Cartoonist Keiji Nakazawa was seven years old and living in Hiroshima in the early days of August 1945 when the city was destroyed by an atomic bomb dropped by the U.S.A. Starting a few months before that event, this ten-volume saga shows life in Japan after years of war and privations as seen through the eyes of seven-year-old Gen Nakaoka. Volume One begins shortly before the bomb was dropped and ends on the day of the bombing itself.

This second volume, The Day After, tells the story of the day after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima as seen through the eyes of seven-year-old Gen Nakaoka. Gen, his mother, and his newborn sister face the horrors of the day after the bomb.

Gen, his mother, and his baby sister are searching for a place to rest in the bomb's aftermath. Facing rejection, hunger, and humiliation, they come to realize that they still have - and can share - three crucial possessions: their self-respect, their hope, and their inner strength.

Nine days after the bomb, Gen and his mother continue to struggle for food, shelter and water amid chaos and vast human suffering. Though confronted with the most despicable aspects of humankind, Gen acts with love and compassion.

Hiroshima's citizens face massive food shortages and horrendous health problems. Gen is in school, but he is forced to choose between making money to support his family or staying in school. His choice is further complicated when his mother becomes sick, and his old friends reappear as part of a street gang. There is no help for his mother, save for the costly medicine procured on the black market.

The story of life in Hiroshima after the atomic bomb continues! Gen fights against a corrupt medical system, the discriminatory practices of his neighbors, and the American presence in Postwar Japan. Gen's brother, Koji, has gone away to work in the coal mines but has since disappeared. To make up for the shortage, he and his friends must resort to more drastic measures - which lands one of the bunch in a juvenile detention center.

Gen has grown old enough to think about the legacy of the victims of the atomic bombing. Gen searches for a printer willing to publish an eyewitness account of the bombing written by "Papa," the journalist who serves as a father figure to Gen's war orphan friends. By hook and crook Gen and Ryuta manage to get the book printed and distributed, only to arouse the wrath of U.S. Army censors, who teach them a hard lesson about the politics of memory.

In 1950, Gen is now in middle school, where he meets both a progressive-minded schoolteacher at odds with his conservative superiors, and a brilliant but cynical classmate who challenges the teacher's - and Gen's - values at every turn. Gen also finds himself confronting the corrosive effects on postwar Hiroshima society of drugs and the arms industry.

This playful and thoroughly researched handbook examines the key styles and subcultures past and present: sailor-suited gangsters, Pippi Longstockings risen from the dead, girls in blackface, teens sporting giant hamster costumes, and more. Each fashion profile is packed with photos and illustrations, history, ideal boyfriends, and must-have items.

Fujio and Mitsuo, two blue-collar factory workers, dream of training in martial arts overseas and becoming famous. When they accidentally kill their overbearing boss, they bury him at a man-made garbage mountain contaminated with industrial waste and which, naturally, transforms the bodies of the dead into ravenous, flesh-eating zombies! Fujio and Mitsuo try their best to survive, but the hapless pair become separated after an idiotic mistake involving potato chips and a stray dog.