Grave of the Fireflies (1988): The Morality of War

My sister and I watched a movie that broke my heart so many times I thought I was at my limit. Grave of the Fireflies (1988) is a story inspired by true events that follows two siblings who attempt to survive in Japan during World War II. IMDb gave it a score of 8.5/10 and Rotten Tomatoes gave it an incredible 100%.

I think the 100% meant you will 100% hate war more than you already did before watching the film. Stories like this aren’t usually told from the perspective of children in real scenarios. The cost of war is not a usual topic of conversation. Maybe because it is too horrible to repeat, and humans would rather forget the traumas unleashed from their own political choices.

But war still continues regardless of the tragedies that have affected humanity.

Only ten minutes into the film, it is made clear that the two siblings die at the end, but this information does not dissuade the viewer from going on the journey of their story with them, perhaps even holding onto a glimmer of hope that they make it out alive unlike the opening scene suggests.

In the film, the brother of the pair is older and cares for his toddler-aged sister by stealing food, starving himself to give her food, taking her to the doctor for malnutrition, and convincing adults to take them in, among other impossible circumstances.

Despite the brother's best efforts to keep them alive and safe, both siblings die of starvation and the final scene shows the two of them together in the afterlife where they can be free and content. It is meant to be a hopeful ending, despite the fact that their deaths could have been prevented.

My sister looked up the inspiration for the film and discovered that the author of the story was a journalist in Japan during WWII and witnessed unprecedented suffering. In a post online, a young boy (maybe 7 or 8 years old) was photographed carrying the dead body of his baby sibling on his back. The photographer of the image claimed that he watched the young boy walk over to a pit of burning bodies in the middle of town, and soldiers and townspeople helped him remove his sibling from his pack and place her in the fire. The photographer said the boy didn’t cry, but watched the flames consume his sister and then walked away, barefoot and without a plan of direction.

It is foul and puts the worst of human atrocities into perspective. It begs the question, why are we still at war?

Hamas and Israel are at each other’s throats in the Gaza Strip, Ukraine and Russia have lost lives on both sides. When will the killing stop? Is it for land? Religion? Resources?

Does it matter what it’s for when the means to not justify the ends?

War, or reasons for war cannot be objectively moral because culture, history, and social climate vary around the world. Humans have been exercising battle practice against one another since the dawn of time. Granted, the ancient reasons were likely to attain food for survival, and the strongest tribes won out. Today, war is fought over ideas. Political, religious, or environmental ideas that do not align with our neighbors or other world leaders.

At what point does it stop? Will there ever be a time when humans do not feel the need to kill one another for these reasons? Maybe a new reason will be invented. Is it hardwired in our DNA to compete?

It's a confusing time we live in; in a world where chicken wings can be delivered right to your door, but also a world where kids are being trafficked daily by adults, they should be able to trust.

It sounds like a fable about a clearly infantile society.

I hate to sound like a pessimist, but it is difficult to feel a sense of nationalism for your country when nationalism has directly or indirectly been the cause of mass murder in our world's history. But aren’t most humans from across the planet guilty of a bias that could plant conflict in their region or the regions around them? Values can anchor us, but they can also isolate us from the goal of coexisting.

I suppose the real question is, when will it end, or will war evolve?

I look forward to a time when war is remembered as a symptom of the Dark Ages of mankind, and modern humans work diligently to not repeat the same egregious acts that inspire films like Grave of the Fireflies (1988).