History and the regular people who lived during significant eras is a hobby of mine. This is great slice of life drama Special that doesn't harp on the horrors of war nor does it glide over it. The facts are what they are. This is a story of the descendants of survivors finding their story.
What is great is that it is not heavy handed with blame or propaganda, it is just living and surviving. It covers topics such as Survivor's Guilt and PTSD and Atomic Bomb Disease (aka radiation poisoning). It also covers that is okay to be happy even if terrible things have happened.
From the same mangaka (Kouno Fumiyo) who gave us that masterpiece which is "Kono Sekai no Katasumi Ni" aka "In This Corner of the World", this "Yunagi no Machi, Sakura no Kuni" aka "Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms" is just as good, though much shorter. They had already adapted it into a movie in 2007 - though not having been able to find and watch that, I can't unfortunately compare that movie with this dorama. I can compare the dorama and the manga, though, and of course (as it happens, like, 99% of the time) the original version wins hands down. That is not to say that the dorama is bad, though, 'cause it isn't - heck, it's pretty damn good if you ask me! But some of it got lost in the adaptation - and seriously, I don't understand why they felt the need to change a coupla details and even add some scenes which weren't there to begin with. Still, the script is solid and the acting very good. The story is heartbreakingly sad, of course, but if you shed some tears watching this, good: those tears might help you remember what happened on that terrible day, August the 6th, 1945. And we'd better remember, because as the famous quote of George Santayana goes, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". p.s. If you haven't read the manga before watching this, my guess is that you might appreciate it more than I did. In any case, I wholeheartedly suggest you read the manga as well, 'cause it's simply a masterpiece.
