A grandmother, prompted both by her grandchildren and by a visit from her Japanese-American nephew, recalls the death of her husband when the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The children learn the importance of remembering the past and of placing blame on war itself as opposed to the foreigners who waged it. It is a lesson that is challenged when the nephew arrives from America. Kurosawa’s subject here is the process of memory and commemoration, played out on both the personal and social levels. Expressive silence conveys a reflective mode of experience as the quality of silence differs by generation.