A powerful statement against war, Barefoot Gen is a story about the effect of the atomic bomb on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people. Based on the acclaimed manga by Nakazawa Keiji, the author of Barefoot Gen, who was 6 years old at the time of the Hiroshima bombing, and is one of the survivors of the destruction. The bomb was responsible for the death of his father, his sister, and his brother. At the age of 6 he and his mother dug their remains out of the ruins of their home. In 1963 Nakazawa moved to Tokyo to become a manga artist, but returned to Hiroshima in 1966 to attend his mothers funeral. It was then that he learned of the true impact of the radiation from the bomb.
This movie contains 33 potentially triggering events.
In a situation where the children are still alive, but it's impossible to rescue them, their mother is forced to "get out of there while she can." It's a very heart wrenching scene.
A child is punched in the face early in the film by an elderly man. Later, a disfigured man is harsh towards the kids nursing him at first but gradually warms up to them
During the bomb's blast, there is a very gore depiction of multiple individual people getting progressively disfigured whilst melting away from thermal radiation, until being reduced to ashes.
Even if it's "only" an animated scene, it's really disheartening and I would recommend skipping it if anything of the kind would pull you off : happens right after the sequence where you see the pilot holding a watch and Hiroshima from above.
It’s not given specific focus in the scene, but as a family burns alive under the rubble of their home the young boy’s toy boat sits in front of him and is implied to have been destroyed in the flames