Gen Nakaoka



Gen Nakaoka (中岡 元 Nakaoka Gen, born 1937 or 1938; presumed time-travelled) is a the protagonist of the manga and anime Barefoot Gen. He leads his mother Kimie and his adoptive younger brother Ryuta in the aftermath of the atomic attack on Hiroshima in World War 2, having lost his father Daikichi, older sister Eiko and younger brother Shinji to the firestorm. He gains a new infant sister named Tomoko immediately after the firestorm only for her to perish from malnutrition a couple of weeks later. He is only 6 years of age in the 1983 anime film which is set at the time of the nuclear strike in August 1945, so he can be no older than 9 or 10 in the 1986 sequel, which is set 3 years later. He is the fictional alter-ego of the late Keiji Nakazawa who survived the nuclear strike on Hiroshima at the age of 6.

In When the Cold Breeze Blows Away, he (along with Kimie, Daikichi, Eiko and Shinji) are travelled forward in time into modern-day Hiroshima by a freak abduction beam accident from a Grey UFO, which takes place a day after the Last Day, only to find out that Hiroshima remains unaffected throughout the nuclear exchange, and even to find out that he's miraculously lucky that his father and his siblings are either saved from the collapsing building (or from fire), and/or lucky that they did travel forward in time before they die slowly.

Trivia

 * Although Daikichi, Eiko and Shinji die together in Barefoot Gen, they all survive from the disaster by an irresponsible alien accident in When the Cold Breeze Blows Away.
 * That way, they're now into the future.