[2][3] During the last weeks of the Pacific War, naval NCO and crypto specialist Murakami, stationed in Bonotsu, receives a marching order to Sakurajima.
Murakami arrives in Sakurajima, a military post awaiting the imminent invasion of American troops and the launch base of kamikaze flights.
Personally in doubt that Japan can still win the war, Murakami is confronted with disillusioned soldiers, roistering young kamikaze pilots, and rigid commanding officer Kira, who forbids any defeatist thoughts.
Sakurajima was first published in September 1946 in the magazine Sunao (素直),[4] which was edited by poet and social activist Shin'ichi Eguchi.
[7] The novella established Umezaki as a representative of Japanese postwar literature along writers like Hiroshi Noma and Rinzō Shiina.