This is a difficult drama to rate because even now somewhere in the world people are facing situation like this due to war and corrupt governments. Prior to the war, Japanese young men were eager to join the military thanks to the clever propaganda of the military government of that time. They played serving the country and the emperor as the most noble thing a person can do up to the hilt. People believed that Japan was invincible emerging from their recent victory over Russia on Russo-Japanese war. If you're winning, you can do no wrong, and certainly the Japanese military was seen in that light by its citizens. People were not smart at picking up real from the made up stories about the world told by the media. If this sound's like the current situation of some country we know of, you are very observant, and this was the real message the author of this story Akiyuki Nosaka wanted to convey.
If you abandon the right to make your decision, someone else will make it for you. In Japan the culprit was easy to understand dictator named Tojo who pretended to honor the emperor but was running his own agenda. He assassinated his political adversaries, and people who didn't agree with him in the military. The end result was the suffering like you see in this drama.
Japan went from relatively affluent country to situation seen in this movie in just five years. It shows that this can happen to anybody's country.
War is not the evil. It's people who plan for war is. Nosaka's story is a hard reminder not to forget this to a generation who've never experienced war. I know of him somewhat personally, and he would be happy that this story is seen around the world.
