1940, Pingfang, Harbin District, State (Modern North-eastern China)

As Haruto Kurosawa returns from the local market at the day's end, he counts the meagre sum of 50 Yen he had earned by selling a menagerie of items he could salvage from his backyard garden and wonders how he will be able to make ends meet for the upcoming week. After the surreptitious bombing had left his ancestral farmlands in an infernal hellish landscape something straight out of his childhood nightmares and the midnight air raids that have raided the local community, Haruto has been struggling ever since to support his family.

"No matter the age of men or place, war...war's ugly face... it never changes," he thought to himself.

Walking back along the dusty dirt-strewn road with countless claw marks of the horrific war that had left in its wake, he ruminates on his past life thinking about where did it all go so catastrophically wrong. Ever the naïve and optimistic, Haruto, a farmer by profession, had always thought of settling down for a peaceful life with his parents and extended family but all those dreams had now been shattered into countless pieces once the war had begun. Recently widowed, Haruto had lost his wife in one of the bombing raids who had left behind him with his only son, Ishikawa, now 3 months of age. As he enters his humble war-torn shack of an abode, he is greeted by his elderly father and the cries of his newborn son while his mother gently comforts him by offering him a cup of hot tea.

"Don't worry my child, something will soon turn up, have faith in the Gods" his mother exclaims as she prepares to warm the vestiges of food left in the kitchen when Haruto forbids him to have some as he needs to keep some food aside for his son.

As he takes a quiet walk by the seashores to escape the mundane reality, Haruto is greeted by Tetsuo, an old acquaintance of his. As the old pals catch up when Haruto asks him the real reason, he had come from across the town when Tetsuo reveals he had come in search of a decent paying job in these trying times and as luck would have it, has found an opportunity. Near the newly erected edifice on the outskirts of the Harbin district, a lumbering project at the Zhongma Fortress has opened up with a few vacancies still left to be filled. Overjoyed with the prospect of such an opportunity Haruto agrees but with a singular thought lingering on his mind as to who will take care of his family while he's gone. Haruto ponders over the prospect of such a golden opportunity all the while mulling over the fact of his family's safety, and after a brief heartfelt conversation with his parents, he decides to embark upon his journey.