland, but publishing was likewise abandoned. The Finnish title is "Hiroshiman poika" (The Son of Hiroshima), and Finnish translation was done by Kaija-Leena Ogihara. In 2006 Jalava republished the first volume (with its original translation) and continued with publication of second volume.
A new English translation has been released with an introduction by Art Spiegelman, who has compared the work to his own work, Maus (which is about the experiences of Spiegelman's father during the Holocaust in Europe). Last Gasp released the final two volumes on February 10, 2010.
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