Keiji Nakazawa, author of "Barefoot Gen", an iconic Japanese comic about the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, has been chosen as one of the newest members to join the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame, the U.S. awards body's website showed Thursday.
The Eisner awards are considered the Academy Awards of the comic book industry.
"It is an honor to receive this award, and I think my husband would have been delighted," said Nakazawa's widow Misayo, 81, who received a commemorative trophy on his behalf.
"He created (the manga) because he did not want nuclear bombs to be used ever again. I want to use this award as an opportunity to spread the story of Barefoot Gen so that people know the horror of nuclear weapons," she said.
The late author, who was born in Hiroshima in 1939, experienced the atomic bombing when he was 6 while on his way to school about 1.2 kilometers from the bomb's hypocenter. He survived but lost his father, elder sister and younger brother.
He started depicting what he experienced, beginning with "Kuroi Ame ni Utarete" (Struck by Black Rain) in 1968, in an effort to inform the world about the horrors of the atomic bomb and war.
Barefoot Gen is an autobiographical comic released in 1973. It has been widely used as educational material to teach Japanese youths about the importance of peace and has been translated into various languages including English, French, Korean, Thai and Russian.
Nakazawa died in 2012 at the age of 73.
"Barefoot Gen was the first Japanese comic ever to be translated into Western languages," said the website, noting it has been adapted into animated films and a live-action TV drama.
Japan's Hayao Miyazaki, Osamu Tezuka and Rumiko Takahashi are among the artists listed on the Hall of Fame.
