Keiji Nakazawa

Keiji Nakazawa (中沢 啓治, Nakazawa Keiji; March 14, 1939 – December 19, 2012) was a Japanese manga artist and writer. He is best known for his semi-autobiographical series Barefoot Gen, a landmark work depicting the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath. A hibakusha (atomic bomb survivor) himself, Nakazawa was in Hiroshima during the bombing in August 1945 and lost most of his family. His experiences shaped his artistic and political vision, leading to pioneering manga that confronted war trauma, nuclear devastation, and postwar Japanese society with stark realism and deep humanism. Barefoot Gen, serialized from 1973, became one of the first Japanese comics to gain international recognition and remains a foundational work in the genre of A-bomb manga. Through his work, Nakazawa combined personal testimony with bold criticism of militarism and nationalism, establishing manga as a medium for historical and political reflection.