 Bombing during World War II resulted in whole urban populations fleeing to the countryside, and this created a meeting of urban and rural cultures. Shinji (a young boy evacuated from Tokyo) and his new schoolmates (who are villagers) don t exactly know what is going on in the war. They see the B-29 bombers and the glow of cities on fire, but the problems of being separated from one s mother and surviving among one s peers loom larger than international politics.