sent home, and Gen gives him the money he's earned so he can claim to be the one taking them all to Tokyo. When they arrive, she declares that she can now die happy, and rejoin their father. She knew all along that she wasn't cured, since her stomach pain hadn't gone away. When she dies, Gen refuses to have her cremated. He is determined to take her body to Kyoto so General MacArthur can see it, apologize for having used the Bomb, and promise never to do so again. He wants the Emperor, who declared war as a god, then admitted he was mortal when he lost, to apologize to her and take responsibility for starting the war. Koji has to knock him out to have their mother cremated. One person can't do this. All Japan must raise their voices together. Gen is desolate until he dreams of his parents encouraging him to be as the wheat and stand on his own feet. Volume 8: Merchants of Death By 25 June 1950, North and South Korea have become embroiled in war, and Japan is under threat of being dragged into the conflict. Gen and his teacher Mr. Ohta want everyone to do all they can to prevent war, but the class president, Aihara, who looks much like Gen, but with an ugly smile, believes war is inevitable, an unchangeable part of human nature, and needed to reduce the population. He challenges Gen to a fight after school. When Gen shows up, Aihara says he doesn't go for playfighting, but only to the death, and tosses Gen a knife. Gen wins, and Aihara insists he should finish him off, but Gen refuses. Ryuta, selling a dress Katsuko and Natsue have made, loses ¥1000 giving it away to a Hiroshima Carp baseball fan. He's a Carp fanatic, but the team keeps losing. The Americans make laws against antiwar protests, enforced by the right-wing hoods of the Blood-and-Thunder party, who attack Mr. Ohta. Gen pitches in, but it's Aihara, who turns out to have been orphaned by the Bomb too, whose accuracy pitching rocks wins the day. Aihara does not want to be taken to the hospital. When they take him anyway, they find he has a fractured skull, and may not live the night. Looking for his home,to find someone to visit him, they discover that Katsuo was adopted by a