Comics, the Holocaust and Hiroshima

Abstract

Comics, the Holocaust and Hiroshima breaks new ground by arguing that comics have a dual role as sources of cataclysm between 1939 and 1945. First for historians to gauge awareness of the Holocaust and second through close analysis, of Paroles d'Etoiles in Vichy France and Barefoot Gen in Hiroshima, as testimonies of childhood emotions, experiences and memories. Calling for an extension of the range of source material relating to persecution, genocide and the atomic bomb from 1939 to 1945, comics are posited as an agent to build on the scholarship of new cultural history, historiography, memory and trauma studies. These fields connect through the shared ground of cultural record, which can be either deliberate/explicit or incidental reference. The comics form is a flexible one with potential to explore the space between reality and representation, with visuals working as iconic translations while narrative structure relies on readers' mental contribution.