Men and War

Shimegi Kohei's brother, suborbinate to an engineer at a factory owned by the upstart Godai zaibatsu, is arrested during the March 15 police raids. Kohei is adopted by the engineer and introduced to the Godai family. In the family salon, Yusuke Godai, the head of the family, confers with his eldest son Eisuke, and his brother Kyosuke, who has returned from Manchuria and established contacts in the Kwantung Army. The younger son Shunsuke befriends Kohei, who introduces him to Haiyama, a left-wing artist. The elder Godai sister, Yukiko, falls in love with Lieutenant Tsuge.

When the National Army of Chiang Kai-shek displace the forces of warlord Zhang Zuolin, Shigata Komijiro, an operative for the Godai company, provokes a clash between the Nationalists and the Japanese Army stationed at Jinan. An order to attack Zhang's army is expected from the Emperor, but it never arrives. Regardless, The Kwantung Army assassinates Zhang Zuolin. Takahata, also working for the Godai company, is abducted from a remote outpost by bandits, and offers to smuggle supplies to them in exchange for his freedom. During a communist guerrilla uprising, he is taken hostage by a band of Korean guerrillas led by Xu Zailin, whose family members were killed by the Japanese for their part in the Sam-il movement, but he is freed without ransom on the orders of the Communist Party. Takahata's arrangement is ended when a Japanese agent is spotted on one of his shipments, his post is destroyed, and his wife Motoko abducted. He traces his wife to the Korean guerrillas and pays them ransom, but he is told that she committed suicide after being raped.

Despite protests from the Japanese consulate, the Kwantung Army initiates the invasion of Manchuria. Kohei's brother, drafted into the army, is killed in an attack at Changchun. Tsuge leaves for Taiwan to take part in an investigation into the Musha incident but after criticizing colonial policy, he is also ordered to Manchuria.

After the invasion of Manchuria, the state of Manchukuo is formed by Japan. There is a struggle between the militarist Imperial Way Faction and Control Faction in the Japanese government, as well as a wave of political repression. Shunsuke is refused permission to see Haiyama, who has been imprisoned with other dissident artists, and begins meeting with Sato Atsuko, a married woman who had previously been set to marry Eisuke. Kohei, having left the Godai household behind, refuses the advances of Yoriko, the young Godai sister, and is later imprisoned for protesting the war.

The Godai company assists in Japanese encroachment into Hubei, but Yusuke, fearing the militarists will interfere with his business in Manchukuo, seeks assistance from Cho Daifuku, a wealthy comprador, but Cho refuses to hand over his mine. In Harbin, Tsuge, working for the Kempeitai, arrests Shigata for dealing in opium, but he is released due to his association with Godai. Takahata's guide Haku Eisho is outed as a spy of the communist guerrillas but Takahata aids in his escape, and is sent away by Godai so that he is not arrested by the Kempeitai. When Xu Zailin threatens to break from a Chinese guerrilla camp, Haku reads a party announcement that all people of China must stop fighting and unite to fight the Japanese. Xu still leaves to join the Korean resistance, but turns back and sacrifices his band to divert a Japanese column away from the camp.

The Control Faction is effectively destroyed in the February 26 incident. Disillusioned, Shunshuke moves to Manchuria after finishing school, in part to avoid seeing Atsuko, but he is confronted by Atsuko's husband Kano, who dares Shunsuke to have an affair. Atsuko arrives in Manchukuo and Shunsuke makes arrangements with Kyosuke to pay off Kano and elope with her as a Godai company employee. However, knowing Shunsuke will be harassed as long as they are together, Atsuko leaves voluntarily with her husband. Cho Daifuku is labelled an enemy of the state and his mine is confiscated. After the Xi'an incident, the Chinese form a united front against the Japanese and the full-scale war between China and Japan begins. Yuriko meets Tsuge, who is engaged to another woman but plans to make her wait until the war has finished.

The Godai family gather for Yuriko's marriage into the prosperous Amemiya family, headed by Koichiro Amemiya, head of the East Asia Bank. After Kohei receives his draft papers, Shunsuke forges a marriage certificate for Kohei and Yoriko. Yoriko admits to her father that she married Kohei and lived with him under the guise of a week-long trip, and is told to leave the household. Yusuke and Kyosuke are informed by Amemiya of an upcoming bill for general mobilization and concur that the government is preparing for war not only with China, but with the Soviet Union or United States.

As a soldier, Kohei and his fellow soldiers are subject to abuse. When his unit is ordered to practice bayonet thrusts on Chinese prisoners, Kohei hesitates and is beaten unconscious by lance-corporal Taneda. While Kohei is still recovering, Taneda takes him on guard duty along a railway and confides that he would been beaten more severely had he been properly punished for insubordination. Exempt from the draft, Shunsuke speaks openly in his office about the unlikelihood of Japan's victory. He barred from publishing an essay on Manchurian labor conditions in an economic journal, but meets with the publisher Tajima, who understands the struggle of working under the Kempaitai. The two pool their data and make a report to a boardroom of Kwantung Army officers, which ends disastrously. They are both imprisoned by the Kempaitai, but Shunsuke is released shortly after. Taneda is killed on patrol, and Kohei's unit attacks a Chinese village, killing civilians indiscriminately. Again, Kohei refuses to kill and is beaten near to death by an officer. Chinese soldiers appear and repel the Japanese attackers. Yoriko, now a social worker, receives news of Kohei's death. However, when Kempaitai arrive to search her room for letters, she realizes that Kohei is still alive and has defected to the Chinese resistance.

Shunsuke is enlisted in the military against his will and placed under the command of Tsuge, now a major, who informs him that he will be stationed on the Soviet border. The Kwantung Army clashes with Soviet forces without orders, but the Minister of War does not intervene. The army launch a full-scale assault across the Khalkin Gol River, which ends in disaster, and Soviet advances also make no progress. The Japanese dig in, with dwindling supplies. The Soviet Army finally attacks, obliterating the Kwantung Army. Tsuge is killed. His unit destroyed, Shunsuke wanders aimlessly and comes across the wounded Haiyama, who he carries on his back. He is confronted by an officer riding in a sidecar who chastises him for retreating, but runs when Shunsuke threatens to shoot him. A ceasefire is signed. Surviving commanders are shown committing suicide or being ordered to commit suicide. War breaks out in Europe.