Three levels of
diversity in childhood experience operate within “Grave of the Fireflies”
(1988. dir. Isao Takahata). Culture, war, and poverty expose a different kind of
childhood while critiquing adult responsibility and reaction to the experiences
of the children, Seita and Setsuko. Ultimately, the film represents the power
of familial bonds and their effect on these experiences.
The film begins with Seita’s death,
but his past and how he ended up starving in a train station is framed by a
train ride through Japan with his sister, Setsuko. From the train we travel to
the time of the air raid that killed their mother and destroyed their home,
then to the town where they stayed with distant relatives, and finally to the
shelter where they tried to survive on their own.
“Grave of the Fireflies” takes place
in Japan during World War II. The film is unique for its Japanese point of view,
and that the story is told through the medium of anime. The music sounds like a
Japanese lullaby, which emphasizes the culture and age group of the film’s
perspective. The juxtaposition of animation and soft music with the harsh
reality of war accentuates the haunting nature of this childhood experience. This
reminds me of our class conversation about Malick’s “Days of Heaven” and the
Great Depression being made accessible through the lens of a child. However,
for me, the film becomes harder to process because of the cruelty these
children have to endure. Like the documentary “Promises,” which tells the tale
of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the viewpoint of kids, “Grave of the
Fireflies” also shares a side of the story that often goes unheard.
No
child should ever have to witness piles of bodies, which include their own
mother, being burned in a ditch, but they do because their childhood coincides
with wartime. As a high schooler, I
learned about the atrocities of war, but always from an American textbook. The
atom bombs dropped toward the end were not the only part of the war to
devastate the country. There is devastation long before with families torn
apart because of military service and death by bombing. Seita and Setsuko are
orphaned, and Seita is thrust into adulthood to provide for himself and his
sister.
I
have never experienced war or poverty. I have grown up in a world where adults
help me. The severity of Seita and Setsuko’s experience is realized as the
audience witnesses that their starvation and malnutrition was preventable. The
aunt they live with for a time does not experience the same sympathy for the
children that we do. She adds insult to injury and berates Seita for being lazy
when in reality he is living to keep his sister happy. Another adult catches
him stealing after they have started living on their own in an abandoned bomb
shelter and beats Seita. There is no consideration of what he has been through
until the local authority takes pity on him and dismisses the villager that
already punished Seita for his “crime.” A doctor tells them the obvious, all
they need is food to be well again, but in desperation and discouragement,
Setsuko cries, “WHERE AM I SUPPOSED TO GET FOOD?”
In
spite of all Seita does to tend to his sister’s needs, Setsuko passes away. She
has also grown within the harsh realities of war. Her tantrums were comforted
by fruit drops, but in the end she realizes her and her brother being together
is the most important thing. She pretends to have made rice cakes with rocks
she offers Seita wanting to give back to him for all that he has done. But
Seita dies shortly after and the audience can infer that it was their
relationship and his love and responsibility for her that kept him alive. This
co-dependency has evidence in the science of human development, but is
displayed so heartbreakingly through the perspective of the children
themselves.
The
narrative puts a new perspective at the center of the film. Childhood sheds a
different light on war and poverty, one where the light of fireflies and family
love are the only things that provide real comfort when basic needs fail. Setsuko
asks, “Why must fireflies die so young?” and the audience is left to ask the
same of these children.
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