Animated film based on the Okinawa nurse aides of WWII; as the wounded are brought in from the front the Himeyuri struggle to give aide under desperate situations.
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MUD & GRACE:
[Endless rain, mud, night. An Imperial Army hospital truck bringing wounded to the 3rd Surgery Unit. Nurses unloading countless bodies.]
Tira: How many came in this time?
Ashitomi: Eleven, I think.
Higa: I counted thirteen, but one is dead, I think. He lost his face.
Katsuko: Please, I need a stretcher!
[Cut to: stretchers, Himeyuri hauling bodies into the caves. Ashitomi hurrying from body to body, checking bandages. The wounded are grouped depending on the type of treatment they need to receive, almost all are amputations. In one corner untreated gangrene cases toss about in agony; their limbs swelled dark and grotesquely]
Wounded Soldier #1: Wunai … please, wunai …
Ashitomi: Yes? What is the matter?
Wounded Soldier #1: I am … so ashamed. Please, I need to go to the bathroom … I can’t move, it’s been two days … please.
[Cut to: Ashitomi bends down to pick up a bed pan only to find it is half-full with urine. She undoes the wounded man’s trousers and helps slide them down. As the man urinates Ashitomi tries not to vomit. They are both highly embarrassed]
Wounded Soldier #2: Wuani-gami, it hurts! Please kill me!
Kohitsuji: Brain fever … gangrene … tetanus … he will die soon … he is not even human now.
[Cut to: A small antechamber set off from the cave. Kohitsuji helps hold down the leg of a screaming boy. There is no pain killer. A doctor takes an old saw and begins to slice the leg off. The boy twists and screams in pain. Suddenly his eyes go blank and the screaming stops but the doctor keeps cutting into the boy as if so exhausted he can do nothing else]
Wounded Soldier #3 [sitting up in bed and shouting]: Hey! You bastard!
[The man jumps up and grabs a small, wounded officer, begins choking him]
Wounded Soldier #3: You bastard! You ordered us to attack yesterday! You! You killed everyone! You ordered us to attack knowing we would all die! I will kill you!
Ashitomi [rushing over]: Please, sir! Please let go!
Wounded Soldier #3 [slowly turning around in disbelief] : Idiot! What do you know? You are a child! Why are you even here? [strikes Ashitomi who lands in mud and urine and feces. Kohitsuji and Katsuko rush over to help her up]
Ashitomi: Me? Me? I’m the idiot? We are in hell and I’m the idiot?
Wounded Boy: We are forsaken … Forsaken! Where is my honor? Don’t let me die this way … give my death meaning … my death … my death!!
