Barefoot Gen tells the story of Keiji Nakazawa's Childhood experience of war.
The story is about a 6 year old boy Gen who is a victim of the atomic bombing on Hiroshima back in 1945.

Much of the work includes criticism directed toward the Japanese government

Following the one-shot "I Saw it", Barefoot Gen was picked up for serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump and lasted from 1973-1974 before being moved into the left-wing publications "Citizen's" and "Cultural Criticism", before finally finishing in the educational publication "Education Review" in 1987.

Due to the personal nature of the work, Nakazawa did not have any assistants during serialization barring his wife.

The work proved to be unpopular among Jump's reader base and Nakazawa, feeling that he wasn't able to properly convey his feelings, decided to personally end Barefoot Gen in 1974.

This series has 2 anime film adaptations released in 1983 and 1986, produced by Studio Madhouse, inc.

The series has also been adapted into live action dramas.