week4 -I saw it - Keji Nakazawa

"I saw it "  by Keiji Nakazawa is a survivors story on his first hand experience with the Hiroshima bombings in Japan. He was only six years old when the bomb was dropped on his town and life as he knew it came to a screeching halt.  August 6,1945 will be marked as the day in which his life would be changed forever and take a turn down a path that would follow the repercussions of that days devastation for the rest of his life. The events  that happened in Hiroshima shaped keji , the way he saw the world as a child definitely had an impact on how he handled those events. His perception was one of innocence and ignorance because children don't know much of the world, but having seen so many people die in-front of him in just a moments notice shocked him into the reality of his country during this time. He bumbled around trying to make sense of it all but never knew 'why him?', resentment over others who hadn't had to live through those events. Through the years following the attack , Nakazawa was finally able to find some peace in himself and found a sense of normalcy for the time being , focusing his strengths and time into what he was good at , comics. This was a release for him , putting behind him what he so desperately  wanted to forget. For years he pushed forward and compartmentalized a lot of his life until the death of his mother pushed him back over the edge. Unable to deal with PTSD any longer he shifted the focus of his career to cover everything that happened to him .
       Having read the scholarly article by Chute , and later reading Nakazawas' work, i've favored the later.  Chutes structure in her analysis of the work and her inability to cover things in chronological order turned me off from wanted to read more than half of her paper. Although she is at the top of her game as a literary figure, her style of writing just isn't my cup of tea. theres just too much back and forth that doesn't do  Nakazawas' work justice, subsequently turning me away from the body of work. All in all i recommend reading "i saw it" both the shortened and extended versions before subjecting yourself to reading Chutes lack luster breakdown of it all .