No More Words: Barefoot Gen, Grave of the Fireflies, and “Victim’s History”

Abstract

The two most famous anime dramas concerning World War II, Mori Masaki’s Barefoot Gen (Hadashi no gen, 1983) and Takahata Isao’s Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no haka, 1988), share in the collectivity of the Japanese memory as well as individual autobiographical accounts of personal suffering. In this regard, they attempt to “speak for history” in a personal voice that, through the power of vivid images of suffering, destruction, and renewal, becomes a collective voice of the Japanese people. They are both essentially family dramas seen through the eyes of children, and, although there are scenes of horrifying violence and devastation (especially in Barefoot Gen), the films contain many powerful scenes of human-scale interaction that are subdued and imbued with a childlike, innocent tone.

“Oh look there’s an enemy plane coming.” … Thereafter there were no more words.

—Hiroshima survivor Kijima Katsumi, quoted in John Treat, Writing Ground Zero