When mentioning that title, you may easily recognize: “Oh! What a beautiful cover!". That is your impression? Above all, what lingers in my mind are the lines filled with tears, a story that renders me restless…
The book is about the life of a traditional Japanese family during the year of 1945. Poverty, chaos, constant suffering,… Not only are these words enough to recount the context of Japan at the time, but they also are the specific depiction of the life of the family of two siblings that are the two main characters Seita and Setsuko. Like any other child, Seita and Setsuko once lived happily under the same roof as both of their parents. But when war came, the father had to join the battle while the mother was later killed by bombs, leaving behind the two helpless children who sought shelter in the alienation and deceptive care of their aunt.
Hunger caused them to live in a dark, damp cave where they considered home: “Darkness in the cave at night dyed everything black. Hooking the mosquito net to the pillar, the two siblings went inside, hearing the sound of mosquitoes buzzing in herds outside of the net, unconsciously coming closer."
The children lacked everything, from food, water to the protection of their family, but at least they had each other. The hunger forced the brother to "steal new cucumbers or fresh tomatoes the size of a pinky from the local vegetable gardens" so as to feed his malnourished younger sister. At the time, the sole light that Seita and Setsuko found solace in was of the fireflies taken inside the net as night light. Although it was weak, flickering and "insufficient to clearly see each other's faces", it was "somehow reassuring".
How could two small children like that survive in such a world where war devoured humankind like an evil monster. A world which caused the death of Setsuko due to malnutrition and the demise of Seita on the same day that Japan imposed the policy for orphans. Oh! How heartbreaking!
Closing the book, it seemed that the glimmer of the fireflies in the net under the damp shelter and the fireflies which flew out of Setsuko's urn kept lurking in my mind... The tragic life of Nosaka Akiyuki - the author of "Grave of the fireflies" himself - became a slow-motion film that is haunting and timeless, just as what war left behind. And at that moment, I just wished my heart was stone cold so as not to cry at these words...
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