Quotes from Barefoot Gen (manga, 1973)
Hadashi no Gen
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Barefoot Gen (manga, 1973)
volume 1
Daikichi Nakaoka: If we let them take away our pride too, we have nothing left. Maybe I'm just stupid and stubborn. But I'm proud of my way of living.
Daikichi Nakaoka: Whenever the military grabs political power, the world becomes a dark, terrifying place.
Daikichi Nakaoka: You really think this war is being fought for all Japanese people? A handful of rich men started this war! They didn't consult us!
Daikichi Nakaoka: That idiot! Does he really think it takes courage to go to war?! I don't care if people call me a coward or a traitor. What takes real courage is to value life — your own and everybody's!
Daijiro Kumai: People are supposed to die of old age, when their time comes! But instead, it's young guys like us who die first! That's not right! Why do the old geezers who started the war and give all the orders get to live longer than us?!
Daijiro Kumai: Kid! You've got to survive! Live and be free like we couldn't be. Help make the world a place where you can marry the girl you love and live happily with your family! That's the best thing a human being can do.
Daikichi Nakaoka: I don't give a damn about the Emperor! We're starving to death! I bet the Emperor's never missed a meal in his life!
Koji Nakaoka: Why can't everyone think? Use their heads for once? Are they going to be duped by this hoax of a war forever?!
volume 2
Kimie Nakaoka: There are so many piles of bodies all over the city... I wonder how many people have died... Hiroshima has become a living hell.
volume 3
Seiji Yoshida: I know I'm going to die soon! But before I do, I want to paint one last picture... I want to paint right up to the very end...!
Seiji Yoshida: I'm just like all of you... Soon I'll die and be tossed away like an old rag, too... I'm going to show the world your pain, your sorrow, your anger!
Kimie Nakaoka: They take us for complete fools! First they started the war without telling us anything... only that it was for the sake of the country and the Emperor... And now that Japan has lost, they tell us we have to "bear the unbearable and endure the unendurable..."
volume 4
Kimie Nakaoka: I hate the Americans too. They've hurt us so much... But what can we do? We lost the war. We have to forget all that and get on with our lives.
volume 5
Ryuta Kondo: What do you s'pose all these American soldiers come to Hiroshima for? It's like they're enjoying themselves seeing how Hiroshima got all burnt up from the A-bomb they dropped, like it's some kind of tourist attraction...
volume 6
Gen Nakaoka: Stay alive and look straight into the eyes of the people who forced the war and the atomic bomb on us! Don't give up!
volume 7
Gen Nakaoka: Ah, the pain of defeat... The war-mongers fight their stupid war and turn us into a country of vegetable-eaters!
volume 8
Katsuo Aihara: Do you think anything has changed in the history of war since ancient Roman times? People have always tried to force their beliefs on others, so they take turns invading and being invaded. People don't change for the better. The only things that have changed are science and technology, so the only progress you see is in weaponry.
volume 9
Ryuta Kondo: If we calculate how much energy we wasted on this wild goose chase, how many calories do you s'pose we burned up? I daresay it's equivalent to a whole year's budget for our defeated, impoverished nation, Japan.
Gen Nakaoka: Realizing your ideals is what life is all about!
Ryuta Kondo: It's good to have ideals, Gen — but do they bring in any money? Do ideals give you enough to eat?
volume 10
Ohta: School's just a warm-up for the real world. A lot of idiots think they've won simply by getting into a top school, but the race doesn't start until you get out into the world — and what counts is staying true to yourself as you run that marathon.
Gen Nakaoka: It's a funny thing. You can see someone just once, and fall so completely in love you can't get her out of your mind.
Gen Nakaoka: The whole country should be grateful to the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Their sacrifice made it possible for everyone else to survive and sleep peacefully at night. In fact, the whole world should be grateful to them, because Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed everyone just how unspeakable nuclear weapons are. They've helped keep the rest of the world from being destroyed in a nuclear war.
Gen Nakaoka: As an eyewitness, you can testify to the horrors of the atomic bomb. You can provide the testimony that could save the human race. That makes you more important than the emperor.
Quotes found: 26