text: On the date of his Acclamation, King John VI created the Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa, the only order of knighthood to be created during the United Kingdom era. This Order existed in the United Kingdom alongside the old Portuguese Orders of chivalry and the Order of the Tower and Sword, an ancient Order that had been dormant and that was revived by the Portuguese monarchy in November 1808, when the Royal Court was already in Brazil. After the dissolution of the United Kingdom, while Brazilian branches of the old Orders of chivalry were created, resulting in Brazilian and Portuguese Orders Saint James of the Sword, of Saint Benedict of Aviz, and of Christ (there was and is also a branch of the Order of Christ maintained by the Holy See: the Supreme Order of Our Lord Jesus Christ), paradoxically, the newer Orders (the recreated Order of the Tower and Sword and the Order of the Immaculate Conception of Vila Viçosa) remained in existence as Portuguese Orders only.


title: United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves

text: After the Liberal Revolution of 1820 in Portugal, the King left Brazil and returned to the European portion of the United Kingdom, arriving in Lisbon on 4 July 1821. Before his departure, the King, acceding to requests made by Brazilian courtiers, decided to leave behind his heir apparent, Prince Pedro, the Prince Royal of the United Kingdom. By a decree issued on 22 April 1821, the King invested Pedro with the title of "Regent of Brazil", and granted him delegated powers to discharge the "general government and entire administration of the Kingdom of Brazil" as the King's placeholder, thus granting the Kingdom of Brazil a devolved administration within the United Kingdom.


text: Accordingly, with the appointment of Prince Royal Pedro as Regent of Brazil, the Brazilian provinces – that in the colonial period were united under a vice-regal administration, and that during the stay of Queen Maria I and King John VI in the American Continent remained united directly under the royal Government – continued, after the return of the King and of the Portuguese Court to Europe, united under a central Brazilian Government based in Rio de Janeiro.


text: Prince Pedro's Regency not only assured the unity of the Brazilian people under one government, but it also enjoyed a high degree of autonomy vis-à-vis the Government of the United Kingdom.


text: Attempts by the Government in Lisbon to terminate Brazil's home rule and to undermine Brazilian unity would lead to the proclamation of the independence of Brazil and the dissolution of the United Kingdom.


text: The "Cortes" (the Parliament) assembled in Lisbon in the wake of the Constitutional Revolution of 1820 to draft a Constitution for the United Kingdom was composed of mostly Portuguese delegates. This was so because the Revolution was Portuguese in origin, so that the members of the Cortes were elected in Portugal, and only later a Brazilian delegation was elected and the Brazilian delegates crossed the Atlantic to join the ongoing deliberations. Also, Brazilian representatives were often mistreated and persecuted in the streets by Portuguese citizens who resented the end of colonial rule. On top of that, Brazilians were under-represented in the Cortes.


text: As for the King, upon his arrival in Lisbon, he behaved as though he accepted the new political settlement that resulted from the Liberal Revolution (a posture he would maintain until mid-1823), but the powers of the Crown were severely limited. A Council of Regency that had been elected by the Cortes to govern Portugal in the wake of the Revolution – and that replaced by force the previous governors that administered the European portion of the United Kingdom by royal appointment – handed back the reins of government to the Monarch on his arrival in Lisbon, but the King was now limited to the discharge of the Executive branch, and had no influence over the drafting of the Constitution or over the actions of the Cortes.


text: The Constituent Cortes, dominated by a Portuguese majority, included provisions in the Constitution being drafted that referred to the people of the United Kingdom as "the Portuguese Nation". The draft Constitution spoke of "Portuguese citizens of both hemispheres". Apart from including in the Constitution language that was seen as hostile and offensive to Brazilians, the United Kingdom Cortes assembled in Lisbon included in the proposed Constitution that was being drafted provisions that would undermine and that could even lead to the dissolution of the central Brazilian Government based in Rio de Janeiro. The draft Constitution would have maintained the Regency of the Kingdom of Brazil, but it contained provision allowing the United Kingdom Legislature to exclude Brazilian provinces from the jurisdiction of the Regency. Thus, the Government of the United Kingdom in Lisbon would have the power to sever the links between a Brazilian province and the central Brazilian government, submitting this province directly to the Lisbon Government. If enacted, those deliberations of the Cortes would not only undermine Brazilian Home Rule, but they would also endanger the unity of the Brazilian people, as Brazilians would no longer have a central government, a situation that did not exist even in the last centuries of the colonial period. Portuguese deputies in the Cortes even introduced draft legislation that would concretely sever the ties between the central devolved Government of the Kingdom of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro and some provinces in Northeastern Brazil. The Portuguese Cortes also demanded the immediate return of the Crown Prince to Europe.


text: Brazilian Nationalists reacted, interpreting the actions of the Cortes as an attempt to "divide and conquer". They alleged that once the provisions approved by the Cortes were enacted and enforced, Brazil, although formally remaining a part of the transatlantic monarchy, would be in reality returned to the condition of a Colony. Brazilians feared the breakup of Brazil, with the creation of provinces directly subject to the Lisbon Government.


text: Also, language in the draft Constitution that would have the effect of including colonies of the Portuguese colonial empire in Africa and Asia as part of the territory of the United Kingdom seemed to confirm that the intention of the Cortes was indeed to reduce Brazil to the position of a colony once again: it was clear that the territories in Africa and Asia would continue to be colonies, and to be subject to economic exploitation and domination by means of restrictions in foreign trade, etc.; but those colonies would now be declared parts of the United Kingdom, meaning that, with the inclusion of the whole of the Portuguese Empire in the United Kingdom, the definition of the United Kingdom itself would change: the United Kingdom would cease to correspond to a transatlantic State that included no colonies but that controlled colonies overseas, and would instead become a State that included colonies in its bosom. This would provide the legal framework for the reintroduction of trade restrictions in Brazil that had been lifted since the arrival of the Royal Family in Brazilian shores.


text: Notably, several Portuguese politicians wanted to re-introduce to Brazil restrictions in foreign trade that in the previous colonial era had been dubbed euphemistically as "the colonial pact": a mercantilist system in which Brazilian products could only be exported to Portugal, and in which Brazilians could only import products from Portugal. This system, which enabled the economic exploitation of the Portuguese Colonies by Metropolitan Portugal, had been abolished in Brazil even before the creation of the United Kingdom. Indeed, the abolition of all the restrictions on foreign trade, and the exclusion of Brazil from the imperialist policy of the colonial pact, had taken place already in 1808, as soon as the Royal Family arrived in Brazil: the first act signed by the Prince Regent after his arrival in Brazil was the decree on the opening of the Brazilian ports to friendly Nations, that enabled Brazilians to import goods from Nations other than Portugal, and to export Brazilian products to the foreign Nations maintaining diplomatic ties with the Portuguese Empire. Now, with the measures being voted by the "Cortes" assembled in Lisbon, that economic freedom was under threat.


text: Faced with that scenario, Brazilian independentists managed to convince Prince Pedro to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Cortes, that demanded his immediate return. He thus continued leading a central Brazilian Government as Regent, and further established that no laws, decrees or instructions issued by the Portuguese Cortes or by the central government of the United Kingdom would be obeyed in Brazil without his "fiat".


text: The Prince's decision not to obey the decrees of the "Cortes" that demanded this return, and instead to stay in Brazil as its Regent was solemnly announced on 9 January 1822, in reply to a formal petition from the city council of Rio de Janeiro. In February 1822 Prince Pedro decided to create an advisory council, composed of representatives elected to represent the several provinces of Brazil, summoning elections to that council. Its first meeting was held on 2 June 1822. Prince Regent Pedro's decree to the effect that laws, decrees and orders from Lisbon would only be carried out in Brazil with his "fiat" was published in May 1822.


text: By agreeing to defy the Cortes and stay in Brazil, Prince Pedro assumed the leadership of the Brazilian cause; as a recognition of his leading role, Brazilian independentists offered Pedro on 13 May 1822 the title of "Perpetual Protector and Defender of Brazil"; he rejected the title of Protector, arguing that Brazil didn't need one, but assumed the title of "Perpetual Defender of Brazil". By defying explicit orders that demanded his return to Europe, Pedro escalated the events that would lead to the separation of Brazil from the United Kingdom, and hastened the crucial moment of the Proclamation of Independence. As the situation between Brazilians and Portuguese deteriorated, the United Kingdom was doomed to dissolution.


text: Brazilian independentists argued that Brazil's future should be decided by Brazilians and not by the Lisbon "Cortes", and they accordingly demanded the summoning of a National Constituent Assembly for Brazil, separate from the Constituent Cortes assembled in Portugal. Prince Pedro, acting on the advice of his newly convened Council, embraced those demands, and issued a decree on 13 June 1822 summoning elections for a Brazilian Constituent Assembly. Due to the further escalation of tensions between Brazil and Portugal, the elections to that Constituent Assembly would only take place after the Prince himself had proclaimed the independence of Brazil (the Assembly would only convene in 1823, and the independence of Brazil was declared in September 1822, with the establishment of the Empire of Brazil in October 1822).


text: The "Cortes" sent troops to Brazil to compel the dissolution of the Prince's Government and to force his return to Portugal as ordered, but, on arrival those troops were commanded by the Prince to return to Portugal. The Portuguese troops in Rio de Janeiro obeyed the Prince Royal and returned to Europe, but in other Provinces fighting erupted between Brazilians and Portuguese.


text: News of further attempts of the Portuguese Cortes aimed at dissolving Prince Pedro's Regency led directly to the Brazilian Proclamation of Independence. Accordingly, in 1822, the Regent of the Kingdom of Brazil, Prince Pedro, the son of John VI, declared the independence of Brazil, as a reaction against the attempts of the "Cortes" to terminate Brazilian home rule, and became Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, which spelled the end of the United Kingdom.


text: The independence of Brazil was proclaimed by Prince Pedro on 7 September 1822. The Proclamation of Independence was made while the Prince was in the Province of São Paulo. He had travelled there to secure the Province's loyalty to the Brazilian cause. He departed the city of São Paulo, the Province's capital, on 5 September, and on 7 September, while on his way back to Rio de Janeiro, he received mail from his Minister José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva and from his wife, Princess Leopoldina (who remained in Rio de Janeiro presiding over the Ministry during Prince Pedro's absence), informing Pedro of further acts by the Cortes aimed at dissolving his Government by force, insisting on his return to Lisbon and attempting to void his later acts as Regent of the Kingdom of Brazil. It was clear that independence was the only option left. Pedro turned to his companions that included his Guard of Honor and spoke: "Friends, the Portuguese Cortes want to enslave and pursue us. From today on our relations are broken. No ties can unite us anymore" and continued after he pulled out his blue-white armband that symbolized Portugal: "Armbands off, soldiers. Hail to the independence, to freedom and to the separation of Brazil from Portugal!" He unsheathed his sword affirming that "For my blood, my honor, my God, I swear to give Brazil freedom," and later cried out: "Independence or death!". This event is remembered as "Cry of Ipiranga", because it took place next to the riverbank of the Ipiranga brook. The Prince then decided to return urgently to the city of São Paulo, where he and his entourage arrived in the night of 7 September. There, they announced the news of the Prince's Proclamation, and of Brazil's separation from Portugal, and were met with great popular acclaim.


text: Less than a month later, on 23 September 1822, the Lisbon Cortes, still unaware of the Brazilian declaration of independence, approved the Constitution of the United Kingdom, that was then signed by the members of the Cortes and presented to the King. Between 23 September and 1 October, the members of the Cortes, including Brazilians that still took part in its deliberations, took oaths to uphold the Constitution. In a solemnity on 1 October 1822, King John VI appeared before the Cortes, made a speech from the Throne declaring his acceptance of the Constitution, swore an oath to uphold it, and signed an instrument of assent that was included in the text of the Constitution after the signatures of the members of the Cortes, declaring that the king had accepted the Constitution and sworn to abide by it. On 4 October, acting as the Cortes had directed, the Portuguese King signed at the Royal Palace of Queluz a Charter of Law promulgating the text of the Constitution and ordering its execution by all his subjects throughout the United Kingdom. This Charter of Law, containing the full text of the Constitution, including the signatures of the members of the Cortes and the King's instrument of assent, was published on the following day, 5 October 1822. Due to the Brazilian secession from the United Kingdom, that Constitution was never recognized in Brazil and was only effective in Portugal.


text: That the newly independent Brazilian Nation would adopt a constitutional monarchy as its form of Government and that Prince Pedro would be the new State's monarch were obvious facts to all the leaders involved in the process of Brazilian emancipation, but still, for a little more than one month after the 7 September 1822 Proclamation of Independence, Prince Pedro initially continued to use the title of Prince Regent, as he did not want to declare himself monarch, preferring instead to accept the new country's Crown as an offer. This led several local councils to adopt motions and addresses asking the Prince Regent to assume the title of King, or of Emperor (there were no legislatures in the provinces, and also no national legislature existed at that time; the municipal councils were the only existing legislatures, and since the colonial era they had substantial authority). The municipal council of the city of Rio de Janeiro and the other municipal councils of the province of Rio de Janeiro then organized a ceremony of acclamation, with the support of the Prince Regent's Government. The municipal council of Rio de Janeiro voted to instruct its president to offer Prince Pedro the title of Emperor. Then, the Prince's Advisory Council, a body that was not a legislative assembly, but was composed of councillors elected from all Provinces of Brazil to represent its peoples and advise the Prince Regent (the "Conselho de Procuradores das Províncias do Brasil" or Council of the Representatives of the Provinces of Brazil), advised the Prince Regent to accede to the several requests already presented and to assume the imperial title. On 12 October 1822, Prince Pedro accepted the offer of the new Brazilian Throne and was acclaimed the first Emperor of the independent Empire of Brazil.


text: Although Portuguese monarchs were not crowned since the 16th century, it was decided by the newly created imperial Government that the Brazilian monarchy, then recently instituted, should adopt different customs, both to differentiate itself from the Portuguese model and to highlight its status as a distinct institution, from a separate and independent country. Thus, it was decided that Emperors of Brazil should be consecrated, anointed and crowned with the full Catholic coronation ritual. Also, in the context of the struggle to sustain the newly declared independence of Brazil, and to seek recognition for the Empire, the religious act of coronation would establish Emperor Pedro I as an anointed monarch, crowned by the Catholic Church. It was regarded that this could improve his legitimacy in the eyes of other Christian monarchies, and it would also confirm the alliance between the newly declared State and the Church in Brazil. Accordingly, the coronation of Emperor Pedro I took place on 1 December 1822.


text: The Brazilian declaration of independence and foundation of the Empire of Brazil led to a War of Independence. The Portuguese initially refused to recognize Brazil as a sovereign state, treating the whole affair as a rebellion and attempting to preserve the United Kingdom. However, military action was never close to Rio de Janeiro, and the main battles of the independence war took place in the Northeastern region of Brazil. The independentist Brazilian forces overpowered the Portuguese forces as well as the few local forces that were still loyal to Portugal, and the last Portuguese troops surrendered in November 1823. Compared to the wars of independence waged by Spanish colonies during the decolonization of the Americas, the Brazilian Independence War did not result in significant bloodshed, although land and naval battles were fought.


text: The Portuguese military defeat, however, was not followed by swift recognition of the new country's independence. Instead, from 1822 to 1825 the Portuguese Government engaged in heavy diplomatic efforts to avoid the recognition of Brazil's independence by the European Powers, invoking the principles of the Congress of Vienna and subsequent European alliances. Those foreign Nations, however, were keen on establishing trade and diplomatic ties with Brazil. Under British pressure, Portugal eventually agreed to recognize Brazil's independence in 1825, thus allowing the new country to establish diplomatic ties with other European powers shortly thereafter.


text: In 1824, in the wake of the adoption of the Constitution of the Empire of Brazil on 25 March that year, the United States of America became the first nation to recognize the independence of Brazil and the consequential disbandment of the United Kingdom.


text: Portugal recognized the sovereignty of Brazil only in 1825. Since a coup d'etát on 3 June 1823 the Portuguese King John VI had already abolished the Constitution of 1822 and dissolved the Cortes, thus reversing the Liberal Revolution of 1820. On 4 January 1824 King John VI issued a Charter of Law confirming as in force the "traditional laws of the Portuguese Monarchy", thus ratifying the restoration of the absolutist régime in Portugal.


text: There were two Portuguese acts of recognition of Brazilian independence. The first was unilateral and purporting to be constitutive of such independence, the second was bilateral and declaratory.


text: The first act of recognition was materialized in Letters Patent issued on 13 May 1825, by which the Portuguese King "voluntarily ceded and transferred the sovereignty" over Brazil to his son, the Brazilian Emperor, and thus recognized, as a result of this concession, Brazil as an "Independent Empire, separate from the Kingdoms of Portugal and Algarves".


text: The second act of recognition was materialized in a Treaty of Peace signed in Rio de Janeiro on 29 August 1825, by means of which Portugal again recognized the independence of Brazil. This Treaty was ratified by the Emperor of Brazil on 30 August 1825, and by the King of Portugal on 15 November 1825, and entered into force in international Law also on 15 November 1825 upon the exchange of the instruments of ratification in Lisbon. On the same date of the signature of the Portuguese instrument of ratification and of the exchange of the ratification documents between the representatives of the two Nations, the Portuguese King also signed a "Charter of Law", a statute, ordering the execution of the Treaty as part of the domestic Law of Portugal. The Treaty was incorporated as part of the domestic Law of Brazil by a Decree of Emperor Pedro I signed on 10 April 1826.


text: The reason why there were two separate acts of recognition of the independence of Brazil is this: in the wake of the Brazilian victory in the War of Independence, the Portuguese king initially attempted to recognize Brazilian independence unilaterally so as to ignore the fact of the Portuguese defeat and transmit the impression that Portugal was being magnanimous. By means of such unilateral concession, Portugal intended to avoid the humiliation of Peace negotiations with its former Colony. King John VI wanted to "save face" by giving the impression that Portugal was voluntarily conceding independence to Brazil, and not just recognizing a "fait accompli". Thus the Letters Patent issued on 13 May 1825 ignored the proclamation of 1822 and "granted independence to Brazil" as if it were a concession, that was laced with conditions. Thus, Brazilian independence would result not from the events of 1822, but from the 1825 Letters Patent.


text: In the 13 May 1825 Letters Patent, King John recited the polity creating acts of his predecessors and of other sovereigns of Europe, recited his own desire to promote the happiness of all the peoples over which he ruled, and proceeded to declare and enact that from thenceforth the Kingdom of Brazil would be an Empire, and that the Empire of Brazil would be separate from the Kingdoms of Portugal and the Algarves in both internal and foreign affairs; that he, John, therefore took for himself the title of Emperor of Brazil and King of Portugal and the Algarves, to which would follow the other titles of the Portuguese Crown; that the title of "Prince or Princess Imperial of Brazil, and Royal of Portugal and the Algarves" would be vested in the heir or heiress presumptive of the imperial and royal Crowns; that since the succession of both the imperial and royal Crowns belonged to his son, "Prince Dom Pedro", he, King John, at once, "by this same act and letters patent", ceded and transferred to Pedro, from thenceforth, of his "own free will", the full sovereignty of the Empire of Brazil, for Pedro to govern it, assuming at once the title Emperor of Brazil, keeping at the same time the title of Prince Royal of Portugal and the Algarves, while John reserved for himself the same title of Emperor, and the position of King of Portugal and the Algarves, with the full sovereignty of the said Kingdoms (of Portugal and the Algarves).


text: However, such unilateral, constitutive recognition was not accepted by Brazilians, who demanded a declarative recognition of the independence as proclaimed and existing since 1822. The new Brazilian Government therefore made the establishment of peaceful relations and diplomatic ties with Portugal conditional on the signature of a bilateral treaty between the two Nations. Portugal eventually agreed, and a treaty to that effect was signed with British mediation. The treaty between the Empire of Brazil and the Kingdom of Portugal on the recognition of Brazilian independence, signed in Rio de Janeiro on 29 August 1825, finally entered into force on 15 November 1825 upon the exchange of the instruments of ratification in Lisbon.


text: The Portuguese, however, only accepted to sign the Independence treaty on condition that Brazil agreed to pay reparations for the properties of the Portuguese State that were seized by the new Brazilian State. Brazil desperately needed to establish normal diplomatic relations with Portugal, because other European Monarchies had already made clear that they would only recognize the Empire of Brazil after the establishment of normal relations between Brazil and Portugal. Thus, by a separate convention that was signed on the same occasion as the Treaty on the Recognition of Independence, Brazil agreed to pay Portugal two million pounds in damages. The British, who had mediated the Peace negotiations, granted Brazil a loan of the same value, so that Brazil could pay the agreed sum. The new Nation, therefore, achieved international recognition at a heavy price. As a result of this agreement, Brazil became plunged in debt to Britain, but was able to achieve universal international recognition, both "de facto" and "de jure" as an independent State.


text: Upon recognizing the independence of Brazil from the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and Algarves, King John VI, by his charter of law of 15 November 1825 changed back the name of the Portuguese State and the Royal Titles to "Kingdom of Portugal" and "King of Portugal and the Algarves" respectively. The title of the Portuguese heir apparent was changed to "Prince Royal of Portugal and the Algarves" by the same edict.


text: By a provision of the Letters Patent of 13 May 1825, confirmed by the Treaty on the Recognition of Independence in spite of the secession of Brazil from the Portuguese Monarchy, the Portuguese King, John VI, was allowed to use for the remainder of his life the honorary title of "Emperor of Brazil", with the caveat that this title was honorary and ceremonial only, and that Pedro I and his successors in the independent Brazilian Crown were the only actual Emperors of Brazil. This honorary title ceased to have effect upon the demise of King John VI on 10 March 1826.


text: News of the separate convention appended to the Independence Treaty, by which Brazil agreed to pay Portugal financial compensation, angered many Brazilians, who saw this payment as a result of a bad negotiation, especially in view of the Brazilian military victory in the independence war. The grant of the honorary imperial title to the Portuguese King was also not popular with Brazilians. Furthermore, the declaratory language of the Independence Treaty was sufficiently ambiguous, so that Brazilians could claim that the independence declared in 1822 was being recognized, but mention was also made of the 13 May 1825 Letters Patent, so that the Portuguese could claim that the recognition was based on the previous concession. The preamble of the treaty mentioned the concession made by means of the Letters Patent of 13 May 1825; it stated that, by that Letters Patent, the Portuguese King had "recognized Brazil as an independent Empire, and his son Dom Pedro as Emperor", but also stated that, in so doing, the Portuguese monarch was "ceding and transferring of his free will the sovereignty of the said Empire". In the treaty's second article, it was the Brazilian Emperor who agreed that his father, the Portuguese King, should take for himself the honorary life title of Emperor. In the first article of the treaty it was declared that the King of Portugal recognized Brazil as an independent Empire, and as a Nation separate from the Kingdoms of Portugal and the Algarves, and also recognized his son Dom Pedro as Emperor of Brazil, ceding "of his own free will" to the Brazilian Emperor and his legitimate successors all claims of sovereignty over Brazil. Peace was established between the countries of Brazil and Portugal by the fourth Article.


text: In spite of the unpopular clauses, and especially of the harsh financial agreement, Brazilian Emperor Pedro I agreed to ratify the treaty negotiated with Portugal as he was keen on resolving the recognition of independence question before the opening of the first legislative session of the Brazilian Parliament ("Assembléia Geral" or General Assembly) elected under the Constitution adopted in 1824. The first meeting of the new Legislature was set to take place on 3 May 1826, and after a brief delay, that Parliament was indeed opened on 6 May 1826. By that time, the independence question was indeed resolved, as the Independence treaty had been ratified in November 1825 and as the Emperor, still yielding the fullness of legislative authority (that he was to lose upon the first meeting of the Parliament), ordered the execution of the agreement as part of the law of Brazil on 10 April 1826.


text: With the death of the Portuguese King John VI on 10 March 1826, his heir apparent, Brazilian Emperor Pedro I, inherited the Portuguese Crown, and reigned briefly as King Pedro IV. On 20 March 1826 the proclamation of the Brazilian Emperor's accession to the Portuguese Throne was made public by the Portuguese Council of Regency (that had been instituted by King John VI during his final illness, and that was led by the Infanta Isabel Maria, daughter of John VI and Pedro I & IV's sister). With this union of Crowns, the monarchies of Portugal and Brazil were once again briefly united, but there was no thought of a reunification of the two separate States. Accordingly, this brief union of Crowns in the person of Pedro I and IV remained always a personal union only, and not a real union or a rebirth of the United Kingdom.


text: News of the death of King John VI and of the proclamation of the Brazilian Emperor as King of Portugal reached the Brazilian province of Bahia on 18 April, and official news to that effect reached the Emperor of Brazil and new King of Portugal in Rio de Janeiro on 24 April 1826, shortly after the final settlement of the Brazilian independence question (the decree publishing the text of the Treaty on the Recognition of Independence and ordering its execution as part of the Law of Brazil had just been made public on 10 April 1826). The existence even of the personal union only was seen by Brazilian politicians as dangerous, since it could come to affect the effectiveness of the newly formed country's sovereignty.


text: Accordingly, steps were taken to put an end to the personal union: Pedro I & IV agreed to abdicate the Portuguese Throne in favour of his eldest daughter, but he also wanted to ensure that her rights would be respected, and he further wanted to restore constitutional monarchy to Portugal. In order to put an end to the Portuguese absolute monarchy, the King-Emperor commissioned the drafting of a new Constitution for Portugal, that was widely based on the Brazilian Constitution. This document was finalized in less than a week.


text: After issuing a new Constitution for Portugal on 29 April 1826, and as already announced in that Constitution, King-Emperor Pedro abdicated the Portuguese Crown in favour of his daughter, Princess Maria da Glória, on 2 May 1826. Princess Maria da Glória thus became Queen Maria II of Portugal. The document by which the Brazilian Emperor abdicated the Portuguese Crown was signed days before the first meeting of the Parliament established by the Brazilian Constitution of 1824, that assembled for the first time on 6 May 1826. Before his abdication, on 26 April, King Pedro confirmed the Regency of Portugal that had been established by his father during his final illness, and that was led by the Infanta Isabel Maria, his sister. As the new Queen Maria II was still a minor, Portugal would need to be led by Regents during her minority. On 30 April, King Pedro IV set the date for the first legislative elections under the new Portuguese Constitution and appointed Peers of the Realm.


text: On 12 May 1826, British envoy Charles Stuart left Rio de Janeiro for Portugal carrying with him the acts signed by the Brazilian Emperor as King of Portugal, including the new Portuguese Constitution and his deed of abdication of the Portuguese Crown. On that same date Carlos Matias Pereira left Rio de Janeiro for Lisbon in another ship carrying a second copy of the same documents. Charles Stuart arrived in Lisbon on 2 July 1826 and presented the acts signed by King Pedro IV to the Government of Portugal, including his original deed of abdication of the Portuguese Throne. On 12 July 1826 the Portuguese Government published the new Constitution decreed by Pedro IV; the Portuguese Regency swore on 31 July 1826 an oath to uphold the Constitution, marking its entry into force, and, on 1 August 1826 Queen Maria II was publicly proclaimed as Queen of Portugal, with the Infanta Isabel Maria as Regent. On 4 October the exiled infante Miguel (that had been exiled since attempting to depose his father, and that would later usurp the Portuguese Crown, leading to the Portuguese Civil War of 1828–1834, took in Vienna an oath of allegiance to Queen Maria II and the Constitution). The first Portuguese Cortes to meet under the Constitution were elected on 8 October, and the opening of Parliament took place on 30 October 1826.


text: Although Pedro's abdication of the Portuguese Crown to Maria II was provided for even in the Constitution issued on 29 April 1826, the original deed of abdication, signed on 2 May 1826 contained conditions; however, those conditions were subsequently waived, as the abdication was later declared final, irrevocable, accomplished and fully effective by a decree issued by Pedro on 3 March 1828, just a few months before Infante Miguel's usurpation of the Throne and the start of the Portuguese Civil War (in accordance with a decree issued on 3 September 1827, Infante Miguel replaced Infanta Isabel Maria as Regent of Portugal on 26 February 1828, and he initially agreed to govern in the name of the Queen, but on 7 July 1828 he had himself proclaimed King with retroactive effect, assuming the title of Miguel I; Maria II would only be restored to the Throne in 1834, at the conclusion of the Civil War). In any event, Pedro's unconditional confirmation of his abdication reinforced the impossibility of a new union between Portugal and Brazil.


text: Pedro's abdication of the Portuguese Throne led to the separation of the Brazilian and Portuguese monarchies, since the Portuguese Crown was inherited by Queen Maria II and her successors, and the Brazilian Crown came to be inherited by Pedro I's Brazilian heir apparent, Prince Pedro de Alcantara, who would become the future Emperor Pedro II of Brazil. Prince Pedro de Alcantara had no rights to the Portuguese Crown because, having been born in Brazil on 2 December 1825, after the Portuguese recognition of the independence of Brazil, he was not a Portuguese national and under the Portuguese Constitution and Laws a foreigner could not inherit the Portuguese Crown.


text: Still, with Princess Maria da Glória's accession to the Throne of Portugal as Queen Maria II in 1826, the question arose, about whether she should still be regarded as a Brazilian Princess with a place in the order of succession, or whether article 119 of Brazil's Constitution (that prohibited foreigners from succeeding to the Crown) applied to her, so that, as a foreigner, she should be considered excluded from the Brazilian line of succession. The Empire's Constitution limited the Crown of Brazil to Emperor Pedro I and his legitimate descendants, under a male-preference cognatic primogeniture system, but it rendered foreigners incapable of succeeding to the Crown, and it empowered the General Assembly, the Empire's Parliament, to settle any doubts regarding the rights of succession to the Crown. The issue of Queen Maria II's status in the Brazilian line of succession became more pressing once Emperor Pedro II acceded to the Brazilian Throne as a minor in 1831, since the question was no longer only about whether or not the Queen of Portugal had a place in the Brazilian line of succession, but it had now become a question about whether or not she was the heiress presumptive to the Brazilian Crown, that is, the first person in line to succeed to the Brazilian Throne, occupied by her brother Emperor Pedro II. Thus, the Brazilian Parliament had to settle the matter and decide who was the first person in line to the Brazilian Throne, with the corresponding title of Princess Imperial: Queen Maria II of Portugal or Princess Januária of Brazil. Both were minors under Brazilian Law, and since no one in the Brazilian Imperial Family was of age, the Regency of the Empire was discharged by politicians chosen by the General Assembly in accordance with the Constitution. However, the question was all important because, in the event that Emperor Pedro II died before producing descendants, the Crown of the independent Empire of Brazil could end up coming to the Queen of Portugal, thus recreating a personal union between the two monarchies. The question became even more pressing after the conclusion of the Portuguese Civil War (1828-1834), won by Maria II and her liberal supporters in 1834: Maria's uncle, the absolutist claimant Dom Miguel (who had deposed Maria in 1828), was defeated, surrendered his claim to the Portuguese Throne in the Concession of Evoramonte, Maria was restored to the Throne and her constitutional government, now recognized by all foreign Powers as the legitimate one, assumed control of the whole of Portugal. Although the doubt about which of the two Princesses was Emperor Pedro II's heiress presumptive had existed since the abdication of the Brazilian Crown by Pedro I in 1831, Maria II was at the time a deposed Queen, although actively pursuing her claim to the Throne of Portugal. With her victory in the Portuguese Civil War, however, she once again became an actually reigning monarch, and, for the whole Brazilian political establishment, the fact that a foreign Sovereign was heiress presumptive to the Brazilian Crown was highly worrying, as it was seen as detrimental to the independence of the recently established Brazilian Nation. The Regency and Parliament of Brazil wanted to avoid any possibility of a personal union with Portugal being recreated, so as to secure the independence of Brazil. In order to settle that question, the Brazilian General Assembly adopted a statute, signed into law by the Regent on behalf of Emperor Pedro II on 30 October 1835, declaring Queen Maria II of Portugal had lost her succession rights to the Crown of Brazil, due to her condition as a foreigner, so that she and her descendants were excluded from the Brazilian line of succession; ruling that Princess Januária and her descendants were therefore first in line to the Throne after Emperor Pedro II and his descendants, and decreeing that, accordingly, Princess Januária, as the then heiress presumptive of the Brazilian Crown, should be recognized as Princess Imperial.


text: Thus, the abdication of the Portuguese Crown by Brazilian Emperor Pedro I terminated the brief 1826 personal union and separated the monarchies of Portugal and Brazil, and that abdication, coupled with the exclusion of the new Portuguese Queen, Maria II, from the Brazilian line of succession, broke the last remaining ties of political union between the two Nations, securing the preservation of the independence of Brazil and putting to an end all hopes of the rebirth of a Luso-Brazilian United Kingdom.


title: White savior narrative in film

text: The white savior is a cinematic trope in which a white central character rescues non-white (often less prominent) characters from unfortunate circumstances. This recurs in an array of genres in American cinema, wherein a white protagonist is portrayed as a messianic figure who often learns something about themself in the course of rescuing non-white characters (or occasionally non-human alien races that substitute as non-white civilizations) from their plight.


title: White savior narrative in film

text: The narrative trope of the white savior is one way the mass communications medium of cinema represents the sociology of race and ethnic relations, by presenting abstract concepts such as morality as characteristics innate, racially and culturally, to white people, not to be found in non-white people. This white savior is often portrayed as a man who is out of place within his own society, until he assumes the burden of racial leadership to rescue non-white minorities and foreigners from their suffering. As such, white savior stories have been described as "essentially grandiose, exhibitionistic, and narcissistic" fantasies of psychological compensation.


title: White savior narrative in film

text: In "The Whiteness of Oscar Night" (2015), Matthew Hughey describes the narrative structure of the subgenre:


title: White savior narrative in film

text: A White Savior film is often based on some supposedly true story. Second, it features a nonwhite group or person who experiences conflict and struggle with others that is particularly dangerous or threatening to their life and livelihood. Third, a White person (the savior) enters the milieu and through their sacrifices, as a teacher, mentor, lawyer, military hero, aspiring writer, or wannabe Native American warrior, is able to physically save—or at least morally redeem—the person or community of folks of color, by the film's end. Examples of this genre include films like "Glory" (1989), "Dangerous Minds" (1996), "Amistad" (1997), "Finding Forrester" (2000), "The Last Samurai" (2003), "Half Nelson" (2006), "Freedom Writers" (2007), "Gran Torino" (2008), "Avatar" (2009), "The Blind Side" (2009), "The Help" (2011).


title: White savior narrative in film

text: The films of the blaxploitation genre of the 1970s reflected discontent over the social and racial inequality of non-white people in the United States and functioned as counterbalance to the trope of the white savior. According to some scholars, such as Peter Lang, continued cultural hypersegregation in the 1980s led to the common belief, by many American white people, that the nation had reached a post-racial state of social relations, which resulted in a backlash against the racial and ethnic diversity of the cinema of the previous decades, on screen during the 1960s and the 1970s; thus, the popular cinema of the 1990s and the early 2000s featured the white savior narrative. That reappearance of the white-savior narrative occurred because the majority of white people in the United States had little substantive social interaction with people of different races and ethnic groups.


title: White savior narrative in film

text: The White Savior trope's prevalence continues in often critically acclaimed films. Joseph Vogel writes of the trope in "Django Unchained":In the crucial climactic scene, the pattern of white centrality holds. It is [the white doctor] Schultz, not [the freed slave] Django, who, racked by conscience kills Calvin Candie, and in doing so, sacrifices his own life. When asked by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. why he decided to make King Schultz the Christ figure, Tarantino claimed he was simply drawing on the tropes of the western.A study of 50 films between 1987 and 2011 deemed to be white savior films found that 36% of studied films were produced by the 6 major studios (Sony, Universal, Paramount, Twentieth Century Fox/Fox Searchlight, or Warner Brothers). These films are also responsible for a plurality of the major awards in this time period.


title: White savior narrative in film

text: The white-savior teacher story, such as "Up the Down Staircase" (1967), "Dangerous Minds" (1995), and "Freedom Writers" (2007), "features a group of lower-class, urban, non-whites (generally black and Latino/a) who struggle through the social order in general, or the educational system specifically. Yet, through the sacrifices of a white teacher they are transformed, saved, and redeemed by the film's end." As an inspirational tale of the human spirit, the storyline of the white-savior-teacher is not racist, in itself, but is culturally problematic because it is a variant of the white-savior narrative that factually misrepresents the cultural and societal reality that there exist minority-group teachers who have been successfully educating (racial, ethnic, cultural) minority-group students in their communities, without the saving stewardship of white people.


title: White savior narrative in film

text: "Welcome Back, Kotter" is a 1970s television series about the education system that has been described as having white savior themes.


title: White savior narrative in film

text: The white savior's principled opposition to chattel slavery and to Jim Crow laws makes him advocate for the humanity of slaves and defender of the rights of black people unable to independently stand within an institutionally racist society, in films such as "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962), "Conrack" (1974), and "Amistad" (1997). Despite being stories about the racist oppression of black people, the white-savior narrative relegates non-white characters to the story's background, as the passive object(s) of the dramatic action. In the foreground it places the white man who militates to save the non-white characters from the depredations of racist white folk. Respectively, aspects can include: a false accusation of inter-racial rape, truncated schooling, and chattel slavery.


title: Yayoi period

text: The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age.


title: Yayoi period

text: Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōmon period should be reclassified as Early Yayoi. The date of the beginning of this transition is controversial, with estimates ranging from the 10th to the 3rd centuries BC.


title: Yayoi period

text: The period is named after the neighbourhood of Tokyo where archaeologists first uncovered artifacts and features from that era in the late 19th century. Distinguishing characteristics of the Yayoi period include the appearance of new Yayoi pottery styles and the start of an intensive rice agriculture in paddy fields. A hierarchical social class structure dates from this period and has its origin in China. Techniques in metallurgy based on the use of bronze and iron were also introduced from China via Korea to Japan in this period.


title: Yayoi period

text: The Yayoi followed the Jōmon period and Yayoi culture flourished in a geographic area from southern Kyūshū to northern Honshū. Archaeological evidence supports the idea that during this time, an influx of farmers (Yayoi People) from the Korean Peninsula to Japan overwhelmed and mixed with the native predominantly hunter-gatherer population (Jomon).


title: Yayoi period

text: The Yayoi period is generally accepted to date from 300 BCE to 300 CE. However, although highly controversial, radiocarbon evidence from organic samples attached to pottery shards may suggest a date up to 500 years earlier, between 1,000 BC and 800 BC. During this period Japan transitioned to a settled agricultural society using agricultural methods that were introduced to the country, initially in the Kyushu region, from Korea.


title: Yayoi period

text: The earliest archaeological evidence of the Yayoi is found on northern Kyūshū, but that is still debated. Yayoi culture quickly spread to the main island of Honshū, mixing with native Jōmon culture.


title: Yayoi period

text: The name Yayoi is borrowed from a location in Tokyo where pottery of the Yayoi period was first found. Yayoi pottery was simply decorated and produced using the same coiling technique previously used in Jōmon pottery. Yayoi craft specialists made bronze ceremonial bells ("dōtaku"), mirrors, and weapons. By the 1st century AD, Yayoi people began using iron agricultural tools and weapons.


title: Yayoi period

text: As the Yayoi population increased, the society became more stratified and complex. They wove textiles, lived in permanent farming villages, and constructed buildings with wood and stone. They also accumulated wealth through land ownership and the storage of grain. Such factors promoted the development of distinct social classes. Contemporary Chinese sources described the people as having tattoos and other bodily markings which indicated differences in social status. Yayoi chiefs, in some parts of Kyūshū, appear to have sponsored, and politically manipulated, trade in bronze and other prestige objects. That was made possible by the introduction of an irrigated, wet-rice agriculture from the Yangtze estuary in southern China via the Ryukyu Islands or Korean Peninsula. Wet-rice agriculture led to the development and growth of a sedentary, agrarian society in Japan. Local political and social developments in Japan were more important than the activities of the central authority within a stratified society.


title: Yayoi period

text: Direct comparisons between Jōmon and Yayoi skeletons show that the two peoples are noticeably distinguishable. The Jōmon tended to be shorter, with relatively longer forearms and lower legs, more deep-set eyes, shorter and wider faces, and much more pronounced facial topography. They also have strikingly raised brow ridges, noses, and nose bridges. Yayoi people, on the other hand, averaged 2.5 cm - 5 cm taller, with shallow-set eyes, high and narrow faces, and flat brow ridges and noses. By the Kofun period, almost all skeletons excavated in Japan except those of the Ainu are of the Yayoi type with some having small Jomon admixture, resembling those of modern-day Japanese.


title: Yayoi period

text: The origin of Yayoi culture and the Yayoi people has long been debated. The earliest archaeological sites are Itazuke or Nabata in the northern part of Kyūshū. Contacts between fishing communities on this coast and the southern coast of Korea date from the Jōmon period, as witnessed by the exchange of trade items such as fishhooks and obsidian. During the Yayoi period, cultural features from Korea and China arrived in this area at various times over several centuries, and later spread to the south and east. This was a period of mixture between immigrants and the indigenous population, and between new cultural influences and existing practices.


title: Yayoi period

text: Chinese influence was obvious in the bronze and copper weapons, dōkyō, dōtaku, as well as irrigated paddy rice cultivation. Three major symbols of Yayoi culture are the bronze mirror, the bronze sword, and the royal seal stone.


title: Yayoi period

text: Between 1996 and 1999, a team led by Satoshi Yamaguchi, a researcher at Japan's National Museum of Nature and Science, compared Yayoi remains found in Japan's Yamaguchi and Fukuoka prefectures with those from China's coastal Jiangsu province and found many similarities between the Yayoi and the Jiangsu remains.


title: Yayoi period

text: Some scholars claimed that Korean influence existed. Mark J. Hudson has cited archaeological evidence that included "bounded paddy fields, new types of polished stone tools, wooden farming implements, iron tools, weaving technology, ceramic storage jars, exterior bonding of clay coils in pottery fabrication, ditched settlements, domesticated pigs, and jawbone rituals". The migrant transfusion from the Korean peninsula gains strength because Yayoi culture began on the north coast of Kyūshū, where Japan is closest to Korea. Yayoi pottery, burial mounds, and food preservation were discovered to be very similar to the pottery of southern Korea.


title: Yayoi period

text: However, some scholars argue that the rapid increase of roughly four million people in Japan between the Jōmon and Yayoi periods cannot be explained by migration alone. They attribute the increase primarily to a shift from a hunter-gatherer to an agricultural diet on the islands, with the introduction of rice. It is quite likely that rice cultivation and its subsequent deification allowed for a slow and gradual population increase. Regardless, there is archaeological evidence that supports the idea that there was an influx of farmers from the continent to Japan that absorbed or overwhelmed the native hunter-gatherer population.


title: Yayoi period

text: Some pieces of Yayoi pottery clearly show the influence of Jōmon ceramics. In addition, the Yayoi lived in the same type of pit or circular dwelling as that of the Jōmon. Other examples of commonality are chipped stone tools for hunting, bone tools for fishing, shells in bracelet construction, and lacquer decoration for vessels and accessories.


title: Yayoi period

text: According to several linguists, Japonic was present on large parts of the southern Korean peninsula. These "Peninsular Japonic languages" were replaced by Koreanic-speakers (possibly belonging to the Han-branch) likely causing the Yayoi migration. Similarly Whitman (2012) suggests that the Yayoi are not related to the proto-Koreans but that they were present on the Korean peninsula during the Mumun pottery period. According to him, Japonic arrived in the Korean peninsula around 1500 BC and was brought to the Japanese archipelago by the Yayoi at around 950 BC. The language family associated with both Mumun and Yayoi culture is Japonic. Koreanic arrived later from Manchuria to the Korean peninsula at around 300 BC and coexist with the descendants of the Japonic Mumun cultivators (or assimilated them). Both had influence on each other and a later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families.


title: Yayoi period

text: Most linguists and archaeologists agree that the Japonic language family was introduced to and spread through the archipelago during the Yayoi period.


title: Yayoi period

text: The earliest written records about people in Japan are from Chinese sources from this period. Wo, the pronunciation of an early Chinese name for Japan, was mentioned in 57 AD; the Na state of Wo received a golden seal from the Emperor Guangwu of the Later Han dynasty. This event was recorded in the "Book of the Later Han" compiled by Fan Ye in the 5th century. The seal itself was discovered in northern Kyūshū in the 18th century. Wo was also mentioned in 257 in the "Wei zhi", a section of the "Records of the Three Kingdoms" compiled by the 3rd-century scholar Chen Shou.


title: Yayoi period

text: Early Chinese historians described Wo as a land of hundreds of scattered tribal communities rather than the unified land with a 700-year tradition as laid out in the 8th-century work "Nihon Shoki", a partly mythical, partly historical account of Japan which dates the foundation of the country at 660 BC. Archaeological evidence also suggests that frequent conflicts between settlements or statelets broke out in the period. Many excavated settlements were moated or built at the tops of hills. Headless human skeletons discovered in Yoshinogari site are regarded as typical examples of finds from the period. In the coastal area of the Inland Sea, stone arrowheads are often found among funerary objects.


title: Yayoi period

text: Third-century Chinese sources reported that the Wa people lived on raw fish, vegetables, and rice served on bamboo and wooden trays, clapped their hands in worship (something still done in Shinto shrines today), and built earthen-grave mounds. They also maintained vassal-master relations, collected taxes, had provincial granaries and markets, and observed mourning. Society was characterised by violent struggles.


title: Yayoi period

text: The "Wei Zhi" (), which is part of the Records of the three Kingdoms, first mentions Yamataikoku and Queen Himiko in the 3rd century. According to the record, Himiko assumed the throne of Wa, as a spiritual leader, after a major civil war. Her younger brother was in charge of the affairs of state, including diplomatic relations with the Chinese court of the Kingdom of Wei. When asked about their origins by the Wei embassy, the people of Wa claimed to be descendants of the Taibo of Wu, a historic figure of the Wu Kingdom around the Yangtze Delta of China.


title: Yayoi period

text: For many years, the location of Yamataikoku and the identity of Queen Himiko have been subject of research. Two possible sites, Yoshinogari in Saga Prefecture and Makimuku in Nara Prefecture have been suggested. Recent archaeological research in Makimuku suggests that Yamataikoku was located in the area. Some scholars assume that the Hashihaka kofun in Makimuku was the tomb of Himiko. Its relation to the origin of the Yamato polity in the following Kofun period is also under debate.


title: Amala (album)

text: Amala is the debut studio album by American singer and rapper Doja Cat. It was released on March 30, 2018, by Kemosabe Records and RCA Records. The album's deluxe version was released on March 1, 2019, and featured her breakthrough singles "Juicy", "Tia Tamera", and "Mooo!". Her first commercial release in four years, Doja Cat has expressed strong disdain toward the record for a number of reasons.


title: Amala (album)

text: Upon its release, "Amala" was initially a critical and commercial failure and was largely ignored by critics. In August 2018, the album and Doja Cat gained attention when her novelty song "Mooo!" became an internet meme. As a result, songs "Candy" and "Juicy" became sleeper hits, and the album debuted on the "Billboard" 200 chart in August 2019. "Amala" would eventually peak at number 138 on the chart in November 2019, coinciding with the release of her second studio album, "Hot Pink".


title: Amala (album)

text: On March 27, 2018, Doja Cat's label announced the album via Twitter. In addition to announcing the release date of the album, they also revealed the title of the project and its cover. When "Roll With Us" was released in February 2018 as the first promotional single, the album was originally titled "Baby". "Amala" was later repackaged with a deluxe version on March 1, 2019, which added three new songs: "Juicy", "Tia Tamera", and "Mooo!".


title: Amala (album)

text: Doja Cat herself has expressed strong disdain toward the record, claiming that it does not entirely represent her as an artist. She has also stated that she believes it is not a "finished album", partially due to her constantly partying and being high on marijuana during its recording. Her first commercial release in four years, she revealed that it was also rushed in order to meet deadlines, and that it was made in a "difficult time" as she received "almost no support" before its release.


title: Amala (album)

text: "Roll With Us" was released as the album's sole promotional single on February 1, 2018, and entered the Spotify's Global Viral 50 chart upon release. The album's lead single, titled "Go To Town", was released on March 9, 2018, along with a music video. Doja Cat further went on to promote the single by appearing on Genius' show "Verified". In an interview with "Elle" in May 2022, she stated she regretted putting the song out, stating that her not being vocally and lyrically evolved makes the song "really difficult to listen to" for her.


title: Amala (album)

text: A week before the album's release, "Candy", was released as the album's second single on March 23, 2018. Only a year later would the track become a sleeper hit after a dance challenge on the app TikTok went viral in late 2019. Consequently, the single charted in countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States, the latter having the song peak at 86 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 becoming her first solo entry on the chart.


title: Amala (album)

text: The song "Mooo!" was originally released on August 10, 2018, exclusively to YouTube as a music video. The track would be the first of Doja's to become a viral phenomenon, and would eventually surpass over eighty million views on YouTube . The track was subsequently released commercially on streaming services, and would later serve as the first single off the deluxe edition of the album.


title: Amala (album)

text: The second single from the deluxe edition (fourth overall), titled "Tia Tamera", featuring American rapper Rico Nasty, was released on February 20, 2019. A music video was released on the next day.


title: Amala (album)

text: Ranking it among their favorite albums of the first half of 2018, "NPR" described "Amala" as a "13-track collection of bubbly, hip-hop-influenced indie pop" and "manifesto of a young woman striving to take ownership of her craft, her image and her sexuality, mixing genres like dancehall, trap, house and R&B with a healthy dose of sass and humor."


title: Barefoot Gen

text: Cartoonist Keiji Nakazawa created the feature "Ore wa Mita" (translated into English as "I Saw It"), an eyewitness account of the atomic-bomb devastation in Japan, in the monthly manga "Monthly Shōnen Jump" in 1972. In the United States it was published through Educomics in 1982. Nakazawa went on to serialize the longer, autobiographical "Hadashi No Gen" ("Barefoot Gen") beginning in the June 4, 1973 edition of "Weekly Shōnen Jump" manga magazine, It was cancelled after a year and a half, and moved to three other less widely distributed magazines: "Shimin" (Citizen), "Bunka Hyōron" (Cultural Criticism), and "Kyōiku Hyōron" (Educational Criticism). It was published in book collections in Japan beginning in 1975.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: The story begins in Hiroshima in April 1945, during the final months of World War II. Six-year-old Gen Nakaoka and his family live in poverty and struggle to make ends meet. Gen's father Daikichi urges them to "live like wheat," which always grows strong despite being trod on. Daikichi is critical of the war. When he shows up drunk to a mandatory combat drill and talks back to his instructor, the Nakaokas are branded as traitors and become subject to harassment and discrimination by their neighbors. To restore his family's honor, Gen's older brother Koji joins the Imperial Navy against Daikichi's wishes, where he is subjected to a brutal training regimen by his commanding officer, which causes one of Koji's friends to kill himself. On August 6, the atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. Gen's father and siblings perish in the fires, but he and his mother escape. The shock causes her to give premature birth; Gen names his new sister Tomoko, so she will grow up to have lots of friends ('Tomo' means 'friend.').


title: Barefoot Gen

text: In the days following the attack, Gen and his mother witness the horrors wrought by the bomb. Hiroshima lies in ruins, and the city is full of people dead and dying from severe burns and radiation sickness. Gen meets a girl named Natsue, whose face has been severely burned. She attempts to commit suicide, but Gen convinces her to continue living. Gen and his mother adopt an orphan named Ryuta, who by sheer coincidence looks identical to Gen's deceased younger brother Shinji. After Gen returns to their burnt-out home and retrieves the remains of his father and siblings, he and his family move in with Kimie's friend Kiyo. However, Kiyo's stingy mother-in-law conspires with her spoiled grandchildren to drive the Nakaokas out, falsely accusing first the children, and then Kimie, of stealing rice that the grandchildren had themselves stolen.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: The family look for a vacancy in vain, since they cannot pay. In remorse, Kiyo invites them back, but her mother-in-law demands rent. Gen looks for work to pay it. A man hires him to look after his brother Seiji, who has been burnt from head to toe and lives in squalor. Though Seiji is reluctant at first, he warms up to Gen over time: The boy learns Seiji is an artist who has lost the will to live because his burns have left him unable to hold a brush. With Gen's help, Seiji learns to paint with his teeth but, eventually, he dies of his wounds. On August 14, Emperor Hirohito announces Japan's surrender over the radio, ending the war. When Kimie needs a doctor, Gen can find none who will help without payment in money or food.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: Following Japan's surrender, American occupation forces arrive to help the nation rebuild. Gen and Ryuta, fearing rumours they've heard about the Americans, arm themselves with a pistol they find in an abandoned weapons cache. They learn the Americans aren't as bad as they'd thought when they're given free candy, but they also witness a group of American soldiers harvesting organs from corpses for medical research. Kiyo's mother-in-law evicts the Nakaokas again after Gen gets into a fight with her grandchildren, and they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. Gen and Ryuta attempt to kill a dog to provide sufficient protein after they learn that they and the whole family are dying of malnutrition, but cannot bring themselves to do it. They try to steal American food, but the cans turn out to contain balloons. They try again to steal from the Americans with help from someone who turns out to be part of the local Yakuza (black market gangsters). After the Yakuza betray them, Ryuta kills two of them with the pistol they found. The head of a rival gang takes him in, and he leaves money outside Gen's front door before going off with the gangsters to avoid arrest. Returning to school, Gen and a girl, Michiko, are both mocked for being bald. Coming to her defence, he is challenged by a bully to a duel/dare. Both must climb a tall tower, and the first to return with a pigeon's egg will win. The tower crumbles beneath them as they climb. Gen saves the bully, who now owes him. He discovers that the girl's sister was raped by an American soldier and became a whore [sic] to provide food for Michiko. Gen learns that Tomoko has been kidnapped. He learns a Buddhist prayer because he's been told that praying to the Buddha will help him find Tomoko, and tries it though he thinks it superstition. He follows the bully, whom he suspects knows something, and finds that a large number of victims of Hiroshima have been using her as their Princess to trick dying women into believing their missing babies have been found, and as an inspiration to the kidnappers to stop drinking. This is a little more than six months after the Bomb was dropped, when many who had survived are suddenly dying. He is able to pray over a newly dead woman, which makes them sorry, but still unwilling to return Tomoko, until she starts vomiting blood. The doctor says she's dying. In a blink, from being just over six months after, it's suddenly the 2nd anniversary of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, in the midst of the doctor's visit. He says Tomoko's only chance is with expensive American medicine costing 100,000 yen. The kidnappers can't raise enough. The bully makes a list of the dying, and Gen tries to earn money chanting Buddhist prayers, but it's not enough. Mr. Pak, the Korean neighbor from Volume 1 makes a surprise visit, and hands Gen 100,000 yen and American milk. He's been doing well on the black market. Gen returns to his family with the money, but finds Tomoko is dead. He refuses to believe it, then refuses to speak, until he discovers that his hair is growing back, and remembers what his father told him, that he must keep growing, like wheat that grows straight and tall after being trampled.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: In December 1947, Gen is in school when Ryuta appears, who has become a juvenile delinquent, doing odd jobs for the Yakuza. Gen meets orphans with Ryuta, including Katsuko, a girl scarred by burns from the bomb. As an orphan and a hibakusha, she is subject to discrimination and cannot go to school; Gen lends her his books and promises to teach her himself. On December 7, the Emperor visits Hiroshima, and the streets are lined with children waving homemade flags. Ryuta and other orphans learn to shoot a pistol since the head gangster, Masa, wants them to kill his rival, 'Mitey'. Donguri shoots Mitey and is killed. Gen encourages the others flee, but Masa follows them. Ryuta shoots Masa in the shoulder and his henchman in the leg to get them to let them go. They have built their own house, along with Gen, who doesn't wish to be a burden on his mother, where they live with an old man cast away by his relatives for being too ill from radiation to work. For New Year's Day, 1947, rice cakes are distributed free, but the true cost is to cheer for the Emperor who got Japan into the war, a cost too high for Gen to pay. He defies his teacher, speaking out his father's beliefs. The same local official who had called Gen's father a traitor for being for peace, who Gen then rescued the day the Bomb was dropped, who then refused to help free Gen's father, brother, and sister, is now running for office claiming he was always for peace. Gen exposes him, and is thrown out of the meeting. Gen's mother is ill, and the doctor says the only way to help her is to take her to the American-run Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC), but Gen and his mother are against accepting American help. His older brother insists that she fight to live so she can raise the younger children to upright adulthood. The orphans decide to try to earn money shining shoes to help Gen's mother, and he sings to drum up business, but they are chased by orphan-catchers trying to take them to an orphanage. They assume Gen is an orphan, too. They escape, and ask the old man to become their father, "Papa," so they won't be orphans anymore, vulnerable to being hauled off. The old man is a novelist, but no one will publish his newest novel, because it is critical of the Americans for dropping the Bomb. Gen's mother goes to the ABCC, which gives her no help, only treating her as a specimen to be studied. Gen wonders why the doctor sent her there. He rescues a girl from bullies who call her a vulture. He learns that this is because her father collects dead victims of Hiroshima to take to the ABCC in order to make a living. Corrupt doctors get a kickback when they send people to the ABCC in the form of free medicine that they can sell at high prices. Gen sees boys fishing out skulls from the river and polishing them up to sell to the ABCC. At first he finds it sacreligious, but then decides the Americans deserve to be haunted, and any way to make money and survive at their expense is justified. He tries to make amends to the skulls by chanting prayers so they can go to heaven. He teaches the other children how to catch shrimp, as his mother lies seemingly at the point of death.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: The Hiroshima orphans put on a show of their misery to American soldiers to sell skulls of victims. They sell out, and look forward to buying lots of food, but a pickpocket robs them on the train. To their surprise, huge bags of food are thrown off the train they got off of once they discovered the theft. It's blackmarket food that wouldn't get through a checkpoint. They try to sneak some for themselves by stuffing smaller amounts to simulate a baby and pregnancy, but get caught. It turns out, however, that the police eat black-market rice too, since it's impossible to survive otherwise, and the orphans are able to escape them. No word comes from oldest brother Koji, who went off to work in the dangerous mines to earn money. He is drinking and gambling destructively. When Gen gets back home with rice, he finds that his mother is spitting up blood and has collapsed. They again need money they don't have for a doctor. Ryuta sticks up a casino to pay for Kimie's treatment, and the mob is after him, so he must flee Hiroshima. But every exit is staked, so he gives himself up to the police, who are the only ones who can insure he is not killed, and put in a reformatory. In July, 1948, in Hiroshima City, Gen is tearing down a wall to collect bricks, as well as scrap iron to earn a living. A girl has hanged herself because of the radiation scars that made everyone treat her as a monster. Gen worries that Katsuko will try again. He writes Koji for money to help with their mother's hospital bills. He sees a girl put stones in her sleeves, preparing to throw herself into the river, and rescues her. It's Natsue! But she forgets her own woes when Gen hurts himself. She is angry at everyone who has treated her cruelly, and Gen decides to take her back to join the orphans, asking Katsuko to keep an eye on her. Gen is accused of being a thief when he sticks his head in a window to smell the beef he can't afford. Natsue tries again, so he takes her and Katsuko to see someone with arms wrapped in bandages, sewing with only her feet and mouth. They decide to learn to sew too, and open a clothing store. Gen isn't getting much for scrap, and sees other orphans getting paid well for copper, so he looks for where they got it. They steal it by boat from a shipyard, but the first time Gen and an orphan, Musubi, try, the shipyard owners are already watching and catch them, intending to beat them to death. They throw stones in the river, pretending to have jumped in and drowned. Then they fill their boat with too much copper, and it sinks. They go to a shooting range and dig up spent copper bullets, but dangerous men have already claimed the place. "Papa" declares he's ready to fight to the death for the orphans, who alone have treated him like a human being after Hiroshima, and scares the men off. He reveals that he's already about to die anyway from radiation. Gen and Musubi buy a sewing machine for Katsuko and Natsue only to find Papa slumped over in blood. His only regret is that he can't see his anti-American novel, THE END OF SUMMER, published. It is now four years since the Bomb was dropped, but people keep dying from the radioactivity. Ryuta and Noro, a slowpoke, escape from the Reformatory. They trick a man and woman into leaving their clothing by the river, then steal it so they don't look like two boys to those searching for them, but like a couple. Noro has sworn to kill his uncle who killed Noro's sister and sent him to the Reformatory. Ryuta is not recognised in his girlish disguise when he reaches home to discover Papa is in a coma. Gen is determined to publish the book somehow, although he's been turned down by every publisher.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: Four years after the atomic bomb was dropped, Gen is determined to get his novel "The End of Summer" published so "Papa" can see it before he dies. Since no Japanese publisher dares print it, Ryuta suggests they have a prison do it. However, the prison needs paper, which costs money. They rescue Noro, nearly dead from his attempt to kill his uncle, and extract gold from his uncle. Gen asks for help from Mr. Pak, who is delighted to have the truth about what happened come out. Koreans suffered twice, once from being enslaved by Japanese, and again by the Bomb. He doesn't want money for his help. Since Ryuta can't read, Gen reads the book to him. The graphic discriptions of the hellish effects of the Bomb and the plea for everyone to make sure that nothing like this should ever happen again is too much for Ryuta, who begs him to stop. They return home to find "Papa" unresponsive, his heart stopped. Ryuta does CPR so "Papa" can see his published book. "Papa" is able to grasp Gen's wrist, perhaps showing that he understands, then succumbs for good. The orphans are orphaned yet again. A few days later, after they've given away all their copies of the book, they are taken by American soldiers to a U.S. Occupation base in Kure. A Japanese-American Lt. Mike Kurota interogates them about the book. It's illegal to write about the A-bomb in Occupied Japan. He thinks Japan deserved it after Pearl Harbor. He decides to subject them to thought modification. A fellow prisoner explains that the Cannon Agency, a special operations team that runs covert actions for American interests, named after its director, Col. Jack Cannon, will torture them to try to turn them into spies. Later, in 1953, in the basement of the Iwasaki Mansion, torture devices and a water dungeon were exposed by writer Wataru Kaji after he was kidnapped and detained secretly for more than a year. Many others were never seen again. Gen, Ryuta, and Noro can't escape while locked in a cell, so Gen wounds himself with a loose nail, smears the blood, and tells the others to act ill. A guard is about to take them to the infirmary, but Lt. Kurota has seen this old trick before. Gen then trains them to be able to take torture better, while faking greater pain. First they're laughing about it, then quarreling angrily as they attack each other. Lt. Kurota concludes they've gone out of their minds and are useless for his purposes, so he orders them to be dumped. Gen vows revenge. The kids laugh at a taxi driver having a tantrum. He explains that someone has put sugar in his tank, ruining his means of livelihood. Gen asks Mr. Pak for sugar cubes—it's safer if he doesn't know why—so they can put American jeeps and trucks out of commission, creating work for Japanese mechanics. Gen puts on an impromptu comedy show to distract the Americans as the others commit sabotage. Returning home, he finds his mother home from the hospital, seemingly cured, but Akira reveals that she has 4 months to live and doesn't know it. Her stomach cancer has metastasized. It's hard for Gen and Akira to pretend all is well. As she talks about her arranged marriage to their father, who she grew to love, and how people who were against the war were tortured and killed even before it had started, Gen determines to earn money to send his mother to visit Kyoto, where she'd honeymooned, a last time. He finds out there's money to be made collecting poop for fertilizer. Koji arrives, having heard the news about their mother, full of shame for having drunk up the money he should have sent home, and Gen gives him the money he's earned so he can claim to be the one taking them all to Tokyo. When they arrive, she declares that she can now die happy, and rejoin their father. She knew all along that she wasn't cured, since her stomach pain hadn't gone away. When she dies, Gen refuses to have her cremated. He is determined to take her body to Kyoto so General MacArthur can see it, apologize for having used the Bomb, and promise never to do so again. He wants the Emperor, who declared war as a god, then admitted he was mortal when he lost, to apologize to her and take responsibility for starting the war. Koji has to knock him out to have their mother cremated. One person can't do this. All Japan must raise their voices together. Gen is desolate until he dreams of his parents encouraging him to be as the wheat and stand on his own feet.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: By 25 June 1950, North Korea and South Korea have become embroiled in war, and Japan is under threat of being dragged into the conflict. Gen and his teacher Mr. Ohta want everyone to do all they can to prevent war, but the class president, Aihara, who looks much like Gen, but with an ugly smile, believes war is inevitable, an unchangeable part of human nature, and needed to reduce the population. He challenges Gen to a fight after school. When Gen shows up, Aihara says he doesn't go for playfighting, but only to the death, and tosses Gen a knife. Gen wins, and Aihara insists he should finish him off, but Gen refuses. Ryuta, selling a dress Katsuko and Natsue have made, loses ¥1000 giving it away to a Hiroshima Carp baseball fan. He's a Carp fanatic, but the team keeps losing. The Americans make laws against antiwar protests, enforced by the right-wing hoods of the Blood-and-Thunder party, who attack Mr. Ohta. Gen pitches in, but it's Aihara, who turns out to have been orphaned by the Bomb too, whose accuracy pitching rocks wins the day. Aihara does not want to be taken to the hospital. When they take him anyway, they find he has a fractured skull, and may not live the night. Looking for his home,to find someone to visit him, they discover that Katsuo was adopted by a woman who had lost a son that he kept following because she looked like his dead mother. She reveals that he's already dying of leukemia—which has no cure—and keeps trying to commit suicide because he can't face death. Ryuta and Gen get him interested in life by practicing pitching outside his home. He can do it better—they've found him a purpose in life, to win games for the Carp. They've just seen charlie Chaplin in "Monsieur Verdoux" when the discover Mr. Ohta drunk. He buys saki for the minors even though they can't legally drink. He can't stand how Gen. MacArthur set up a National Police Reserve on Aug. 10th [sic] supposedly to train police, but actually to create a military to use in Korea after Japan was supposed to be without one. Tomorrow will be Aug. 6th [sic], and the Hiroshima City Police have announced they'll arrest anyone trying to have a protest against war. Mr. Ohta tells them how Mussolini's corpse was hung upside down after the war. Gen quotes from the movie they'd just seen, "One murder makes a villian—millions, a hero." Gen gets drunk too, and comes up with a plan for tomorrow. They all ring bells and pray for peace—even Aihara. Soon afterwards, the National Police Reserve was renamed the japan Self-Defense Forces. Then Mr. Ohta resigns teaching—the only teacher who cared about his students, and didn't use corporal punishment. Gen is on his way to Mr. Ohta's home to try to talk him out of it, when he sees someone shooting up. Ryuta explains that this is a speed freak. In the war, soldiers were given Philopon—the original brand name for methamphetamine hydrochloride—to make them feel brave. Now it's legal in Japan, and lots of people are addicted. Gen is drinking whiskey when Natsue is overcome with pain from appendicitis. She'll need to be in the hospital for two weeks. When Gen goes to see Mr. Ohta the next day, he finds him shooting up, and learns that he didn't actually quit—he was fired by Gen. MacArthur in the Red Purge. "Incidents" keep happening, to make people think that labor union activists are committing sabotage. After being up all night in the hospital with Natsue, Gen is barely able to stay awake as he pleads with Mr. Ohta not to give up. As he conks out, Mr. Ohta breaks his hypodermic needle. The next day, the new teacher finds no students have showed up. They all chipped in to pay Mr. Ohta to teach them at his home, even though he's no longer certified to teach. Even Ryuta, who hasn't been in school since the Bomb was dropped 5 years ago is there. When the principal and teacher shows up making all kinds of threats, that they won't be able to get jobs if they study with Mr. Ohta, because they'll all become evil Red Commies, Mr. Ohta takes a punch from Gen that was meant for the principal. Gen sends them off, they trip and fall down the stairs in their haste. Mr. Ohta promises to start a new school and reach out to the kids who had to quit school after the Bomb. Ryuta will be able to learn to read and to write love letters. The newspaper headlines read "U.N. forces launch Fierce Counterattack in Korea." Ryuta doesn't care about Korea's war, but Gen feels for the Koreans being attacked, and realizes that American planes are launched from Japan, which might be counterattacked. When they visit Natsue, they learn that her appendicitis scar has reopened, and she'll need another operation. They worry, wondering whether the A-bomb has anything to do with it. A car splashes them with mud as the driver and the woman with him laugh at them. Ryuta treats Gen to a fancy restaurant meal to cheer him up, but the couple arrive there too. The driver boasts about how rich he is from selling scrap metal for guns and bullets. War in Korea is good for business in Japan. Ryuta is willing to acccept his money to pay for laundering their clothes, much more than would be needed, but Gen is furious, and starts a brawl. When the restaurant owner calls for the cops, Ryuta reminds Gen he's wanted for murder, so they have to scram. Gen laments that humans are not improving at all as they rejoice in war. Fall. The city is planning to tear down Gen's home for a road through the Construction Law passed by the National Parliament as part of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial City. The brothers have 30 days to move, but where? Natsue has had eight operations. After the first few, anesthetic stopped working. The Bomb's radiation destroyed her white blood cells, so the wound won't close. If pus gets into her bloodstream, she could die. She leaves the hospital and Gen must look for her. She's in Itsukaichi, determined to make a special pot. Ryuta learns that sardines are swarming by the bucketful in Itsukaichi, so he suggests they look for her there. Gen helps a woman who has hurt her back, and inside her home is Natsue! She reveals that the pot is for her own ashes, but Gen is determined she must live. He finds Koji getting drunk trying to handle his grief at the imminent distruction and learns that there's lots of money to be made by people claiming land of people who died from the Bomb and selling it for high prices with the help of crooked politicians. Gen gets drunk too. Gen eavesdrops on Koji's cconversation with his girlfriend Hiroko who is unwilling to wait two years to get married so Gen will be old enough to be on his own, and also unwilling to have Akira and Gen live with them. Akira decides to go to Osaka to become a businessman for peace, and Gen determines not to be a burden on Koji, but be self-reliant. He'll fight to preserve their home, with the fallback position that he's welcome to come live with the orphans. It's October 1950, and war in Korea is escalating, as is the threat of more nuclear war.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: Gen and Ryuta resist the demolishment of Gen's home, throwing rocks from the roof, but in vain. Gen wounds himself in his own hand to always remember the pain. Natsue finishes her pot and returns home to the orphans, who are celebrating Gen's joining them. He sees a crack in the pot, the jar slips, and is broken. Natsue is too weak and ill to make another, after she had put all her heart and soul into this one. Gen runs off. He'd actually broken it on purpose to give her a reason to keep living, to make another, bbut it ddidn't work. Gen and Ryuta get into a fight, scaring off a fortuneteller's customers. He bashes them in the head with a plank. Ryuta summons the orphans to help get Gen to the hospital, but he isn't to be found. A fortuneteller says he went to the hospital and tells Natsue she'll be well in a month, with an auspicious future, complete with husband and four children. She is persuaded to go back to the hospital. Then Gen takes off his disguise. She dies of colorectal cancer. Someone from the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) shows up offering to pay ¥30,000 and arrange for her cremation so they can study how to cure radiation sickness, but Gen sends them off angrily, accusing them of wanting this knowledge to treat Americans, not Japanese, in the next atomic war. Natsue died, six monthss into the Korean War, on Dec. 30th, 1950, the day that Gen. MacArthur convinced President Truman to plan to use nuclear weapons in Korea. Only world outrage against first use stopped it, although the USA threatened again in May 1953 and in April 1969 after Koreans shot down a U.S. reconnaissance plane. In January 1951 they bury Natsue's ashes in an urn Gen made. They are about to bury it on Mt. Hiji, but discover that the ABCC has erected buildings to collect corpses from Hiroshima. Gen decides to bury Natsue with his own family, but a boy snatches the box the urn is in and runs away. He thought something valuable must be inside. His grandfather is ashamed that his grandson has become a thief, but the boy is not. He is desperate to get his grandfather oil paints to finish his painting. Gen was given Seiji's painting tools on his death, to finish his painting, which Gen never did, and he's willing to give it to the grandfather, but he destroys all his paintings, realizing it was arrogant to think of himself as a great painter when he couldn't even support his family by painting, and had even driven his grandson to theft. Gen brings the paints to him anyhow, convincing him to keep painting whether or not his work is popular, and when the old man tells him about his youthful dreams, "Art has no borders," about using art to break down borders, that's what Gen decides to do with his life. Ryuta questions whether ideals will give you enough money to eat. Gen decides to combine art with earning a living by looking for training as a sign painter. However, he gets into a brawl with a sign painter, and accidentally ruins the sign advertising a Kurosawa double feature of "Rashomon" and "Stray Dogs" that needs to be done that day. He promises to work for free until he's repaid the damage, but the people at the shop are still mad, and the fighting results in Gen breaking the sign painter's arm. The grandfather, Seiga Amano, who is a better painter, offers to take over. The highly militaristic president of the company who commissioned the sign is pleased at being able to exploit both of them, although he blows a tire on his motor scooter and sprains his ankle. An underling, Kurosaki, is still jealous and has it in for them. The grandfather starts teaching Gen about perspective. On April 15th, 1951, the headlines read that Gen. MacArthur will leave Japan on April 10th [sic]. President Truman is replacing him because he wanted to extend the Korean War into China and destroy communist China, but instead the president relieved him of his post as Supreme Commander in the Far East. Gen practices perspective night and day, improving, which makes Kurosaki furious, so he hires gangsters to cut Gen's arm off. He escapes with his arm, but his clothing is in shreds. Gen can't understand why he didn't simply ask Amano for lessons too, to improve. Kurosaki was a victim of the Bomb as well. Having lost all his family, he was "adopted" by a Buddhist priest who took him to an island and exploited and tortured him and 15 other orphans as slave labor. When a girl fell sick, the priest was unwilling to bother with taking her to the hospital, and she died. Kurosaki barely managed to escape the island alive, clinging to a tire on a supply boat. He and Gen agree that there's no Buddha or God; it's all lies and trickery for someone's convenience. American soldiers were given blessings to do justice dropping the Bomb on Nagasaki right onto a Christian church filled with fellow worshippers. If there were a God or Buddha, why wouldn't he get rid of wars and bombs? Then as Kurosaki was wandering miserably, trying to survive, he saw a beautiful rainbow that cheered him. Remembering his mother's stories of a treasure at the end, he looked, and found it was a painted sign, with the words "Peace in the Hearts of Hiroshima Citizens" written below. He decided to become a sign painter, and even though the head of the company was a tyrant, all was going well until Gen and Amano spoiled everything. Gen refuses to be blamed or to leave, having given his word to make it up for the damage he'd caused. He says they should compete to get better. Gen and the orphans see a sign saying "Lecture on Japan's Defense by Prefectural Assemblyman Denjiro Samejima, a Fighter for Love and Peace"—the same man who had called Gen's father a traitor, calling for peace, as their neighborhood chairman. Gen ccan't stand it, but a rainbow soothes them. Gen wanted to build rainbow bridges from country to country in a world without borders, free of war.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: It is March 1953, and Gen is graduating from middle school, although he doesn't go to school much now, learning to paint and working at the sign shop. Mr. Ohta has just started his own private academy with 10 students. Ryuta summarises news from 1952: on April 28th, a treaty with America launched Japanese independence. On Bloody May Day, unpermitted demonstrators clashed with police outside the Imperial Palace, and on August 6th, freed from American banns during occupation, a special issue of a magazine shocked Japan with photos of the devastation from the bomb which had never been seen before. The Prime Minister dissolves the Lower House after calling a questioner by a derogatory name. Then he invites everyone to cheer up by buying the dresses Katsuko and Natsue have been making. This displeases the owner of the dress shop he's right outside, but they come to an agreement that the store will buy the dresses from now on. One of the orphans, Musubi, has been keeping their savings in a pass book so they can set up their own dress shop when they have enough. There's a ceremony for the graduating class of the middle school Gen goes to, but rather than graduating peaceably—he will not be going on to high school—he protests the singing of the national anthem praising the Emperor who started the war, and details his war crimes. Some of the kids invite the principal and some of the teachers to a private thank-you ceremony, saying they want to present them with a gift—but actually, they beat up the teachers in revenge for all the beatings they were given. Gen puts a stop to it. A beautiful girl accidentally runs into Gen while trying to catch a street car, and he falls head over heels in love without knowing who she might be. Mr. Amano and Gen get themselves "fired" from the signpainting shop where they weren't being paid in the first place, for objecting to the militaristic talk of Mr. Nakao, the owner. Gen catches sight of the girl and follows her home. It turns out that her father is Mr. Nakao, who forbids her from having anything to do with him. Musubi stays out late, being pepped up by a bar owner with an energy shot. Ryuta asks Mitsuko, the girl Gen loves, to go out with him on a date, and shows her Gen's sketchbook filled with pictures of her and declarations of love. She explains that her father has forbidden it, and Ryuta goes off angry, spitting insults. This leads to Ryuta and Gen quarreling, and when Musubi arrives and fails to explain his absences, more fighting, which Katsuko can't stand. Musubi goes off to get back his good mood. Hiroko is impressed by Gen's setch book. Her father tells her she's the one important thing in his life, his dream being to see she's married to the perfect husband and providing grandchildren. She hates having his dreams forced down her throat. Musubi goes back to the bar for an energy shot, which he's told is full of vitamins. Mitsuko gets Gen's address from the store to come thank him for the sketch book, and agrees to model for more sketches. On July 27th, 1953, an armistice is signed for peace in Korea. The dresses are selling well, but Ryuta and Katsuko wonder why Musubi is the only one not working, and where he is. Gen and Mitsuko go to the Itsukushima Shrine of Miyajima and lament that the deer there were nearly all killed off for food at the end of the war. Mitsuko confesses that she thinks she's a murderer because when the Bomb was dropped, she, a small child, was unable to carry her injured mother and ran for her own life. Gen also left his father and a sister and brother. On his way home, Gen runs into Musubi on a street car, looking unwell. He shoves Gen and runs off to the bar for another shot, but can't pay. They tell him he'll be agony for days, since he's totally addicted. Only now does he learn that the "vitamins" were actually dope. He steals money from the postal savings passbook of the orphans' savings toward a dress shop to pay for more shots. He returns home, claiming to be well, aand sorry for his absence, but Gen catches him preparing to shoot up, and smashes the hypodermic. Musubi runs off, rather than face withdrawal. The Hiroshima ABCC announces a sharp uprise in leukemia in atomic bomb survivors. Mitsuko decides to become a doctor, to fight back against the people who destroy lives through bombs and war. She tells how yakuzu used Hiroshima orphans to kill other gangsters. A yakuzu takes offence, and picks a fight with her—but she wins. However, she is unwell, and unwilling to go to a doctor, because it might turn out to be an A-bomb illness. She dies of leukemia. Her father blames Gen, who blames her father's militarism. Her final letter to her father backs him up. Musubi has run through the passbook money, and tries to break into the bar to get drugs, but gets beaten up and dumped for dead. He makes it back to the orphans first. Gen vows to seek revenge, so Ryuta knocks him out so Ryuta, who has already killed two gangsters, can take care of it, leaving Gen free of murder. Ryuta is about to turn himself in, but is talked into escaping to Tokyo with Katsuko. As Gen goes to put Musubi's ashes with Gen's family, Mr. Amano encourages Gen to go to Tokyo as well, to become an artist, and test himself.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: Gen's family suffers as all families do in war. They must conduct themselves as proper members of society, as all Japanese are instructed in paying tribute to the Emperor. But because of a belief that their involvement in the war is due to the greed of the rich ruling class, Gen's father rejects the military propaganda and the family comes to be treated as traitors. Gen's family struggles with their bond of loyalty to each other and to a government that is willing to send teenagers on suicide missions in battle. This push and pull relationship is seen many times as Gen is ridiculed in school, mimicking his father's views on Japan's role in the war, and then is subsequently punished by his father for spouting things he learned through rote brainwashing in school.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: Many of these themes are put into a much harsher perspective when portrayed alongside themes of the struggle between war and peace.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: , author of believes that the characters Katsuko and Natsue coopt but change the stereotypical "Hiroshima Maiden" story, as typified in "Black Rain", as although courageous, Katsuko and Natsue are severely scarred both physically and mentally.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: A volunteer pacifist organization, Project Gen, formed in Tokyo in 1976 to produce English translations. Leonard Rifas' EduComics published it, beginning in 1980, as "Gen of Hiroshima", making it the "first full-length translation of a manga from Japanese into English to be published in the West." It was unpopular, and the series was cancelled after two volumes.


title: Barefoot Gen

text: The group Rondo Gen published an Esperanto translation as "Nudpieda Gen" ("Barefoot Gen") in 1982. The chief translator was Izumi Yukio.