Japan, Our Homeland

Synopsis

It was the spring of 1956, nearly a decade after the Pacific War had drawn to a close. At a small elementary school in the Kiba district of central Tokyo, a new teacher by the name of Rieko Sakamoto arrives to take up her post. Around the same time, a transfer student from Kobe named Shizu Miyanaga walks into the sixth-grade class, section four. Shizu is a charming and intelligent girl with aspirations of becoming a singer, and her talents—both in the classroom and on the playing field—quickly make her the focus of attention among her classmates. Akira, the son of a carpenter and the elected class representative, begins to find his heart drawn toward Shizu in ways he hadn't expected...