"Directed by Kazuo Kuroki" "Hiroshima - summer 1948" "Tuesday" "Daddy, I'm scared!" "This way, over here, mitsue, quick!" "Get the cushion on your head!" "Get in under there." "Daddy, so that's where you've been." "Of course." "you tell me where to go and that's where i've been." "But... it's ridiculous, I mean... preposterous... i... you... quit babbling." "Get in here." "Daddy!" "I'm scared!" "You've got me, the closet and the cushion for you." "No flashes or booms are going to hurt you." "But, daddy, I'm already 23." "A bit of thunder shouldn't scare me." "It's embarrassing and really gets t me." "Don't blame yourself." "I don't know... you were the tomboy of the athletics club." "A bit of thunder didn't stop you then." "There were only three of us." "I had to run everything from the sprint to long distance." "Who had time to worry about thunder?" "So what happened to turn you to such a scaredy-cat?" "I don't know." "I just am." "Since when?" "Since about three years ago." "The A-bomb, eh?" "I guess." "Remember nobu from the photo shop?" "He took a lot of pictures of all of us." "He was a good photographer." "He took great pictures." "Yeah, if you call those racy pictures great." "Racy?" "You used our inn for army officers." "You let out the rooms to them and got your hands on a lot of goods that way." "So I did." "We had rice, sake canned salmon, cigarettes, caramels, everything." "Mom died when you were a little girl." "I didn't want you to be starved." "So I tried my best." "You would lure many women with cigarettes and rice." "You let nobu take those nude photos of them." "He showed them to those officers." "And..." "Nobu now sells little jellies he gets from god knows where." "I know." "He wastes his talent, peddling black-market jellies." "Serves him right!" "Just listen to me." "Sorry." "Every time one of his... magnesium bulbs popped, he couldn't get the flash of the bomb... out of his head." "That's why he quit taking pictures." "So he says." "The flashes and the booming remind you of the bomb, too." "I don't know... you have t know." "You got your reason to be scared." "Nobody blames an A-bomb victim for getting... shook up over something that flashes." "You got a right to be scared." "Is there a right for being scared?" "There should be." "A bomb victim not afraid of thunder is phoney." "I wouldn't go that far." "Well, maybe... okay." "The sun is come out." "Yeah, the sun!" "Thunder seems to have moved on ut to sea." "That's a relief." "I've got some barley tea i made his morning." "Want some?" "That's nice." "Can't drink it." "I guess so." "Oh, my..!" "What is it?" "The sweet bean bun mr." "Kinoshita gave you." "What if it's been squished?" "Oh, no!" "It's still okay." "He got it at a stall." "Buns like this are rare." "Mr. Kinoshita says he was stopped dead in his tracks when he caught sight of the buns." "So he bought one but then his legs turned to lead." "He had to buy another before he could finally get away." "This is one hell of a bean jam." "I was standing by the library checkout desk." "He walks up... and says?" "Two are too much for me, you take one?" "Let's eat now." "I can't, you know." "Yeah, I forgot." "Kinoshita gave you the bun." "He teaches at the university of science, right?" "Yeah, he's attached to the physics department." "Attached?" "A kind of teacher." "He wears glasses thicker than two milk bottle bottoms." "He speaks so softly." "He's one hell of an intellectual." "He was a navy arsenal's institute teacher... till the bomb dropped." "He was a lieutenant there." "He's a bit rough for a navy man." "Not all the navy men are like you think." "He studied again at thoku university... for 2 years after the war ended." "He came back here in early july, this month." "He says that... just after the bomb dropped here in Hiroshima, all he did was wander about." "How old is he?" "30 maybe?" "Twenty-six." "He wrote so on his library card." "And you're 23." "So it's a perfect match." "What're you saying?" "He's just a library-goer." "But he gave you the bun." "Ridiculous." "I'm not going on with this." "It's time for supper." "You going to stay?" "Up to you." "Okay." "Give me a hand with the cleaning up." "Kinoshita gave you the bun because he liked you." "You ought to get that straight." "You see too much in a little bun." "Even buns can carry a lot of weight." "Remember that." "He gave it to me to thank me, that's all." "More than just thanks in my book." "Oh, daddy!" "Please come here and sit down." "Four days ago, on friday last week... excuse me." "Objects related to the A-bomb..?" "A city hall clerk said to ask here." "Even if we gather information on the bomb, the occupation forces forbid going public." "Besides... as an A-bomb victim myself, I'm trying to forget it." "But... nothing abut what happened that day in august... will make a story, a picture, a poem, a novel... or a subject to be studied." "One instant pulverized people's whole world." "That's why we don't collect things on it." "Not only that." "If there were such things, we'd destroy them for good." "I've burnt everything that'd remind me of my father." "The bun was nly to thank me for that." "you got two checkout desks at the library, with ne girl at each." "That's right, miss Tagaki and me." "So..?" "Since the bomb, you've not been yourself." "You keep everything to yourself." "You smile... only after you come home." "While miss Tagaki is a cheerful girl." "Yeah, so?" "What are you getting at?" "What makes a fellow like Kinoshita go for you... instead of someone more apprachable... like miss Tagaki?" "It's his privilege." "That's what I'm saying." "Kinoshita has a head on his shoulders." "And you always knew what was what." "You graduated second in your class." "Kinoshita saw the real you and tok notice." "That's what's behind that bun." "That's enough." "Stop it." "Your stories have nothing to do with me." "Another meaning in that bun... stop bringing up that bun!" "This is crucial for you." "I'm not going to stop it." "You come ut of the blue and go on about sme stupid bun." "I can't think straight any more." "You fancy Kinoshita, too." "You wn't have eyes for anybody else." "Hard on the utside but sweet on the inside." "Your heart is like a bun." "Not on your life!" "I don't let myself get keen on anybody and that's that." "Then why didn't you push that bun back in his face?" "Absolutely quiet." "That's the main rule at my library." "Hi!" "Have a bun?" "No thanks?" "Please." "I insist?" "It's against the rules to accept a bun?" "Think we can blabber away like that at the library?" "The library staff eavesdrop on everything that happens." "All I could do was take the bun." "But you'll meet him... during your lunch break tomorrow." "I wanted to say no, but... but you can't blabber away?" "So I just nodded okay." "That means... you watch me tomorrow." "Watch me tell Kinoshita... never to speak to me again." "Why do you always turn everything around?" "No harm in fancying him." "You like each other." "Get yourselves tgether and live happily." "That's what the bun really means." "I can't be happy." "So just stop talking." "I'm head of your fan club." "I won't let you go." "My fan club?" "Yep." "Think about it." "I started showing up last friday, right?" "That day, your heart started throbbing... when yu caught sight f Kinoshita." "Isn't that right?" "My torso was born of that throbbing." "When he started to approach the checkout desk, a soft little sigh slipped from your lips." "Right?" "My arms and legs grew out of that sigh." "Then you made a wish that he would choose... yur desk to come up to." "My heart came to life out of that wish." "Excuse me." "Objects related to the A-bomb?" "A city hall clerk said to ask here." "Is that why you've been... hanging around to get me to fall in love?" "Love is out of the question." "Stop pestering me about it." "Stop suppressing your feelings." "Or you'll end up living a dull life." "Keep your nose out of my business." "I'm busy:" "A supper to make, things to prepare for tomorrow." "We have a children's summer storytelling club where... we tell stories to kids." "Every day 30 or 40 kids get together in a pine forest at Hijiyama." "There's a cool breeze there." "They love our voices... mingled with the sound of the breeze." "They lok forward to it every day." "I've got to be prepared." "Wednesday" "The city of Hiroshima" "Has been known as the beautiful city..." "On water straddling seven rivers." "These seven rivers flow into one, the ohtagawa, in the..." "North of the city." "My classmates and i took great pleasure in... traveling to the villages along that river where... the people there told us stories handed down to them." "The truth is, our real reason was not the stories... but the oysters in miso, the pine mushroom rice, the yam jellies in miso..." "And treats like that... that's why we traipsed around there." "The story you are about to hear is..." "One told to us by an old man at that time." "I remember grilled sweetfish was served with it." "In the mountains just a stone's throw from the river... there lived an old man and woman." "The old man was a miser and loafer." "He would rather die than a decent day's work." "The two were able to get by thanks to the old woman:" "She did everything from washing clothes to grilling fish." "One day... the old woman went to catch some sweetfish." "She was thirsty." "She took a drink from the river." "Then all the wrinkles on her face vanished." "She took another drink and her back went straight." "One more drink and..." "She turned into a ravishing young beauty." "?" "She told the old man the news." "He hollered:" "You're not the only one to get youth back." "Just wait and see the handsome young man turn into." "So yelling, he ran out of the house." "And he didn't return though night fell?" "Daddy?" "Will this heat never let up!" "So you're here?" "I sure am." "Haven't seen yu for a whole day." "Can you stop that rumbling?" "I can't rehearse my story!" "What are you doing?" "I got some small fry." "And I'm adding miso." "I've ground it up good." "How did you guess what i was planning to make?" "You had the small fry and the miso here." "Now, in goes the miso just like this... and now we mix in the finely chopped chillies." "And you have it, small fry in miso, our speciality." "Not bad at all." "I'm still a good cook, eh?" "What happens next in that story of yours?" "What becomes of the old man?" "Even though night fell, he didn't return hme." "The old woman goes out looking for him with a lantern." "She gets to the bank of the river." "She sees a little baby bawling." "Kids these days won't like it." "I'm not forcing them to." "You must put a bit more spice into it." "Make it like this:" "The old geezer doesn't come back." "The old woman goes out to find him." "All she finds is a pair of dentures." "The old geezer drank too much water." "He got himself unborn." "I get that point." "It's a lot funnier, eh?" "Don't touch a story." "You must relate the older generations' stories as they are." "That's the philosophy of the folktale research club." "Remember what the inspector said six years ago?" "Forget folktales and work at the factry." "We got a war on." "This is an emergency?" "Your club broke up in 1942, if I recall." "But the spirit of that club is still live inside me." "That's what you and Kinoshita had an argument about, eh?" "It wasn't an argument." "It was a debate." "Out of the question!" "You answered so sharply that Kinoshita was jolted." "Kinoshita first got interested in the bomb when... he found a burnt rof title." "Yeah, he told me." "That year, he came here to Hiroshima to catch a train home to Iwate." "He roamed around the burnt-out city." "He sat himself down where there'd been a temple." "He opened his lunch box." "Then... he felt something like needles under his buttcks." "He sat on a roof tile thrown there by the bomb." "The tile is covered in thorns, all sticking out in the same direction." "The tile's surface had melted to form it... in that instant of heat." "He thought he had to know more about the bomb:" "What happened in that intense heat." "He picked up all the tiles he could find, on his way back to the station." "He told me that too." "You took ne of the tiles for safe keeping." "I didn't take it." "He forced it on me and left." "The sliver of glass from the bomb victims." "It's inhuman." "The roof tile." "It's so sharp." "A twisted medicine bottle." "Awful." "Kinoshita says he's got beer bottles twisted like this." "And big sake bottles warped into the shape of a horn." "A standing stone lantern whose surface is famy bubbles." "And a burnt grandfather clock." "The landlady of his boarding house is trying... to kick him out." "Really?" "Every time he comes back with more objects, she complains, They give me the creeps." "They'd go through the floor." "Have to up your rent?" "She's on his back all the time." "She really gave it to him when he came back with more tiles." "She cut the amount of food for his supper." "What a landlady!" "Kinoshita came to me today and said:" "I know I'm asking a lot." "But could you keep my stuff in the library?" "It's impossible, eh?" "One word from macarthur and we culd." "I felt sorry for him and asked if I could sleep on it." "So I must see him again tomorrow." "He's a real pain." "Your handkerchief... handkerchief." "Small fry in miso for Kinoshita." "Give it to him tomorrow." "Daddy!" "Men like girls' handkerchieves." "Stop imagining things and reading everything into them." "Then give it to your bss." "My boss's wife is a jealous woman." "It might cause trouble." "Then give it to Kinoshita." "Don't do anything like this again." "Now, what were you arguing about with Kinoshita?" "Before we parted, he asked:" "Isn't it a good idea to use my objects in trying to tell the children about what happened?" "He sure has a head on his shoulders." "I told him it was impossible, we couldn't touch the original stories." "There you go again!" "It's one thing to stick to the original stories, but... he kept on pushing the stuff he collected on me." "He wouldn't take no for an answer." "Out of the question!" "Then I started shouting, I guess." "That's abut it." "I just had a brilliant idea." "Your big ideas for things can't be counted on." "You often started up some new business and failed." "You lost everything but the little inn granddad left." "Anyway... everything left to me would have gone with the bomb." "I saw past things." "That insults all people who work their guts out." "Okay." "You'll end up arguing if you just repeat those stories." "Why not slip Kinoshita's material in them?" "He'll be tickled then." "The storytelling is for children." "Sure it is." "Lok... just take a fairytale." "Any one you like." "And work the atom bomb into it." "How?" "you figure it out." "The occupation forces keep an eye on everything." "You just don't know how powerful the occupation army is." "Got it!" "I have to memrize my stories." "You can leave any time." "Do visit again." "Y u'll be telling your stories to the kids." "The wind will carry your words everywhere." "They'll enter the kids' hearts." "They'll turn into little rainbows." "There'll be no proof." "The Hiroshima wind is fighting for you." "May not do you any good, but listen to me." "Everyone knows... the story of the little inch-high warrior in kyoto." "He hops into the red Ogre's mouth to save a princess." "He sticks a sewing needle t the Ogre's tummy." "The Ogre surrenders at last." "The warrior's powerful." "But the little inch-high warrior of Hiroshima is even more powerful." "Of Hiroshima?" "Come to mitsue's apron theater!" "Apron theater?" "Apron pockets can help dramatize a story." "He does hop into the Ogre's tummy." "But after that... the story goes differently." "Having found himself inside the Ogre's belly, he pushes the tile to it." "Hey, Ogre!" "In my hand I have a tile burnt by... the A-bomb in Hiroshima." "An A-bomb was detonated at a height of 580 meters... above Hiroshima on that day." "Tthere was a fireball with a temperature of 12.000 C." "Get that?" "12.000 degrees!" "Twice as hot as the sun!" "That day, the sky was split up with... two suns at 580 meters above the ground." "Two suns, for one second then another, up in the sky?" "Everything on the ground, the people and the birds and the bugs." "And the buildings, they all melted in a flash." "Then the atomic blast." "It arrived faster than the speed of sound." "The melted tiles were blasted, too." "They grew little needles." "They cooled into jagged thorns like icicles." "They were like the blades of a grater or iron spikes." "With these terrifying spikes, I'm going to grate... your liver into slivers of pulp!" "The red Ogre's writhes in pain." "His red face just gets paler and paler." "The warrior of Hiroshima took a twisted medicine bottle." "Hey, Ogre!" "I'm going to shove this bottle... up your bumhole from the inside." "Drop dead from constipation!" "?" "Hey, Ogre!" "This is a piece of glass that pierced human flesh." "Every window in Hiroshima was blown out by the blast, shoting slivers... of glass into human bodies?" "Stop it!" "With this sliver, I'm going to make mincemeat out of... your guts and appendix!" "?" "I said stop it!" "It was so inhuman:" "What people didn't... people was to line up... two suns in the sky." "It might be too much for the people of Hiroshima... to take slipping things from the bomb... into a story... any story." "Keep that in mind." "I wanted Kinoshita to be keen n you." "But I was wrong." "Just another of my big ideas." "Be content with the small fry in miso." "Give it to him tomorrow." "Thank you, daddy, for everything... you've done for me." "Daddy?" "Thursday" "Yesterday's rain was clever." "It came down at night and stopped in the morning." "This rain doesn't have the brains it was born with." "It started in the morning." "It hasn't stopped yet." "Rain, rain, go away!" "Your old man's a brute." "Your old mum's a floozy." "Mr. Tadashi Kinoshita..." "Care of mrs." "Takizawa." "Dear mr." "Kinoshita..?" "Dear mr." "Kinoshita?" "Thank you for visiting the library... always busy when you kindly appear... this is such an important matter..." "The things from the bomb zone..." "If you have nothing against my home..." "As I live by myself, there is room... it does have a few leaks but... as it is stiflingly hot these days..." "Take good care of yourself..." "yurs truly?" "Home already?" "Daddy?" "I'm here all right." "What're you doing here?" "The rain spoiled our storytelling." "It shoulïve rained at night." "Poor kids!" "Come back to get something?" "I left work early." "Feeling sick?" "You aren't nauseous, are you?" "Is it the dizziness, the ringing in your ears?" "Is it the radiation sickness?" "Not recently." "That's a relief." "The nly place it aches is here." "Is that all?" "Maybe that monster of an illness has finally gne away." "When you believe he's gone, he catches you by surprise." "you can't relax so easily." "It's really awful, eh?" "Look!" "We did it!" "It's finally stopped raining." "I was all but out of things to catch it in." "So everything work out?" "Meaning..?" "The small fry in miso." "Was Kinoshita happy?" "Oh, that." "Didn't he say, ?" "Oh, this is my favorite food?" "I still have it." "Here it is." "Why is it here?" "I didn't go to see him." "Why not?" "It was raining for one thing... you got an umbrella." "I could slip on the paths." "You have good clogs." "Besides... what?" "It's best not to see him again." "Stop saying that or you'll become a laughingstock." "I stayed at the library instead of going." "You still have time." "Then I saw Kinoshita walking toward the library." "I left so as not to meet him." "What a girl!" "I'd smack some sense into you!" "Daddy... it's best this way." "I mustn't fall in love with anyone." "Mind you don't lose all heart." "be fine!" "Let me be, okay?" "You can't fol me." "What's up?" "I know you're lying." "Don't pretend you don't fancy him." "Look, all I said was... it's obvious." "Yours truly?" "It's all here, right?" "All women write that." "As I live by myself..?" "Do all women write that?" "It's a joke." "I planned to throw it away." "Keep it." "Daddy... why insist you can't fall in love?" "You may not be a ravishing beauty." "But you've got respectable-enough features." "Ridiculous." "It's a good enough face for Kinoshita." "Why worry?" "That's not the point." "The radiation sickness?" "You can't fall in love, because it may hit you again?" "But he said... he'd take best care of me if it came to that." "You two seem to have it all sewn up." "Are you worried about your future kids?" "Radiation sickness does get passed down to babies." "If that's our fate, we'll bring them up best as we can." "Did he say that?" "More or less." "Not so straight, though." "Whether it's more or less, you've gone that far." "You don't need me." "And it's all the more reason i can't go on seeing him." "You're cise to him now but you don't want to be?" "More or less." "Stop this nonsense or get mad." "you change your stories so often." "What you say is topsy-turvy." "I can't tell which end is up." "Kindly be seated, father." "I will." "There are many other people who should have been able... to lead a happy life." "Who am I to elbow my way past them and... make a claim on happiness?" "If I did,never be able to look them in the face." "Who are you talking about?" "People like Akiko Fukumura, for instance." "Akiko Fukumura?" "Her?" "We went through schools together." "We always sat next to each other." "Because of family names:" "They both started with the character for?" "Lucky?" "So everyone called us lucky one and lucky two." "When you were both absent, the teacher called it?" "Unlucky?" "We started up the folktale research club at college." "With Akiko as president and me as vice president." "We made the strict policy:" "Original stories are not to be touched." "And you stuck to it?" "That's right." "You two competed on grades, too." "I could outrun her, but i never outdid her on grades." "I always came in second." "It's your fault." "Don't blame me." "Besides that, she was really pretty." "Everybody called her the prettiest around." "Because her mother was a goodlooker." "And she was a widow to boot." "One look at her and I got so thrilled." "So you wrte her a letter." "You sent it with some food." "Miss Fukumura, may I accompany you to view cherry blossoms?" "Very kindly yours." "Takezo Fukuyoshi?" "How did you find it out?" "Akiko showed it t me." "She said? "Very kindly yours " is weird?" "How s?" "It's the sort of thing women write." "She showed it to her daughter?" "What a nasty widow!" "She treated me like a real mther very tenderly." "And she shoulïve been your mother." "She shoulïve married me." "Akiko should have had a chance at happiness." "Why's that, then?" "She was prettier than me, more clever and more popular." "And she saved me from the A-bomb." "Saved you from the bomb?" "If it weren't for her, i wouldn't be alive today." "Absurd!" "You and I were the only people in our garden then." "What are you talking about?" "She saved me with a letter." "A letter?" "Akiko was teaching at a girls' school." "She had gone to an airplane factory with her pupils." "I had received a letter from her the day before." "I soon wrote a reply." "Be careful!" "Daddy." "They're dropping something." "Funny, there's been no air raid warning." "Wonder what they're dropping." "Propaganda flyers again?" "Oh, no!" "Everything under the sun turned pale white." "I saw it full on, a huge fireball as bright as two suns." "Blindingly white at the center... with a weird kind of yellow and red outline." "I was shielded from the heat... by the stone lantern." "That big stone lantern?" "It was worth its cost." "Because I got a letter from Akiko, i was kneeling down by the lantern." "That's why I said she saved my life." "What is it?" "Akiko had taken... the first train from Mizushima to Hiroshima." "She was on her way to the school to fetch things for... her evening tutorial:" "Mimeograph things and stuff." "What did she do then?" "She stopped off at her mother's, then set out for school at 8." "She was hit by the bomb near a Red cross office." "Akiko's mother didn't find her till a whole day after." "She had been... laid out on the office's dirty floor." "Oh, my god... the poor little girl." "Her buttocks were completely exposed:" "The back of her pants burnt off." "And there was a little patch of dried stool... i've heard enough." "Now I think I know why you feel... you can't seek out happiness." "But, why not live out Akiko's happiness for her?" "I can't do that!" "Why not?" "Because I promised her mother." "Her mother?" "Something... askin to a promise." "What promise?" "I met her mother three days after the blast." "In the early evening of august 9." "I had run off to mrs." "Horiuchi's house." "I stayed there till the morning of the 9th." "Mrs. Horiuchi?" "The name rings a bell." "My flower arranging teacher from school." "Oh, that old mrs." "Horiuchi?" "Lucky for you t have such a nice teacher." "I left that morning and got home around noon." "The whole city smelt like grilled fish then." "Yeah, grilled into oblivion." "I cried picking up yur bones." "I know." "Thank you." "Then I went to Akiko's." "But I found... everything was burnt to the ground." "I saw her mother." "She was lying in a tunnel dug into the garden." "She was on her stomach because her back was... covered in enormous blisters." "Oh, the poor wman." "She looked... really happy to see me." "She got to her feet and hugged me really tight." "She thanked me for coming." "But when she started telling me about Akiko... she turned white as a ghost." "She glared at me and said... go on." "What are you doing alive?" "Why are yu alive when my daughter isn't?" "She was dead... by the end of the month, too." "This may not help but..." "I'm sure she didn't mean it." "No, it was unnatural for me to have survived!" "I don't deserve to live." "Don't say a thing like that!" "Listen to me!" "No, I won't!" "Almost all of my friends are gone." "Etsuko died while standing in a fire-prevention reservoir." "Kaori just walked along." "Her tongue swollen out of her mouth, like a huge eggplant." "Fumiko'd gotten married just after graduation." "She died with her baby at her breast." "The baby, too, went to the other world, without even an inkling of what this world is like." "Machiko at the telephne exchange... two of her coworkers... were too scared to move." "She put her arms around them." "She told them to be brave." "But they all died there, too." "It's been three years since." "But some are still missing." "And there's you, too, daddy... you and I have our old agreement." "Remember that." "That's wrong." "To die in hirshima was the natural thing." "To survive here is unnatural." "That's why my being alive now is wrong." "Dead people don't think so." "I'm perfectly at peace with what happened to me." "Listen." "I don't deserve to be alive." "But... i have to live like this." "I'm just going to live a quiet life." "leave life... quietly when I get the chance to do so." "Daddy... it's been three very hard years for me." "Please at least give me credit fr managing to stay alive." "Going out?" "Back to the library." "I have some books to repair there." "Maybe Kinoshita... hold on a minute." "Take this to the post office on your way." "Special delivery!" "Ridiculous... that's an order!" "Friday" "Daddy... did you call me?" "You've been here?" "Yeah, more or less." "Will Kinoshita bring more things?" "This is a half of what he's got." "Quite a collection, eh?" "You can't blame his landlady." "How far did the driver say... his boarding house was from here?" "5 kilometers one way." "With six traffic signals and one railway crossing." "Thenestimate that he'd be back in 30 or 40 minutes." "Thank him for everything and offer him a bath." "A bath?" "It's the best treat on a hot day." "Preparing for it?" "You bet." "You're thughtful." "I'm used to things of this sort." "How does he like it?" "Boiling hot or tepid?" "How should I know?" "I am for something in between." "You'll have to give him something cold too." "I've bought beer." "Good going." "The driver'll have to content himself with cold water." "I've bought ice, too." "And you'll have to ask the driver to leave early." "He will." "He's busy." "That's good." "Have yu got new towels ready?" "I've bought them." "Soap?" "Bought." "A sponge?" "Bought no." "A man's bathrobe?" "Bought... no, why should I?" "It'd be scandalous to buy a man's bathrobe." "And it's premature for you to wash him up in the bath." "That'd be scandalous, too." "Put more firewood..." "I know." "What'll you serve him for dinner?" "Beer and small fry." "Sardines." "And rice." "Anything to go with rice?" "Chopped carrots and then deep fried tofu." "Sounds delicious." "Topped off with a slice of melon." "Can I eat them, too?" "Nothing'd make me happier than to see you eat." "Summer vacation..?" "Vacation?" "Kinoshita said it'd be nice... if you could go with him up to Iwate... during his summer vacation." "Said his folks'd be happy to see you." "I guessget time off if I wanted." "Then go with him." "I've always wanted to go to Iwate:" "Kenji miyazawa came from there." "Who's he?" "A poet and children's story writer." "His books are popular in our library." "I like his poems, too." "What poems?" "The morning of last farewell?" "And... once around the stars?" "The scorpion with red, burning eyes." "The eagle with wings so gracefully unfurled." "Little dog his eyes so blue and bright." "The long snake of light shines in iits own world." "The pem has lots of constellation names in it." "I too wrote a poem about the stars as a kid." "You did?" "The night has come again tonight." "Three, four... seven stars." "And dozing off I count the stars... go check on the fire." "The teacher gave me a b for it and pinned it on the wall." "Kinoshita's asking you to go with him was a proposal." "You got that?" "In the heavens the stars twinkle." "On the ground the burglars burgle in the forest." "Through the trees the ragged owl bumps." "While the temple raccoon pounds his belly like drums..." "Daddy... he has a little beard." "You'll have to get a razor." "I don't keep razors in the house." "Too many bomb victims killed themselves with them." "Some cut their left wrist and stuck their arm in the bath." "Are you packing or something?" "Doesn't look like you'll take a summer holiday." "Help mrs." "Horiuchi with her flower arranging." "If I leave now, be able to catch the 7:05 train." "Give it another thought." "Kinoshita'll be back." "You invite him and kick him ut?" "How rude!" "Leave him a note at the front door." "Don't worry." "What about the dinner you cooked up for him?" "He can have it all t himself." "write so." "But the bath!" "Is he to take it by himself?" "After that... close the shutters when you leave." "Lock the door." "Leave the key with the next door neighbor?" "And the last line is... keep your invaluable objects for you." "But please forget about me." "Sincerely yours..?" "The library..?" "I won't go." "The old sickness again?" "No!" "Yes!" "The sickness!" "I came out of the throbbing of your heart, from the heat of your sighs and your faint wishes." "I won't allow you to write this!" "Give me back the pencil!" "It was Akiko's." "She gave it to me before the bomb dropped." "You're sick." "There's a name for what you have." "The symptoms appear in peple... who have survived their friends." "It's called?" "Guilt-ridden survivoritis?" "I know how you feel." "But you're alive and yu must go on living." "Get over this sickness right away." "The person I feel so awful and guilty about is... you, daddy." "What?" "Of course I feel really guilty about Akiko and others too." "But I was just trying to cover up and deny... what I did with the sense of guilt." "I left you where you were and ran away." "That's fact." "Your face was so badly burnt then." "It was melted away like the face of this Jizo." "And I did nthing." "I left you and ran away." "We've been over that." "It's settled." "I thought so, too." "That's why I didn't remember what happened until now." "But seeing this face brought it all back to me so clearly." "I'm the daughter whose father fell into a sea of flames." "And I ran away from it." "A human being like that has no right to be happy." "That's totally absurd." "Remember, daddy?" "I came to and the house was collapsed on top of us." "I knew something terrible'd happened." "I didn't know what." "I just knew I had to get out from under there." "I managed to wriggle my way out." "But you couldn't budge." "You just lay there... on your back with pillars, beams, and all these pieces of wood... everywhere on top of you." "Somebody, come and save my daddy!" "?" "So I screamed." "But nobody came." "The same sort of thing was happening all over Hiroshima." "I had no saw r ax, not even a mallet." "I tried to lift up a big pillar." "I tried everything but it didn't work." "You did all you could have." "Then I smelled this acrid smoky smell." "I saw our hair and eyebrows were... on fire, crackling..." "You tried to cover me." "Over again, you put out the flames that came off me." "I was grateful." "But I knew we'd both die if you kept on doing that." "So I said?" "Get out of here!" "?" "You said?" "No, I won't!" "?" "So we repeated?" "Get out!" "?" "No, I won't?" "Then you said?" "Okay, let's play scissors-paper-rock." "put out a rock." "You don't have a prayer for winning?" "Ready or not, here I go!" "There you go again." "I see through you." "Since I was a kid... you've let me win like this." "You were so kind... why not put out paper?" "Can't yu see I want you to win?" "Show a little respect for me and run away." "Do as your father says for this one last time." "If you don't run away, die on your right here and now." "You see?" "Both your surviving and my dying were based on a mutual agreement." "But the fact is, I left you ther" "Ishoulïve died beside you." "You're so stupid!" "How did you ever get so stupid, eh?" "What did you learn at schools?" "Uh, I..." "Listen to me!" "When you were next to me, yu cried and told me... how inhuman it all was... that we had to part like this." "Remember?" "Then I said to you..." "A parting like this should never happen again." "It's not human?" "Maybe you were able to hear my last words..." "Live my life for me too?" "So you will go on living because of me." "Go on living?" "Yes." "So that the world will remember... too many people have had to say goodbye like that." "Isn't your library to tell people those things?" "Isn't your job to tell people sad things and happy things?" "If you don't even know that... there's n way i can ever depend on you." "Have some other child instead." "Some other child?" "A grandchild... a great grandchild." "When will I see you again?" "Depends on you." "Might be a while." "I forgot to top up the firewod." "Daddy... thank you!"