Best movies like There Was a War When I Was a Child

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like There Was a War When I Was a Child Starring Meiko Kaji, Fumie Kashiyama, Hiromi Kurita, Yutaka Hayashi, and more. If you liked There Was a War When I Was a Child then you may also like: Rhapsody in August, Room, Rosie the Riveter, The Juggler, Godzilla Minus One 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.

An award-winning Japanese film about a child's experiences during the Second World War.

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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.

Room

Held captive for 7 years in an enclosed space, a woman and her young son finally gain their freedom, allowing the boy to experience the outside world for the first time.

Rosie the Riveter

In this romantic wartime comedy, four female defense plant workers share a house with four male workers. The situation is on the up and up as the men and women work different shifts and they are only making due because there is a housing shortage. Unfortunately, they soon begin to fight about who gets the house during certain hours. Romance ensues.

The Juggler

A Holocaust survivor moves to Israel and experiences difficulty adjusting to life.

Godzilla Minus One

In postwar Japan, a new terror rises. Will the devastated people be able to survive... let alone fight back?

Hounddog

A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.

It Happened in Brooklyn

Danny has been in the army for 4 years, yet all he thinks about is Brooklyn and how great it is. When he returns after the war, he soon finds that Brooklyn is not so nice after all. He is able to share a place with Nick, the janitor of his old High School, and get a job as a singer in a music store. He also meets Leo, a talented pianist and his teacher Anne, whose dream is to singing Opera. When Jamie arrives from England, Danny tries to show him the Brooklyn experience and help him compose modern swing music. Together, these four also try to help Leo get the Brooklyn Music scholarship.

Lost in the Dark

A young girl, who has recently lost her eyesight to a degenerative disease, struggles to outwit an escaped convict who has taken refuge in her grandmother's cabin during a ferocious snowstorm.

The Pied Piper

Englishman Mr. Howard is on a fishing holiday in eastern France when the Germans invade in 1940. Setting off to try and get back home he is persuaded to take along the two Cavanaugh children, and as his journey progresses his family keeps growing in size. Once in German-occupied northern France a new problem arises — the risk of being heard speaking English.

Highways by Night

A young millionaire (Richard Carlson) joins the real world and meets a maid (Jane Randolph) and mobsters.

Fugitive Pieces

A child escapes from Poland during World War II and first heads to Greece before coming of age in Canada.

The Daring Young Man

Jonathan Peckinpaw feels he's failed in his patriotic duty when he's rejected by the army, but he sees a chance to redeem himself by exposing a secret ring of Nazi spies.

Every Time We Say Goodbye

A Protestant World War II pilot and a Jewish girl fall in love in Jerusalem, even though their diverse backgrounds threaten to pull them apart.

China Girl

Two-fisted newsreel photographer Johnny Williams is stationed in Burma and China in the early stage of WW II. Captured by the Japanese, he escapes from a concentration camp with the aid of beautiful, enigmatic 'China Girl' Miss Young. The two arduously make their way back to friendly lines so that Johnny can deliver the vital military information he's managed to glean from his captors.

The Sergeant

THE SERGEANT is the story of the dark inner struggle of Master Sergeant Albert Callan to overcome the overwhelming attraction he feels for one of his charges. In the staid and stifling environment of a post-World War II army post in France, Callan's deeply repressed attraction to other men surfaces when he encounters handsome Private Swanson. Maintaining the rugged "man's man" image of a war hero, Callan barks orders to his underlings. Later, lonely in his solitude, he recalls the frightening experiences of war and the events that led to this crossroads. Filled with self-loathing and unable to act on the natural attraction he feels for Swanson, Callan's affection festers into antagonism. He pushes Swanson constantly with verbal assaults and undeserved punishments.

The Guy Who Came Back

Former football star Harry Joplin is down on his luck, both in his career and in his married life. He seems convinced of his own unworthiness, but a chance to play in a charity football game helps him see his life in a new light.

A Woman's Devotion

An artist suffering from mental problems from his experiences during the war goes to Acapulco on his honeymoon. Soon young women are turning up dead in the area, and the ex-GI comes to believe he might be responsible, as he has long stretches where he can't remember anything.

Swamp Fire

Buster Crabbe and Johnny Weissmuller battle it out in Cajun country! Johnny, a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi, is seduced away from his fiance (Carol Thurston) by a rich outsider (Virginia Grey) who's nursed him back to health after a serious accident. She owns a large piece of the swamp and has outlawed hunting on her property. His rival Mike (Crabbe) is a trapper who harbors deep resentment for Johnny and his new wealthy friends. When he feels Johnny is responsible for the hunting ban, he resorts to destructive acts of vengeance.

Lupin the Third: The Pursuit of Harimao's Treasure

The infamous bandit Harimao hid a treasure, and to retrieve it, Lupin and the gang must gather three lost statues. When the Nazi-like group Neo-Himmel make a run for the goods, Lupin reluctantly partners with the aging "double-O" MI-6 agent Sir Archer and his granddaughter Diana to gather the statues first. Can this unorthodox team bond well enough to see this mission through?

WWII: The Long Road Home

16 year old aspiring director Elliott Hasler's epic depiction of his great-grandfather's WW2 experiences; an escaped POW's battle for survival whilst on the run in war-torn Italy, as his wife and young son eagerly await news in England.

Secrets of the Underground

With the help of a WAAC group, Mr. District Attorny smashes a Nazi spy-ring that is selling counterfeit War Stamps and Bonds.

Bomb at 10:10

An American pilot escapes from a POW camp and links up with Yugoslav partisans. He’s about to head back to Allied lines when he learns that the Partisans are plotting to assassinate the camp commander. He joins in the plot, aiming for revenge.

Cider with Rosie

A semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story set in the Cotswolds during and immediately after the First World War.

The Railway Children Return

Follow a group of children who are evacuated to a Yorkshire village during the Second World War, where they encounter a young soldier who, like them, is far away from home.

The Long Ride

This movie is about the love and protection of a man from another culture for the lowly horsemen of the the plains in Hungary during World War II.

The Return of Rusty

A young Czechoslovak orphan, Loddy Bicek, befriended by an American army sergeant, is brought into the United States as a stowaway by the soldier. He is apprehended, but escapes and makes his way to the sergeant's home town. There, he is befriended by young Danny Mitchell and his dog, Rusty, a K-9 veteran of World War II. A third boy reports Loddy to the authorities, and when Loddy tries to run away, he falls into a deep ravine.

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 Longest Hundred Miles

During the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, an assorted group of refugees, including an American soldier, an Army nurse, a priest and a group of local children, try to make their getaway aboard a rattletrap, creaky bus.

Johnny Vik

Johnny plays drums at midnight, but his survival is tentative.

My Name Is Sara

The true life-story of Sara Góralnik, a 13 year-old Polish Jew whose entire family was killed by Nazis in September of 1942. After a grueling escape to the Ukrainian countryside, Sara steals her Christian best friend’s identity and finds refuge in a small village, where she is taken in by a farmer and his young wife. She soon discovers the dark secrets of her employers’ marriage, compounding the greatest secret she must strive to protect, her true identity.

Enemy, My Friend?

This documentary tells the extraordinary story of a British prisoner of war tortured by the Japanese in World War II who spent 50 years trying to locate the man who cruelly interrogated him near Thailand's infamous Kwai bridge. Eric Lomax and Nagase Takashi met again on the bridge in a meeting that would profoundly change their lives. After this experience, Lomax wrote his famous autobiography "The Railwail Man", which was adapted to the cinema in 2013 with the same title. The documentary reveals exclusively what really happened when they both agreed to meet.

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.

The Evacuees

The experiences of two young Jewish boys evacuated from Manchester to Blackpool during the Blitz.

Song of the Blind Girl

An Iraq War veteran suffering from PTSD and Psychosis returns home. He tries to reconstitute his lost family by kidnapping children who he thinks are his own. The teen (Jennifer) whom he kidnapped came from a dysfunctional family. Her mother sold her virginity on the internet to Mr. Miller, a wealthy man. Police suspect foul play in her disappearance and suspect her parents. Jennifer attempted a coat hanger abortion at Kidnapper's house and had a near death experience. The child Mia whom he kidnapped kept pining for her mother until she catch pneumonia in the cold house without any utilities. She was taken to hospital but was kidnapped by someone else. Kidnapper is hounded by memories of a singing blind girl whom he killed for fun in Afghanistan.

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