In the midst of World War II, Seita (Tsutomu Tatsumi) and Setsuko (Ayano Shiraishi) who have just lost their mother and home due to American bombings while their father still serves in Japan Navy, must survive the war on their own. At first, they go to their aunt's house, but because of her bad treatment to them, they decide to take shelter in a cave. Will they survive?
Through this movie, director Isao Takahata tries to depict how times of tribulation and hardship, like a war, can kill the goodness inside all of us. The death of Seita and Setsuko (it's not a spoiler if the movie has already told you in the beginning that they are going to die) is a symbol of how innocence, metaphorically and literally, is the most ironic victim in a war.
The movie, which is based on a short story by Akiyuki Nosaka, tells you steps of how innocence can finally dies in a brutal war.
The first one is the death of Seita and Setsuko's mother and destruction of their home. Not only that but the city where they grew up, the sanctuary and comfort zone they have been taken for granted all this time, has now become a mess beyond recognition. Public hall where they used to have lunch has gone, wherever they see now is a burned rubble, dead people, and crying people struggling to find their loved ones. It's a sign that privilege that they have as a child to live under the warmth of loving parents in a safe home has now been taken away, and they must face the cold, harsh world since they're very young in a dangerous time.
The next one is the death of decency and the rise of egoism. In the time of scarcity, survival and self importance have become the norms, while generosity has eroded away. Seita and Setsuko escape to their aunt's (Akemi Yamaguchi) house, and her treatment to them is nice at first, but when she finally knows that their mother has died and she stuck with them for undetermined time, her manners is changed. She takes their beloved mother's kimonos to be traded with rice. After that, she gives the rice mostly to her husband and daughter, while the poor kids only get porridge.
She tells them that she does that because the kids are lazy and only doing nothing. But the reality is, she treats the kids badly because the food are scarce in war time, no matter how much money you got, food are rationed per family. If you don't have a family, you won't get food. Because of that, of course she prioritizes her family instead of her sister's children. Besides, factory where Seita used to work has been bombed and his school has burnt down, what else he can do as a kid? Scarcity has stripped away aunt's compassion.
The kids finally can't take it anymore and they decide to go from their aunt's house and live in a cave that used to be a shelter during air raids. You may think that they have made a stupid decision, but hey, who can blame them? They're just a kid, with no guidance, and all they want is to live happily just like when their mother was still alive. Since they don't get that happiness in the aunt's house, they decide to make their own way, knowing that their mother has left them some money in the bank. Hope and naivety are the signs of innocence, right?
Living in the cave, they find out that reality is not as beautiful as they imagine, and that brings us to the next step, death of a system. Since the beginning, there are no support systems for kids who have the same fate like Seita and Setsuko. Even families who survive must have their food rationed, how can homeless children stand a chance? When the money runs out, they eat whatever they could find, scallops, frogs, and plants that grow around the cave. When those run out too, they try to ask for kindness from people around the cave. But the farmers even don't have enough food to feed their families, how can they give away little food they have to others? So Seita finally resorts to stealing, but that doesn't work out too, and he ends up gets beaten when he gets caught.
It's not only food, but the health system is also screwed up. When Setsuko finally gets sick from malnutrition, Seita brings her to a doctor, only to find out that the doctor can do nothing for her, only suggests her to get some food, but that's exactly the thing they can't afford right now. In war time, the system is broken and the homeless children have no hope to survive. It seems that the lucky ones died in the bombings, and those unlucky ones must endure starvation to death.
The final step is when empathy has crumbled away. It's shown when the man who gives Seita charcoal to burn Setsuko's body, talks of Setsuko's death like it is nothing. He even gets a chance to say that despite of it all, the weather is fine. People who pass by Seita's dying body in train station also show signs of disgust instead of pity. It seems that they have seen enough death and suffering, their empathy have become numb.
When Seita and Setsuko finally die, death of the innocence is complete, not only the children who really are innocent and know nothing, but also innocence that lie inside all of us. Who's to blame for the death of children like Seita and Setsuko in the war? The aunt? Society? Japan government? If you say of course it's American military's fault, well, who bombed Pearl Harbor first? In the end, we all take a blame in the war, and the time first war siren rings, we all lose our innocence. And the final scene where Seita and Setsuko's spirits watch over modern Japan, it's a reminder of us to never let our innocence lost again.
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