a dress shop to pay for more shots. He returns home, claiming to be well, and sorry for his absence, but Gen catches him preparing to shoot up, and smashes the hypodermic. Musubi runs off, rather than face withdrawal. The Hiroshima ABCC announces a sharp rise in leukemia in atomic bomb survivors. Mitsuko decides to become a doctor, to fight back against the people who destroy lives through bombs and war. She tells how the Yakuza used Hiroshima orphans to kill other gangsters. A Yakuza takes offence, and picks a fight with her—but she wins. However, she is unwell, and unwilling to go to a doctor, because it might turn out to be an A-bomb illness. She dies of leukemia. Her father blames Gen, who blames her father's militarism. Her final letter to her father backs him up. Musubi has run through the passbook money, and tries to break into the bar to get drugs, but gets beaten up and dumped for dead. He makes it back to the orphans first. Gen vows to seek revenge, so Ryuta knocks him out so Ryuta, who has already killed two gangsters, can take care of it, leaving Gen free of murder. Ryuta is about to turn himself in, but is talked into escaping to Tokyo with Katsuko. As Gen goes to put Musubi's ashes with Gen's family, Mr. Amano encourages Gen to go to Tokyo as well, to become an artist, and test himself. Themes Major themes throughout the work are power, hegemony, resistance and loyalty. Gen's family suffers as all families do in war. They must conduct themselves as proper members of society, as all Japanese are instructed in paying tribute to the Emperor. But because of a belief that their involvement in the war is due to the greed of the rich ruling class, Gen's father rejects the military propaganda and the family comes to be treated as traitors. Gen's family struggles with their bond of loyalty to each other and to a government that is willing to send teenagers on suicide missions in battle. This push and pull relationship is seen many times as Gen is ridiculed in school, mimicking his father's views on Japan's role in the war, and then is subsequently punished by his father for spouting things he learned through rote brainwashing in school. Many of these themes are put into a much harsher perspective when