Hadashi no Gen

Kimie Nakaoka:
[desperately looking for someone to feed her baby] Please, isn't there anybody who can help me with just a little milk? My baby's starving.

Gen Nakaoka:
Isn't that terrible, Father? Grown men fighting over a bowl of soup.

Shinji Nakaoka:
If they're going to fight, it should be over some fish.

Gen Nakaoka:
It's probably just another spy plane. They'll never bomb us, we're too boring.

Kimie Nakaoka:
Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, they've come against all the biggest cities and bombed them into ruins. It's serious, Gen, I won't have you making light of it.

Daikichi Nakaoka:
There's one thing that bothers me. It's like you said, every major city around us has been bombed over and over again. But never Hiroshima.

Doctor:
Slow down boys, slow down, I'll die of a heart attack before we get there.

Gen Nakaoka:
You should've thought of that before you got so fat.

Shinji Nakaoka:
Our mother's sick, and if you don't make her better, you'll be sorry.

Daikichi Nakaoka:
This war can't be right. But it's only the cowards like me who dare say it. If there were only a few more like us. You know, sometimes it takes more courage not to fight than to fight, to not want to kill when all around you are calling out for blood. That's real courage in my book. If you boys remember nothing else I teach you, I hope you'll remember that.

Gen Nakaoka:
I'd like to know if we'll ever have enough food. Will we?

Daikichi Nakaoka:
Yes, son, when the war is over.

Gen Nakaoka:
When will it be over?

Daikichi Nakaoka:
It won't be long. Japan has all but lost the war.

Gen Nakaoka:
Why do we keep on fighting if we've lost the war?

Daikichi Nakaoka:
Why? Because our government is run by madmen. They're just crazy, stupid... all of them.

Gen Nakaoka:
Hey! How'd I end up here? Guess they decided to bomb us after all.

Gen Nakaoka:
Hey, this baby doesn't look like me. It's a girl, Mother, but it really looks like a monkey.

Kimie Nakaoka:
All babies do, you did too.

Gen Nakaoka:
[crying] Oh why aren't you here, Father? Shinji? She's the prettiest baby girl in the whole world, and you never saw her.

Daikichi Nakaoka:
Take a good look around, little one. Look closely, you see? This is the war that killed your father. Remember it.

Gen Nakaoka:
[after the bomb] It's raining. Stop it, stop it! What? That's not right. Mother, have you ever seen rain that's black like this?

Narration:
The black rain began falling on the northwest section of the city. The impact of the bomb's blast had sent dust, debris, and radiation high into the atmosphere, where it gathered in a gigantic, lethal cloud, before returning to the earth in a radioactive rain. The bomb that had fallen on the city detonated with a destructive force of 20,000 tons of TNT, and generated temperatures an excess of 4,000 degrees. Some 60% of the city had vanished, but the damage did not end there. The people of Hiroshima did not know it yet, but the bomb's after-effects, such as the black rain, would bring them many years of suffering.

Daikichi Nakaoka:
I don't have any milk.

Gen Nakaoka:
That's bad, Mother, babies need milk to live.

Daikichi Nakaoka:
We've eaten nothing for 3 days and my milk has dried up. When mothers go hungry, their babies go hungry too. I really must try to find some food, for her sake.

Gen Nakaoka:
Those soldiers are mean, they're just treating those people like bags of trash. It's almost like they never lived at all. Maybe this is what hell's like.

Eiko:
You know this is supposed to be for mother.

Gen Nakaoka:
What do you mean for her?

Shinji Nakaoka:
Why'd she give it to us then?

Eiko:
Oh she was just being nice. You know Mother needs to be strong for the baby that's coming. So if you eat this potato, the baby will die. Now, do you both still say you want it?

Kimie Nakaoka:
Eiko, go on, it's alright dear, let your brothers have it.

Eiko:
But Mother, it's not fair, the baby needs more than they do. Here you take it, please, eat it for the baby.

Kimie Nakaoka:
You know dear, it's a terrible thing having to watch your children go hungry. And what's worse nowadays there's hardly any food to be bought, even if we had the money.

Daikichi Nakaoka:
What is it, Eiko? What's the matter?

Eiko:
It's just that the last of the rice is gone, Father, and we have no money to buy anymore.

Daikichi Nakaoka:
Don't worry, something will come along, we'll find the money.

Eiko:
We just have to keep at it and finish our work, maybe then we'll get paid what we're owed.

Shinji:
Has anybody ever eaten a worm?

Gen:
Eaten a worm?

Shinji:
Yeah, like this caterpillar.

Gen:
I don't know, why?

Shinji:
If they won't make you sick, then Mother could eat them.

Gen:
Hmmm... [pictures Kimie eating a worm and turning into a caterpillar, bops Shinji on the head] Idiot!

Gen:
You can hit me again, sir, really, you can hit me as much as you want, go on, but just, let us keep the fish when you're done, please sir.

Shinji:
That's right, you can hit me as much as you want too, but give us the fish. Go on, I'm ready.

Old Man:
Will you tell me why you boys want that blasted carp?

Gen:
It's for our mother, sir, she's going to have a baby and she's not very well.

Shinji:
And our neighbor Mr. Pak said carp blood is the only thing that will help.

Gen:
Without it my mother will get worse sir, even...

Shinji:
She could die! Now you wouldn't want my mother to die, would you?

Gen:
[sobbing] Oh please, help us.

Shinji:
Please save her!

Gen:
You won't! Oh no!

Shinji:
You're mean and heartless! Her ghost will come back and haunt you TILL YOU DIE! [sobs]

Old Man:
How did the old saying go? Be good to your parents while you can. Very well, keep it. [the boys look up at him in awe] Look, I'm giving you the damn fish. Now go.

Gen:
You mean it?

Shinji:
Remember if you lie, old man, you'll go straight to hell!

Old Man:
Funny, I was just about to say the same thing to you two.

Gen:
Shinji, what did you say to make Mother cry like that?

Shinji:
Gee, all I did was ask if I could suck on the fish bones when she was done with them.

Gen:
You're kidding, you asked her that?

Shinji:
Yeah, that was it.

Gen:
[hits Shinji on the head] Idiot!

Narration:
The initial explosion of the atomic bomb claimed more than 100,000 lives, but that was only the beginning. The radiation remained, contaminating soldiers cleaning up the city, as well as those relatives of the victims who came looking for them. For years afterwards, these people would suffer leukemia and cancer, part of the collateral damage inflicted by the bomb.

Gen:
Hey, somebody should look at this soldier, he's hurt real bad I think.

Doctor:
[sighs] Another one. Young man, do you know if he was vomiting blood or complaining that he was cold?

Gen:
Right! [relieved] Ah, then I guess that means you know what's wrong then.

Doctor:
No use looking at this one, this soldier's dead. God help us, is it possible that one bomb could've created all this devastation?

Narration:
After the bombing of Hiroshima, the United States issued an ultimatum: calling on Japan to surrender, and threatening to drop a second atomic bomb if it did not. The Japanese High Command ignored the warning. They made certain the full extent of the damage to Hiroshima was little reported. Three days later on August 9th, another B-29 appeared in the sky above the city of Nagasaki. Japan's High Command is convinced at last. On August 15th, the emperor Hirohito, in the first public address ever made by a Japanese sovereign, announced that the war was over.

Seijo:
You idiot! [kicks Gen]

Gen:
WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?

Seijo:
What were you trying to do, tear my skin off?

Gen:
I try to be careful but those maggots keep getting stuck to the scabs like they've been glued on!

Seijo:
I don't want to hear it! [kicks Gen again] You'll just have to be MORE careful, you little BUZZARD!

Gen:
LISTEN HERE!

Ryuta:
You think anyone will stop me if I wring his neck? [rolls up sleeve]

Gen:
Take that! [slaps Seijo] And that! [again] You're just a spoiled brat, even if you are a grownup.

Ryuta:
Now I know why they stuck you out here by yourself.

Gen:
We're leaving!

Ryuta:
Yeah, we quit!

Seijo:
Ryuta, Gen

Gen:
Calling us by our names won't help, it's too late! [sees tears forming in Seijo's eye, calms down] I'm sorry I hit you.

Seijo:
No, no, I'm glad that you did.

Gen:
Come on, you like bieng slapped around?

Ryuta:
Huh, that's kind of weird.

Gen:
You want to slap him this time?

Ryuta:
My pleasure!

Seijo:
That's right, that's right, hit me, I won't mind.

Gen:
Wait a minute! It's not normal to want to be hit!

Seijo:
When you've gone without human contact as long as I have, you're grateful for anything, even a slap. It's funny how people change. My brother and his family used to enjoy my company before the bomb did this to me. Now they've all left me out here to die. My only visitors are the people my brother has paid to look after me, and none of them has ever lasted very long. You were the only ones to treat me as anything more than a freak or a corpse; you treated me like a human being, and for that I am grateful.