This film operates effectively on at least five levels. First, it shows a child of about ten choosing between the prejudices of his peers, and the ethics and loving attitude of his family. Second, it shows adults dealing with the unhealed wounds of a brutal war. Third, it brings home the human cost of war and the terrible meaning of the words "collateral damage" and "civilian casualties". Fourth, it is an introduction to the injuries visited upon innocents in the only nuclear war experienced by mankind.

This is a story of the compassion of an American family and the courage of a young woman who travels halfway across the world for painful surgeries in a land that had been the hated enemy of her country. While other movies about the atomic attacks on Japan can be quite grisly and graphic, this film is gentle. However, the human cost of war, particularly the impact on its youngest victims, is underscored by the angry swollen scars that mar the left side of Miyeko's body.

The fifth and perhaps the most important level on which this movie works can be shown by following the story of the Hiroshima Maidens as they took the experience of their stay in the U.S. home to Japan. It is an enduring testament to the transforming and healing power of love.