A whale falls in love with a military submarine, and dies courting her. A mother caught in a fire following a bombing gives all her body's water to save her son, and her desiccated form turns into a kite. But bunkers can also become real homes, a small Japanese girl and an American POW briefly understand each other and a miraculous tree feeds starving children. This is war, no doubt, but told by someone who understands how children truly experience war and its aftermath - the bombings and parents' deaths, the life of orphans who roam the streets, the starvation and blind violence in a society beyond destruction.