Book Review
Title: Hibakusha
Author: Thilde Barboni & Olivier Cinna (Illustrator)
Genre: Graphic Novel
Rating: *****
Review: So, this is the story of Ludwig working as a translator in 1945 in Hiroshima, Japan, which isn’t a good time to be Japanese or German. We learn that Ludwig was crippled as a child which means he couldn’t be a soldier during WWII, but he had skills which were used by the German Reich. Ludwig dreams of escaping his loveless marriage as they only thing they share is a son and even fantasizes about having an affair when he learns he is going to be sent to Japan on a mission.
Having grown up in Japan Ludwig feels like he has come home especially when he meets an old friend. He is originally sent there in 1938 but the story jumps to early 1945 so the war is now drawing to a close. However, life isn’t the best for Ludwig as he still works for the Germans and he meets a young Japanese woman who he falls in love with but as things get worse and more bombs are dropped on Japan, he urges her to flee which she does.
When Germany surrenders Ludwig is considered a traitor in the eyes of the Japanese and while he wants to see the woman, he loves one last time it isn’t possible, but he is allowed to go to the place where they confessed their love to one another. However, it is tragic to say that Ludwig was killed when the atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. We then jump years into the future and we see the young woman as an old woman and a grandmother. She visits a stone in the park with the shadow impression of a tall man who she knows is Ludwig even if no one else does.
It was heartbreaking to watch her talk to the shadow telling Ludwig about his daughter who she had been pregnant with when she fled Hiroshima and their granddaughter who she passes the story onto so that even when she dies, they will be someone to visit him and remember who he was. This story was heartbreaking beautiful and WWII Japan is something that I love reading about and the context of the story reminds me a lot of memoirs of a geisha which is my all-time favourite book and movie to date. Highly recommended.

Hmmm… A bloke getting sucked off by a strange, beautiful hitch-hiker, Nazis… This would seem to be right up my street. But then (certainly if you don't read the blurb first) the book meanders onto a very different path, and a quite unexpected one. Only finally, after some pretentiousness unfortunately, does it yield its real substance. Which would be fine in itself, but the proceedings were so varied, almost schizophrenic, that I don't think this works. It's an elegiac love story with more death than the average, a telling look at humanity with a lot else besides, and a nice look at a singular romance, but through a quite pompous lens. Visually it's fine, but I think the story needed to grip on to what it wanted to be about a fair bit more firmly. Two and a half stars.

So, I get where the story comes from, it's really moving how the author and artist worked together to show the effects of the Hiroshima bombing. No doubt the artist/illustrator is very talented and does a beautiful work. However, I couldn't connect to the story or the main character - first of all because he's still a nazi. There's only one moment when he repents the work he's doing, conveniently that's when everything is already done.

I expected this to have a hundred pages or so, but it was really short, even though the story is not fast-paced. I am always curious and interested in stories set during the WWII however this one did not work for me.

An interesting but heavy handed story of a German and a Japanese woman, in Hiroshima, in 1945, just before the bombing. And of course, he is working in what is now known as the Atomic Dome, which is one of the few buildings standing after the atomic bomb.

So, to have the German man working there, and strolling past there, as the cherry blossoms bloomed all over was about quite enough foreboding for me.

So, I was not at all surprised as to what happened, especially with the name of the book, which refers to survivors of the atomic bomb.

I just wish the colorist had not make August look like Spring, as I wans’t expecting the bomb to drop quite yet.

I have read quite a few books written by survivors of the bombing, and the description in the book rang true.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

'Hibakusha (被爆者) is the Japanese word for the surviving victims of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The word literally translates as "explosion-affected people" and is used to refer to people who were exposed to radiation from the bombings.'

This beautifully illustrated graphic novel tells the story of two people affected by the bombing of Hiroshima.

Ludwig is a translator and interpreter. He is married with a small son but his marriage is not a happy one. In any case he keeps his head down and gets on with interpreting for the Nazi war machine. A childhood injury means that he cannot be sent to fight and he is glad about that.

One day he picks up a beautiful Japanese hitchhiker in the forest near Berlin and he is immediately smitten but the woman runs away. Years later he meets this same woman in Hiroshima where he is interpreting for the Nazi's and the two of them embark on a passionate affair. She brings light into Ludwig's darkness but neither of them realise just how dark life can become.

The artwork in this graphic novel is beautiful and the words are quite haunting. Together they tell a gentle story about doomed love. I don't normally read tragic stories but I enjoyed reading this one because the drawings are so beautiful and together with the haunting pose the novel really creeps under your skin.

The ending is poignant and yet filled with hope. Altogether it is a beautiful read.

Copy provided by Europe Comics via Netgalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I have read quite a few graphic novels published by Europe Comics and I found them to be secret delights and inspiring gateways into wonderful stories and classic illustrations that transform simple words.
None demonstrate that more beautifully than this account of a wartime romance between two souls divided by culture and seen as enemies towards the end of the second world war.
A love story is a beautiful vehicle for condensing feelings into emotional reactions captured in a moment where your heart sings and your body clings to another human being. the past and future are fused into the now. Hibakusha is such a tale made more poignant by its beautiful setting in Japan but set against the potential destruction of humanity, in a true event, that of the detonation of an atomic weapon within a populated environment, Hiroshima.
Ideas of friendship and duty are explored here, along with a sense of destiny. Caught up in a love transending even death and physical separation. Taking the eerie realities of a nuclear event and the frozen shadows left, capturing 3D forms in the flash of the initial explosition the author speculates how those silhouettes might have been created, by more, than just mere light and shade.
A powerful story is left for you to enjoy and reflect upon on every level of your ebeing through simple dialogue, words and pictures. The illustrations are bold, yet simple and carry the essence of an oriental backdrop, the overall effect is an indelible impression of why litearature in all formats resonates with any reader.

<i>Hibakusha is the Japanese word for the surviving victims of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The word literally translates as "explosion-affected people" and is used to refer to people who were exposed to radiation from the bombings.</i>
-Wikipedia

As a child, German Ludwig Mueller had lived for several years in Japan where an accident left him lame. As a result, when WWII starts, he's not fit for combat. However, thanks to his fluency in Japanese, he becomes an interpreter. He is sent to Japan to translate some highly classified documents. Leaving behind a loveless marriage, he soon falls in love with a young Japanese woman. When Germany surrenders, it is seen as a cowardly act and Germans are rounded up and imprisoned. Fortunately, his translations are still needed but, when he begins to understand what the documents reveal, he deliberately misinterprets them. As well, he is friends with one of his jailers and he convinces him to let him say goodbye to the woman. He tells her she is not safe and must leave the city. Finally, on August 6, 1945, his jailers take him out for one last walk likely, he suspects, before he is to be executed. Regardless, it will be his last day, he knows, in this city that has brought him so much love and pain, Hiroshima.

The graphic novel, Hibakusha, is written by Thilde Barboni, illustrated by Olivier Cinna and released by Europe Comics. This a beautiful book both in the story and in the art. Although the characters are not developed deeply thanks to the brevity of this novel, the details in the background help to flesh out the story adding both to the horrors and cruelty of the war and so many of its participants as well as to the poignancy of the love affair and the importance of love, time and memory in helping to heal the survivors. I have become a huge fan of Europe Comics always impressed by both the stories and the artwork and Hibakusha is no exception. In it's melding of art and story, it has created both an indictment of war and a brilliant portrait of the importance of love in times of hate.

<i>Thanks to Netgalley and Europe Comics for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review</i>

Such a sad and wonderful story this one. A German man and a Japanese woman fell in love just before the Hiroshima's bomb....

Che storia triste e meravigliosa questa. Un tedesco ed una giapponese si innamorano ad Hiroshima, poco prima che venga sganciata la prima bomba atomica....

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

A potentially intriguing story... I just wish there was more depth to it. I didn't connect with the characters because there was nothing to them to connect with.

A German officer unable to serve on the combat field because of a leg wound is sent to Japan a few months before April 1945. He has no regrets leaving an unhappy marriage behind and heads off to what might be a new beginning. In Japan he meets a young woman he falls in love with while he is stationed in Nagasaki, translating strange documents dealing with gasses... By the end of April Germany surrenders and German officers in Nagasaki are executed as traitors. Our translator is a temporary exception, but when he feels his fate is looming because his translations are no longer needed, he begs his only Japanese friend to help him see his lover one last time and begs her to leave the city. A few days later the atomic bomb is dropped on the city and he is one of the victims...

This is a beautiful and poignant short story where both extremes of human nature are shown: the power of love and life against the power of hatred. The art is beautiful. I would definitely recommend it for all ages +16 - some graphic erotic content as well as the subject do not make it an ideal read for younger audiences.

I liked the art style of Hibakusha and the general idea about the II World War in Germany and Japan.
I didn't like the fact that he can just cheat on his wife like that without a thought, guilt or remorse as if it is the most natural thing to do.
That fact really annoyed me and pushed the star rating down.