Nagasaki

Saint Andre

This is the typical story of boy meets girl during WWII and it's pretty long but I suggest the read is worth it, please.

Set in the World War II, the original pilot set to drop the atomic in Japan Graham Westwood is fired from his job after a crash course incident that involves him sending a fellow military officer to hospital.

Now working as a novelty shop owner, he falls in love with Miya, a half-cast Japanese-English woman who is currently heading to her hometown of Urimi in Nagasaki, Japan to fulfill her dreams of dancing in front a vast crowd after practice and tutoring in Washington from her aunt.
Frustrated at the fact that he is the only victim aware of the bombing, he seemingly accepts Miya's offer to join her through an act of love. He brings a radio to give an indication of the following consequences. Japan contains certain reception points.

On the boat to Nagasaki, Graham and Miya embrace their love by bonding across the bridge ramp while the moon transcends beyond the Nagasaki snow mountains.
As he wakes in the morning Graham is confronted by a bulky, big-muscled officer named Lloyd Carney and Fry Freeman, a skinny, pencil-necked interactive walking inventory; they are American soldiers also aware of the bombing and are venturing to Urimi to evacuate the whole city, sent by the Southern Cross Army because of their ability to speak Hiragana, a Japanese language. Wishing them luck, Graham departs from the soldiers before explaining to the slumbered Miya that the ship has landed.

Touring through various towns and with the help of unusual transport such as elephants and chariots, they finally reach Urimi in the dawnlight, in between that time having essential moments.
Miya's father Kiroyuri and mother Renee comprehend with the fact that Graham is a former soldier of the military and is also 'American', but learn to deal with the most important fact that their daughter is deeply in love with him.

As they embrace their love by cuddling on the wharf where Miya had spent most of her childhood years watching the sunrise, she explains to Graham to help her gather together her closest relatives and friends at a village theatre in Urimi so they could see her fulfilling her dreams along with a few other performances, which is known as the Serpent Dance Festival.
Every morning and night at exactly 9:25 Graham listens to the radio to hear of daily news in a secret alleyway (the only one he knows of proper reception) and one day finds Fry half naked and shivering with gunshot wounds tattooed around his body, explaining to him that the Japanese Military Government had heard of their battlecry but had not responded because of their inhability to not properly speak Hiragana. Asking for Carney's whereabouts, Fry reveals that Lloyd had retaliated after swearing to a Japanese officer and had been shot in the head with the very gun that Fry has been holding in his hand, merely escaping the prison he had been held captive in; explaining to Graham that the bombing will occur in exactly two days at the 9th of August 1945.
Fry shoots himself in the head out of unknown guilt as Graham takes the gun and uses it to blow up the old radio that had been passed on from his father since World War I.
Suspiciously realizing that the bombing will occur at midnight after Miya's performance, regretfully Graham takes her to the wharf to tell her of the killer secret that he had been hiding. She runs away in anger.

At an awkward dinner, Kiroyuri's son Toshio explains that in the morning, an American had been killed by another fellow American soldier who had fleed with multiple guidance by Japanese police such as Roshio himself who had tried to calm down the killer who had escaped after tearing his seal rank off along with his shirt - perfectly comparing to the Fry and Lloyd incident that Fry had decently tried to explain to Graham. After dinner Miya meets Graham on a balcony where she is still mad at the news Graham had revealed to her but decides that she will be staying to fulfil her dream with which Graham is 100% abiding by, reconnecting their fading love.
Days pass by as they embrace the last few memories they have together with passion and love as they grow to a point where Miya's mother Renee tells Graham to marry her, as he takes the ring and slips it on Miya's finger just before her performance.

After a breathtaking dance in which the whole crowd stand and applause with awe and humility, Graham takes her to the wharf where they kiss. Miya cries as her dreams are made and cries even more when her wishes of having children and having to holding hands with Graham as old and wrinkled grandparents go down the drain.
Graham's eyes tighten and tears crash as he pulls out the gun that Fry had held and kills Miya out of love, knowing that the fateful consequence of the atomic bomb would involve a deadly result that she didn't deserve. As he hears the crowd screaming and chasing about in agony of the news that had finally reached them, Graham awaits the deathscream of the plane as the atomic bomb falls with the deceased Miya held deeply in his arms.

Graham Westwood and the whole city of Urimi is decimated in the bombing of Nagasaki.

As the ending prevails, a young Japanese school student in modern day 2008 recounts the fateful events of World War II and the casualties that had been made, drawing two people sitting off the wharf, the very one that she had been currently sitting on as homework for the Nagasaki disaster project her teacher had wanted.

A dedication to the 39, 000 people killed in Nagasaki.