It was first published in 1946 and was the basis of two films by Kon Ichikawa – one released in 1956 and a color remake in 1985.

A translation of the novel into English by Howard Hibbett was published in 1966 by Charles E. Tuttle Company in cooperation with UNESCO (ISBN 0-8048-0232-7).

Takeyama wrote the story wanting to give young readers hope after defeat in WWII by emphasizing the traditional Buddhist ideal of altruism, embodied in a soldier hero, Mizushima.

Captured by the British led Indian forces, following the surrender of Japan in July 1945, Mizushima is a harp-playing Japanese prisoner of war who volunteers to persuade a resisting Japanese unit to surrender.

In Takeyama's novel one of the soldiers talks of the "terrible trouble" which Japan has brought to Burma, and the hero soldier-become monk Mizushima criticizes Japan's colonial ambitions as "wasteful desires" and the Japanese having "forgotten the most important things in life", a perspective which is downplayed in the film.