“Siblings”

A young boy and his little sister struggle to survive in Japan during World War II.

The story of Seita and Satsuko, two young Japanese siblings, living in the declining
days of World War II. When an American firebombing separates the two children
from their parents, the two siblings must rely completely on one another while
they struggle to fight for their survival.

—Kyle Perez
Japan, World War 2. Teenage boy Seita and his young sister Setsuko are left
homeless and effectively orphaned when their city is firebombed by US bombers.
They end up living with an aunt. Initially things go well and life seems almost
normal again. However, their relationship with their aunt deteriorates and Seita
and Setsuko decide to leave and fend for themselves. They find a place and things
seem to be going well. However, over time food gets scarcer and life becomes a
constant struggle for survival.

—grantss
Setsuko (aged 4) and Seita (aged 14) are brother and sister living in wartime
Japan. After their mother is killed in an air raid they find a temporary home with
relatives. Having quarreled with their aunt they leave the city and make their
home in an abandoned shelter. While their soldier father's destiny is unknown,
the two must depend on each other to somehow keep a roof over their heads and
food in their stomachs. When everything is in short supply, they gradually
succumb to hunger and their only entertainment is the light of the fireflies.

—Corrected by Liron
 Synopsis
The date is September 25th, 1945, shortly after the end of World War II. A young
boy sits against a pillar at Sannomiya Station, dying of starvation. Later that night,
a janitor removes his body and digs through his possessions, finding nothing but a
candy tin containing ashes and a few fragments of bone which he throws away
into a nearby field. From the tin springs the spirit of the young boy followed by his
little sister along with a cloud of fireflies. The spirit of the young boy, Seita
(Tsutomu Tatsumi, English: J. Robert Spencer), narrates the story of how he and
his sister, Setsuko (Ayano Shiraishi, English: Rhoda Chrosite), fared in the wake of
the firebombings of Kobe during the war.

14-year-old Seita and 4-year-old Setsuko live with their mother (Yoshiko
Shinohara), English: Veronica Taylor) comfortably in Kobe while their father
serves as a captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy. One day, air raid sirens go off
as a fleet of American B-29 Superfortress bombers flies overhead. The children's
mother, who suffers from a heart condition, puts Setsuko in the care of her older
brother and instructs him to secure the home while she goes ahead to a bomb
shelter. Hundreds of incendiary bombs are dropped on the city and most of the
civilians are caught off-guard. Seita and Setsuko manage to survive the bombing
unscathed and go in search of their mother. They find her at a makeshift clinic set
up within a school, horribly burnt and covered head to foot with bloody
bandages. She dies a short time later and is cremated in a mass grave with other
casualties.

Despite their loss, Seita is determined to care for Setsuko and protect her at all
costs. They travel to the home of their aunt (Akemi Yamaguchi, English: Amy
Jones) who allows them to stay but convinces Seita to sell his mother's kimonos
for rice. While living there, Seita goes out to retrieve leftover supplies he had
buried in the ground before the bombing and gives them all to his aunt, however,
he keeps one tin of fruit drops for himself. The children's aunt becomes
increasingly bitter due to the hardships brought on by the war. She becomes
resentful of the children as food rations shrink and she accuses Seita on having
done nothing to earn the food she cooks. Tired of his aunt's insults, Seita decides
to leave with Setsuko and care for her on his own. They find refuge inside an
abandoned bomb shelter and release fireflies within for light. Come morning,
Setsuko is horrified to find that all the fireflies have died. She creates a grave for
them in the dirt and Seita realizes the depth of her understanding when she asks
him why their mother had to die too.

The children soon run out of rice and food and, unable to find work or other
means, Seita is forced to steal from local farmers' homes during air raids. When
he is caught, he comes to terms with his desperation and takes an increasingly ill
Setsuko to a doctor. The doctor informs Seita that his sister is suffering from
malnutrition but offers no help. Desperate, Seita withdraws all of the money
remaining in his mother's bank account, hoping that it will be enough to treat
Setsuko or buy food. As he leaves the bank he becomes distraught when he learns
from a nearby crowd that Japan has surrendered to the Allied Forces. Not only
that, but he finds that the ship his father captained has been sunk along with
most of the Imperial Navy. His father, who had once promised him that Japan
could never be defeated. Seita returns to the bomb shelter with a heavy heart
and large quantities of food only to find Setsuko lying on the ground, hallucinating
and trying to encourage Seita to eat little rocks that she thinks are rice balls. Seita
hurries to prepare some food and gets Setsuko to try a bit of watermelon. She
thanks him and, exhausted, closes her eyes. She never wakes up.

Using supplies donated to him by a local farmer, Seita prepares a pyre and
cremates his sister's body. He places her ashes in the fruit drop tin which he keeps
with him beside a picture of their father. A few weeks later, he finds himself in
Sannomiya Station and dies of starvation. Illuminated by fireflies, the spirits of
Seita and Setsuko are seen together, healthy and happy, as they look down on the
modern city of Kobe.