RIP Nakazawa Keiji

A survivor of the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, manga auteur Keiji Nakazawa gave voice and powerful images to the survivors, showing both the impact and aftermath of the A-bomb drop. His opus magnum, the series “Hadashi no Gen“ he started in 1966, was hugely important in dealing with the event and Japan in the (post-) war years; abroad, an anime version popularized the artist and his work (which can and should be seen on the level of Spiegelman’s “Maus“) before the manga made it to the West. Nakazawa died Dec. 19 of lung cancer.