"THE TUNNEL" "Private Noguchi!" "Yes, Commander!" "You..." "Commander, is it true?" "Was I really killed in action?" "I I can't believe I'm really dead." "I went home. I ate the special cakes my mother made for me." "I remember it well." "You told me that before." "You were shot." "You fainted." "Then you woke up. I was tending you and you told me that story." "It was a dream." "You dreamt it while you were unconscious." "It was so strong I still remember it." "But after five minutes or so you died." "You really died." "I see." "But my parents don't believe I'm dead." "That's my home." "My mother and father are there still waiting for me." "But it's a fact." "You died." "I'm so sorry, but you died." "You're really dead." "You died in my arms." "Noguchi!" "Halt!" "Salute the Commander!" "Present arms!" "At ease!" "Third Platoon returning to base, sir." "No casualties." "Listen." "I understand how you must feel." "Nevertheless the third Platoon was annihilated." "You were all killed in action." "I'm sorry." "I wasn't killed. I survived." "I can hardly look you in the face." "I sent you out to die." "I was to blame." "I could place all the responsibility on the stupidity of war." "But I can't blame that." "I can't deny my thoughtlessness." "My misconduct." "However I was taken prisoner." "I suffered so much in the camp that I felt dying was easier." "And now as I look at you I feel that same pain." "I know that your suffering and torture were much greater." "But honestly I I would have wanted to die with you." "I really would have." "Believe me." "I feel your bitterness." "They call you "heroes" but you died like dogs." "However returning to the world like this proves nothing." "Please!" "Go back." "Go back and rest in peace." "Third Platoon!" "About face!" "Forward march!" "SUNSHINE THROUGH THE RAIN" "You're staying home." "The sun is shining, but it's raining." "Foxes hold their wedding processions in this weather." "And they don't like anyone to see them." "If you do, they'll be very angry." "You went and saw  something you shouldn't have." "I can't let you in now." "An angry fox came looking for you." "He left this." "You're supposed to kill yourself." "Go quickly and ask their forgiveness." "Give the knife back and tell them how sorry you are." "They don't usually forgive." "You must be ready to die." "Get going." "Unless they forgive you, I can't let you in." "But I don't know where they live." "You'll find out." "On days like this there are always rainbows." "Foxes live under the rainbows." "THE PEACH ORCHARD" "Take this, big sister." "Thanks." "Weren't there six of you?" "You were six, so I brought six of them." "You're wrong." "But you can have the extra one." "I already had mine." "That's strange." "There were six of you." "Has anyone left?" "No." "I'm sure there was one more." "Don't be silly." "That's enough." "Now leave us alone." "She's there." "Who?" "A girl." "No one's there." "She was there." "You have another fever?" "Tell me who is she?" "Are you all right?" "Wait!" "Where are you going?" "You're not allowed out." "Hey there, little boy!" "We have something to tell you." "Listen carefully." "We'll never go to your house again." "Why not?" "Your family cut down all the peach trees  in this orchard." "But "Doll Day" is for the peach blossoms." "It's to celebrate their arrival." "We dolls personify the peach tree." "We are the spirits of the trees, the life of the blossoms." "How can you celebrate with these trees cut down?" "Those vanished trees are weeping in their sorrow." "Don't cry." "Tears won't help." "Stop blaming him." "This child cried when they cut down our trees." "He even tried to stop them." "Yes." "Because he likes peaches." "No!" "Peaches can be bought." "But where can you buy a whole orchard in bloom?" "I love this orchard and the peach trees which bloomed here." "But they're not here anymore." "That's why I cried." "Very well. I understand." "He is a good boy." "Shall we allow him to see our peach orchard in bloom once more?" "THE blizzard... lt's getting dark again." "It'll soon be night." "Don't be stupid." "We only left camp only a few hours ago." "But we left late." "We overslept." "It can't be." "It's only eleven." "Your watch is broken." "No." "The hands are moving." "The snow makes it seem dark." "Another storm's coming." "Hurry up." "Let's move!" "Are we on course?" "Of course we are." "We'll get through this gorge very soon." "Our camp isn't far." "We'll soon be there." "Enough!" "I'm sick of listening to you." "I've had it." "Get up!" "Get on your feet!" "Walk!" "We're mountain men." "Can't let a snowstorm beat us." "It's been like this for three days." "This snowstorm will never be over." "Don't be stupid." "Never!" "It's waiting for us to die!" "All right." "A short break." "Someone's coming!" "Yes." "Somebody's coming!" "No one's coming!" "It's an illusion!" "Don't fall asleep!" "If you do you'll die!" "Wake up!" "Stay awake!" "Wake up!" "Don't sleep!" "The snow is warm." "The ice is hot." "Wake up!" "Are you all right?" "Wake up!" "Come on!" "Look!" "Look at that!" "Our camp." "Our camp." "CROWS" "Hello." "Do you know where Vincent Van Gogh lives?" "You looking for him?" "He crossed the bridge and went that way." "Thanks." "But be careful." "He's been in a lunatic asylum." "Aren't you Vincent Van Gogh?" "MOUNT FUJI in RED" "What is it?" "What's happening?" "Has Fuji erupted?" "How terrible." "It's worse than that!" "Didn't you know?" "The nuclear power plant has exploded." "The six atomic reactors." "They're exploding one after another." "Japan is so small there's no escape." "We all know that." "No way out." "But still we have to try." "No other way." "This is the end." "But what happened?" "Where did all those people go?" "Where did they escape to?" "To the bottom of the sea." "The dolphins." "Even they're leaving." "Lucky dolphins." "They can swim away." "It won't help." "The radioactivity will get them." "The clouds the red one." "It's Plutonium-239." "10,000,000th of a gram causes cancer." "The yellow one is strontium-90." "It gets inside you and causes leukemia." "The purple one is cesium-137." "It affects reproduction." "It causes mutations." "It makes monstrosities." "Man's stupidity is unbelievable." "Radioactivity was invisible." "And because of its danger, they colored it." "But that only lets you know which kind kills you." "Death's calling card." "See you later." "Wait!" "Radiation doesn't kill you at once." "So what?" "A slow death is even worse." "I refuse to die slowly, adults dying" "They've lived long enough already." "But the children haven't even lived yet. lt's unfair." "Waiting to die isn't living." "They told us that nuclear plants were safe." "Human accident is the danger, not the nuclear plant itself." "No accidents, no danger." "That's what they told us." "What liars!" "If they're not hanged for this, I'll kill them myself." "Don't worry." "The radioactivity will do that for you." "I'm sorry." "I am one of those who deserve to die." "THE weeping DEMON" "Human, aren't you?" "What's wrong?" "Are you a demon?" "I suppose so." "But I used to be human." "What a world." "How stupid!" "Long ago this place was a beautiful field of flowers." "Then those nuclear bombs, those missiles turned it into this desert." "Now because of all that fallout strange flowers grow." "Dandelions." "Dandelions?" "Monster dandelions." "This is a rose." "The stem grows from the flower and a strange bud at the top." "This is all radiation polluted." "It makes this mutation." "The flowers are crippled." "Not only flowers." "Human beings, too." "Look at me." "Stupid mankind did this." "It made our planet a junkyard for poisonous wastes." "Nature has vanished from the earth, the nature we used to enjoy." "We've lost the birds, animals, fish." "Some time ago I saw a two-faced hare a one-eyed bird and a hairy fish." "How do you eat then?" "There's no food!" "We feed on ourselves." "The weak ones go first." "It's about my turn now." "Even here, we have grades." "One-horn demons like myself always get eaten by those who have two or three horns." "Before, they were powerful and pretentious." "And now they still throw their weight around as demons." "So, let them have their way." "Let them have all those horns." "So, let them live in torture, looking the way they do." "It's hell." "Worse than death." "They can't die even if they want to." "That's their punishment-- immortality." "Tortured by their sins they must suffer forever." "They'll eat me soon. I'll be released." "But I don't want to be eaten." "That's why I'm running away." "But then I get so hungry that I feel disgusted with myself." "I was a farmer when I was a man." "I dumped gallons of milk in the river to keep the prices up." "I buried potatoes and cabbages with a bulldozer." "How stupid!" "Hear that?" "When night comes those famous demons scream out in pain." "Their horns hurt them worse than a cancer." "They pray for death, but are condemned to live in pain for eternity." "But no one kills them." "So they just scream." "Come, I'll show you." "You'll see how they cry." "My horn's beginning to hurt, too." "Go away." "Go where?" "Do you want to become a demon, too?" "VILLAGE OF THE WATERMILLS" "Good day." "Good day." "Good day." "Good day." "What's the name of this village?" "Doesn't have one." "We just call it "The Village"." "Some people call it Watermill Village." "Do all the villagers live here?" "No." "They live in other places." "There's no electricity here?" "Don't need it." "People get too used to convenience." "They think convenience is better." "They throw out what's truly good." "But what about lights?" "We've got candles and linseed oil." "But night's so dark." "Yes." "That's what night is supposed to be." "Why should night be as bright as day?" "I wouldn't like nights so bright you couldn't see the stars." "You have paddles." "But no tractors to cultivate them?" "Don't need them." "We've got cows, and horses." "What do you use for fuel?" "Firewood mostly." "We don't feel right, chopping down trees, but enough fall down by themselves." "We cut them up and use them as firewood." "And if you make charcoal from the wood just a few trees can give you as much heat as a whole forest." "Yes, and cow dung make good fuel, too." "We try to live the way man used to." "That's the natural way of life." "People today have forgotten they're really just a part of nature." "Yet, they destroy the nature on which our lives depend." "They always think they can make something better." "Especially scientists." "They may be smart but most don't understand the heart of nature." "They only invent things that in the end make people unhappy." "Yet they're so proud of their inventions." "What's worse, most people are, too." "They view them as if they were miracles." "They worship them." "They don't know it, but they're losing nature." "They don't see that they're going to perish." "The most important things for human beings are clean air and clean water and the trees and grass that produce them." "Everything is being dirtied polluted forever." "Dirty air, dirty water dirtying the hearts of men." "On my way here, I happened to see some children putting flowers on a stone beside the bridge." "Why?" "Oh, that." "My father told me once." "Long ago a sick traveller died by the bridge." "The villagers took pity and buried him right there." "They placed a large stone on his tomb and put flowers on it." "It became a custom to put flowers there." "Not only the children." "All the villagers put flowers there as they pass though most don't know why." "is there a celebration today?" "No, a funeral." "You find this strange?" "A nice, happy funeral." "It's good to work hard and live long and then be thanked." "We have no temple or priest here." "So all the villagers carry the dead to the cemetery on the hill." "We don't like it when young adults or children die." "It's hard to celebrate such a loss." "But fortunately the people of this village lead a natural way of life." "So they pass on at a ripe old age." "The woman we're burying today lived to be ninety-nine." "You must excuse me but I'm going to join the procession." "To tell the truth she was my first love." "But broke my heart and left me for another." "By the way, how old are you?" "Me?" "One hundred-plus three." "A good age to stop living." "Some say life is hard." "That's just talk." "In fact, it's good to be alive." "It's exciting."