Week 3: "I Saw It: The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima" BY Keiji Nakazawa
Cover of "I Saw It". This expression of anger, shock, and fear is the perfect representation of Keiji.
In "I Saw It" by Keiji Nakazawa, we go over the true story of Keiji and his life living in Hiroshima and the events that lead towards the fatal atomic bomb and eventually the result. We begin with being introduced to Keiji's family, and how life was lived between his parents and siblings. Keiji recalls his life being one of struggle and fear. His family would hide in an air raid shelter and they would live off of rice and beans that could barely fill their stomachs. When the bomb hits, Keiji is protected from the blast radius only due to being behind a concrete wall. Keiji ends up running around the demolished city of Hiroshima and discovers his brother, sister, and father dead. His mother was the only one who survived along her newly born child and his oldest brother, who was out to war. Later in Keiji's life, Keiji learns to become a cartoonist, and becomes fueled to write about the bombing of Hiroshima after the death of his mother. The comic ends with Keiji continuing to live in Tokyo and continue his career path as a cartoonist.This story was quite astonishing to read, and I was quite shocked to see how graphic the content got. I feel any text referring to Hiroshima (Especially a manga that's translated for english speaking viewers) is usually sanitized. Americans, in specific, doesn't like to reflect over their traumatic actions and this text helps place the reader in his shoes. I really wish that this text was pushed more towards American audiences so they could sympathize with the victims left from this tragedy. If there was 3 discussion questions I would have to ask it would be:- Should there be more detail added to the original content? -Does the message get conveyed within the page limit the comic currently has?-Was Keiji inspired by another writer/comic/artist that possibly talked about the same topic?
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