Harukos Doll

In the early days of the Showa era in Matsuyama Ehime Prefecture a newborn baby is abandoned with a doll under the eaves of a merchant house along the pilgrimage route in Shikoku It seems to be a pilgrim struggling to make a living This baby girl is named Haruko and brought by Tomita Shizuko and Katsuji as the younger sister of their son Ryosuke who is three years apart When the war begins 16year old Ryosuke qualifies for the naval academy and crosses the Seto Inland Sea After some consideration Shizuko tells Haruko the truth that they are not real siblings for the first time Haruko who has had a secret crush on her brother ever since he said that he would protect her is innocently overjoyed and heads to Hiroshima to convey this to him The next day an atomic bomb explodes in the sky