The author is the political news editor of the JoongAng Ilbo. “Grave of the Fireflies,” a 1988 animated film by Hayao Miyazaki, tells the story of Seita and Setsuko’s refugee life during World War II.

In the jungles of Papua New Guinea, in January 1944, an Australian sapper was sweeping for mines after the retreat of Japanese troops when his metal detector found an object buried in a stream bed. It ...