Minetaro Hirai

The story is set in a village in the southern Japanese prefecture of Kōchi during World War II. Even in this remote mountainous area, the perception of American and British people as "brutes" has taken root, due to the deaths and injuries among the villagers' relatives. A elementary schoolgirl named Eiko transfers from the city of Yokohama to this village. Eiko happens to have blue eyes from her American father, and her classmates make no attempt to rein in their bullying. Other than Eiko's homeroom teacher Akiko, even the teachers view Eiko the same way that the children do. However, a boy named Kenta views Eiko more with curiosity than with hostility. The children's lives change as the injured father of one of Kenta's classmates returns from the battlefield and news of more casualties arrives in the village.

Kiku-chan to Ookami, one of the Sensou Douwa wartime specials, follows a young Japanese settler girl in Manchukuo, Japan’s puppet state in occupied northeast China, during the final days of World War II. As Soviet forces enter Manchuria and Japan’s colonial rule collapses, Kiku’s family joins other settlers fleeing south toward Korea in the hope of returning to Japan. When Kiku falls ill with measles, the refugee group abandons her, leaving her behind to die. Alone in the wilderness, Kiku is found by an old wolf who first sees her as prey. But as the wolf watches over the helpless child, hunger gives way to a strange, fragile bond. With soldiers, fire, illness, and starvation closing in, can Kiku survive long enough to be found?

The story is set in a village in the southern Japanese prefecture of Kōchi during World War II. Even in this remote mountainous area, the perception of American and British people as "brutes" has taken root, due to the deaths and injuries among the villagers' relatives. A elementary schoolgirl named Eiko transfers from the city of Yokohama to this village. Eiko happens to have blue eyes from her American father, and her classmates make no attempt to rein in their bullying. Other than Eiko's homeroom teacher Akiko, even the teachers view Eiko the same way that the children do. However, a boy named Kenta views Eiko more with curiosity than with hostility. The children's lives change as the injured father of one of Kenta's classmates returns from the battlefield and news of more casualties arrives in the village.

Kiku-chan to Ookami, one of the Sensou Douwa wartime specials, follows a young Japanese settler girl in Manchukuo, Japan’s puppet state in occupied northeast China, during the final days of World War II. As Soviet forces enter Manchuria and Japan’s colonial rule collapses, Kiku’s family joins other settlers fleeing south toward Korea in the hope of returning to Japan. When Kiku falls ill with measles, the refugee group abandons her, leaving her behind to die. Alone in the wilderness, Kiku is found by an old wolf who first sees her as prey. But as the wolf watches over the helpless child, hunger gives way to a strange, fragile bond. With soldiers, fire, illness, and starvation closing in, can Kiku survive long enough to be found?