Ayaka Hirahara

Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, "From the New World" wafts through a hospice recreation room. Sitting at the grand piano is a young girl, Chiori, with a prodigious ability to play any piece of music after one hearing. Keisuke Kisaragi whose career was abruptly cut short when he jumped in front of a bullet fired by a crazed gunman. The nerves in one hand were severed but he saved the life of Chiori. The tragic incident takes the lives of Chiori's parents, however, and Keisuke becomes her guardian. Not long after their return to Japan, Keisuke discovers Chiori's musical gift.

World War II comes to an end. Tokyo is a destroyed place, without law, driven by hunger and greed. From over 100,000 pages of declassified CIA documents and hours of newly discovered footage, recorded by American occupation charges and private individuals, the documentary shows Tokyo during this crucial year, Year Zero. Observed from the point of view of a young man who finds himself transported in time, the NHK documentary uses color images and state-of-the-art video techniques to reveal how a desperate population is published as the foundations of today's megalopolis.

"Blackboard ~ Jidai to Tatakatta Kyoushitachi~," revolves around teachers in different time periods having to deal with the problems of that era. The first episode stars Sakurai as Shirahama, a junior high school teacher who taught his students about "dying for your country" during wartime. After later losing his right arm in the war, he returns to teaching but is burdened and conflicted by what he taught his students in the past. The second episode of "Blackboard ~Jidai to Tatakatta Kyoushitachi~" stars Sato Koichi as a teacher during the 1980s having to deal with school violence. Shida Mirai plays a delinquent student, and Kanjiya Shihori plays another teacher at the school. Set in modern-day Japan, tackles the story of forbidden teacher-student relationships. Matsushita Nao plays a devoted English teacher who's offering personal lessons for a pupil (played by Kamiki Ryunosuke), who barely can read or write.

A music special program produced by NHK