She is persuaded to go back to the hospital. Then Gen takes off his disguise. She dies of colorectal cancer. Someone from the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) shows up offering to pay ¥30,000 and arrange for her cremation so they can study how to cure radiation sickness, but Gen sends them off angrily, accusing them of wanting this knowledge to treat Americans, not Japanese, in the next atomic war. Natsue died, six months into the Korean War, on Dec. 30th, 1950, the day that Gen. MacArthur convinced President Truman to plan to use nuclear weapons in Korea. Only world outrage against first use stopped it, although the USA threatened again in May 1953 and in April 1969 after Koreans shot down a U.S. reconnaissance plane. In January 1951 they bury Natsue's ashes in an urn Gen made. They are about to bury it on Mt. Hiji, but discover that the ABCC has erected buildings to collect corpses from Hiroshima. Gen decides to bury Natsue with his own family, but a boy snatches the box the urn is in and runs away. He thought something valuable must be inside. His grandfather is ashamed that his grandson has become a thief, but the boy is not. He is desperate to get his grandfather oil paints to finish his painting. Gen was given Seiji's painting tools on his death, to finish his painting, which Gen never did, and he's willing to give it to the grandfather, but he destroys all his paintings, realizing it was arrogant to think of himself as a great painter when he couldn't even support his family by painting, and had even driven his grandson to theft. Gen brings the paints to him anyhow, convincing him to keep painting whether or not his work is popular, and when the old man tells him about his youthful dreams, "Art has no borders", about using art to break down borders, that's what Gen decides to do with his life. Ryuta questions whether ideals will give you enough money to eat. Gen decides to combine art with earning a living by looking for training as a sign painter. However, he gets into a brawl with a sign painter, and accidentally ruins the sign advertising a Kurosawa double feature of "Rashomon" and "Stray Dogs" that needs to be done that day. He promises to work for free until he's repaid the damage,