Barefoot Gen

A powerful statement against war, Barefoot Gen is a story about the effect of the atomic bomb on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people.
Jan. 23, 2009

"You had the happiness of humanity in your hands, and you have gambled it away. You had the world in your hands, and at the end you dropped your atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Through the centuries, you will shed blood where life should be protected, and will believe that you achieve freedom with the help of the hangman; thus you will find yourself again and again in the same morass.

You yourself create all your misery, hour after hour, day after day. You think the end justifies the means. You are wrong: The end is in the means by which you achieve it. Every step of today is your life of tomorrow. You stand on your head and you believe yourself dancing into the realm of freedom."

You could have long since become the master of your existence, if only your thinking were in the direction of truth..."

- Wilhelm Reich