Best movies like Grave of the Fireflies
A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Grave of the Fireflies Starring Hoshi Ishida, Mao Sasaki, Ikki Sawamura, Yui Natsukawa, and more. If you liked Grave of the Fireflies then you may also like: The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death, Women of Valor, Oba: The Last Samurai, Rhapsody in August, The Book Thief and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.
Hisako loses her home in Tokyo to Allied bombing. With her husband fighting somewhere in Asia, she and her two children evacuate to a suburb of Kobe, where they share a house with Hisako's cousin, Kyoko. Kobe is bombed and Kyoko is killed. Hisako is forced to take care of Kyoko's two children in addition to her own, but there is not enough food for everyone.
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Women of Valor
A group of American Army nurses are captured by the Japanese in April 1942 and spend three years in a prisoner-of-war camp in Bataan. Lt Margaret Ann Jessup, the head army nurse, survives the camp and testifies against the Japanese in front of the United States Congressional subcommittee years later as a colonel.
Oba: The Last Samurai
In 1944, the American military lands on the shores of Saipan. Refusing to commit suicide with his superiors or be forced into camps for prisoners of war, Captain Oba Sakae leads a group of his men and other similarly minded local residents into the mountains. Even after hearing reports of the Japanese military's surrender, Oba dismisses the reports as propaganda and continues to launch guerilla attacks against the American soldiers, earning him the nickname "The Fox". Soon, even the American commander who's charged with the task of capturing Oba comes to admire his persistent enemy.
Rhapsody in August
The story centers on an elderly hibakusha, whose husband was one of 80,000 human beings killed in the 1945 atomic bombing of Nagasaki, caring for her four grandchildren over the summer. She learns of a long-lost brother, Suzujiro, living in Hawaii who wants her to visit him before he dies.
The Book Thief
While subjected to the horrors of WWII Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. Under the stairs in her home, a Jewish refugee is being sheltered by her adoptive parents.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.
The Diary of Anne Frank
The true, harrowing story of a young Jewish girl who, with her family and their friends, is forced into hiding in an attic in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.
Grave of the Fireflies
In the final months of World War II, 14-year-old Seita and his sister Setsuko are orphaned when their mother is killed during an air raid in Kobe, Japan. After a falling out with their aunt, they move into an abandoned bomb shelter. With no surviving relatives and their emergency rations depleted, Seita and Setsuko struggle to survive.
Merrill's Marauders
Brigadier General Frank D. Merrill leads the 3,000 American volunteers of his 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), aka "Merrill's Marauders", behind Japanese lines across Burma to Myitkyina, pushing beyond their limits and fighting pitched battles at every strong-point.
The Diary of Anne Frank
The story of a 13-year-old Jewish girl and her family who are forced into hiding by the Nazis during World War II.
Barefoot Gen
A story about the effect of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on a boy's life and the lives of the Japanese people.
Waiting for Anya
During the harrows of WWII, Jo, a young shepherd along with the help of the widow Horcada, helps to smuggle Jewish children across the border from southern France into Spain.
Street of Shame
The lives of five prostitutes employed at a Japanese brothel while the nation is debating the passage of an anti-prostitution law.
Swing Kids
The story of a close-knit group of young kids in Nazi Germany who listen to banned swing music from the US. Soon dancing and fun leads to more difficult choices as the Nazi's begin tightening the grip on Germany. Each member of the group is forced to face some tough choices about right, wrong, and survival.
The Island on Bird Street
Alex is an 11-year old boy who, during WWII, hides in the Jewish ghetto from Nazis after all his relatives have been sent to the concentration camp. The movie portrays the ghetto through his eyes.
Tombstone of the Fireflies
Set during World War II, the film follows a young brother and sister as they attempt to survive the aftermath of the firebombing of Kobe City.
Under the Flag of the Rising Sun
A war widow determined to clear the name of her disgraced husband, who was court-martialed for desertion and executed. Official records have been destroyed, and the ministry that distributes benefits continues to deny her a pension. Twenty-six years after the war, she seeks out four survivors of her husband's garrison. Each tells a dramatically different story about her husband's conduct, but she is determined to learn the truth.
Wife of a Spy
It’s 1940, and the population of Japan is divided over its entry into World War II. Satoko, the wife of a fabric merchant, is devoted to her husband but is beginning to suspect he’s up to something. Soon she allows herself to be drawn into a game in which she enigmatically conceals her intentions.
In This Corner of the World
Japan, 1943, during World War II. Young Suzu leaves her village near Hiroshima to marry and live with her in-laws in Kure, a military harbor. Her creativity to overcome deprivation quickly makes her indispensable at home. Inhabited by an ancestral wisdom, Suzu impregnates the simple gestures of everyday life with poetry and beauty. The many hardships, the loss of loved ones, the frequent air raids of the enemy, nothing alters her enthusiasm…
Cider with Rosie
A semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story set in the Cotswolds during and immediately after the First World War.
Back Home
The war in Europe is over, but the one at home has only just begun. The Second World War is ending and throughout Britain, evacuees are returning home to their families - but not the families they remember. Like so many other women, Peggy’s life has been transformed by the war. Living and working with good friends, she is happier than she has been for years. Yet Peggy’s life is not the only one changed by the war. Her daughter, Rusty, has just returned from the U.S., where she has been living as an evacuee for the last five years. After so long abroad, her home in England has become unrecognizable. Just as Peggy begins to restore normal family bonds, her husband returns from the war, damaged and desperate to make everything as it was before. Adapted from the novel by Michelle Magorian, author of Goodnight, Mister Tom, Back Home is the story of a family who struggle to make sense of their new lives in a world irrevocably altered by the far-reaching effects of war.
The Last Rescue
World World II: Shortly after D-Day, three American soldiers and two Army Corps nurses are stranded behind enemy lines. They take a high-ranking German officer as their prisoner and try to orchestrate an escape.
Tsushima Maru: Goodbye, Okinawa
A documentary anime retelling the shipwreck of the freight boat Tsushima Maru, which was carrying 836 schoolchildren home in July 1944 when it was attacked and sunk by an American submarine. Produced by the surviving family members of the Tsushima Maru.
The Night Watch
Four Londoners are inseparably linked by their wartime experiences. In a time when the barriers of sexuality and social convention have been broken down, they enjoy a freedom never experienced before.
The Windermere Children
The story of the pioneering project to rehabilitate child survivors of the Holocaust on the shores of Lake Windermere.
Molly: An American Girl on the Home Front
Molly is a girl living in the year 1944 and WWII has brought many changes to Molly's life. An English girl comes to live with Molly's family to escape the bombings. They slowly become good friends.
Sophie and the Rising Sun
In a small Southern town in the autumn of 1941, Sophie’s lonely life is transformed when an Asian man arrives under mysterious circumstances. Their love affair becomes the lightning rod for long-buried conflicts that erupt in bigotry and violence with the outbreak of World War ll.
Carrie's War
Carrie's War is an adaptation of a 1973 children's novel by Nina Bawden, set during the Second World War and following two evacuees, Carrie and her younger brother Nick.
Foxhole
Unfolding over the span of 36 hours in three separate wars – The American Civil War, World War I, and Iraq – FOXHOLE follows five soldiers confined in a foxhole as they grapple with morality, futility, and an increasingly volatile combat situation. Casting the same five actors in each episode, the film depicts the shifting roles of race and gender over time against the backdrop of the seemingly endless human struggle for power and domination. (Olivia Belluck)
Changeover
A girl grieving the horrific loss of her parents moves in with relatives, who try their best to welcome her into the family.
Muddy River
Two boys, whose parents ply their trade by the mouth of a muddy river in Osaka, become close friends.
Reach for Glory
During World War II, teenage boys in a small English town are consumed with jingoism and brutal war games, hoping dearly that the war won't end before they can fight in it.
The War Between Us
The Story of a Japanese-Canadian woman who finds friendship after her family is interned to a small town during World War II.
The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death
40 years after the first haunting at Eel Marsh House, a group of children evacuated from WWII London arrive, awakening the house's darkest inhabitant.