戦後十八年、戦争の傷痕は、まだ黒い血をしたたらせていた。宋明花と有坂明夫父娘の話もその一つだ。太平洋戦争の最中、陸軍少尉有坂は極秘命令を受けて陸軍省情報研究所の門をくぐった。有坂の任務は中国戦線の最先端に潜入し諜報活動を行うことであった。有坂の他、原田、市川の二名は、軍服を脱ぎ連日連夜死にもの狂いの訓練に明け暮れた。半年にわたる猛訓練の結果残ったのは有坂のみ、市川少尉は死亡し、原田は行方不明であった。有坂に中支潜入の命令が下った。宝石商の店員となりゲリラの本拠を探ることだ。前線の軍司令部で有坂は軍籍を剥奪され、生死不明という原田に遭った。彼の訓練中の失敗を恐れた軍が、追放同様に中国前線に送ったのだった。ゲリラの暗躍に悩まされる前線の将兵の間にも自暴自棄の空気が充ちていた。原田もまたニヒルな人間となっていた。有坂は店員となって住み込んだ胡宝石店で、妹の病気のため指輪を売りに来た酒場の女給宋蘭花を知った。彼女が妹の病気に効くキニーネを探していると聞いた有坂は、日本軍の管轄下にある病院の院長宋に頼んだが拒絶された。一方、ゲリラに悩まされる軍司令部は、ゲリラ掃討の一個中隊を用意したが、日本軍は完全に裏をかかれ全滅した。軍法会議に廻された有坂が再び司令部に帰ると、意外な報告が待っていた。蘭花のアパートがゲリラの本拠であり、その首領が宋だというのだ。しかも宋は蘭花の兄だという。この情報を売ったのは原田で金のためにゲリラと日本軍の情報を売っていたのだった。もはや有坂の心には戦争の憎悪と蘭花の愛情だけがあった。砲火の中、蘭花は有坂に彼との娘を預けると機関銃の台座に消えていった。明花はその時の忘れ形見だったのだ。
Eighteen years after the war, the scars of war still dripped with black blood. The story of Song Ming-hwa and Arisaka Akio, father and daughter, is one such example. During the Pacific War, Army Second Lieutenant Arisaka received top-secret orders and entered the Army Ministry's Intelligence Research Institute. His mission was to infiltrate the front lines of the Chinese front and conduct intelligence activities. Along with Arisaka and two others, Harada and Ichikawa, they stripped off their uniforms and devoted themselves to frantic training, day and night. After six months of intense training, only Arisaka survived; Ichikawa was killed, and Harada was missing. Arisaka received orders to infiltrate Central China. He was to become a clerk at a jewelry store and search for the guerrilla base. At the frontline military headquarters, Arisaka encountered Harada, whose whereabouts were unknown and who had been stripped of his military rank. Fearing that Arisaka had failed during his training, the military sent him to the Chinese front lines, just like an exile. An atmosphere of desperation pervaded the frontline soldiers, plagued by the guerrillas' secret activities. Harada, too, had become a nihilistic person. While working as a clerk at the Hu Jewelry Store and living there, Arisaka met Song Ranka, a bar waitress who had come to sell a ring for her sister's illness. Hearing that she was looking for quinine to treat her sister's illness, Arisaka asked Song, the director of a hospital under the jurisdiction of the Japanese military, for help, but was refused. Meanwhile, the military headquarters, plagued by guerrillas, prepared a company to wipe them out, but the Japanese troops were completely outwitted and annihilated. After being court-martialed, Arisaka returned to headquarters to receive a surprising report: Ranka's apartment was the guerrillas' base, and their leader was Song. Moreover, Song was Ranka's brother. It was Harada who had sold this information to her, selling information on the guerrillas and the Japanese military for money. All that remained in Arisaka's heart was hatred for war and love for Ranka. Amid the gunfire, Ranka left her daughter with Arisaka and disappeared into the base of a machine gun. Ayaka was a memento of that time.
