Haru to Natsu (NHK Drama Special) (2005)

A special drama commemorating the 80th anniversary of NHK’s broadcasting service. The story is about two sisters who meet each other again after living separated in Japan and Brazil for 70 years. In 1934, Haru and her family emigrated from Hokkaido to Brazil. Haru’s younger sister Natsu, however, was left behind in Japan because of an eye disease. 70 years later, Haru visits Japan and locates the whereabouts of Natsu but the younger sister, who thinks she was abandoned by the family, rejects Haru. After a while, the two find out that both wrote numbers of letters to the other though the letters have been left undelivered to the addressees. Through the discovered letters, the sisters learn each other’s life; Haru lived in Brazil as a member of an immigrant-laborer family surviving various difficulties while Natsu lived in Japan through the Second World War and postwar economic growth depending on herself and managing a business. The drama portrays the separated sisters’ lives full of ups and downs as well as their family ties, asking the meaning of “homeland” and “family.”