The Eternal Zero

is a 2013 Japanese war drama film directed by Takashi Yamazaki and based on a novel by Naoki Hyakuta, published in English by Vertical Inc. The film starts with a frame story set in 2004. A Japanese man in his twenties learns that he is the grandson of a kamikaze military aviator who died in World War II. He then investigates the life story of his grandfather, wanting to find out why a supposedly timid man volunteered for a suicide mission. Most of the film depicts the grandfather's wartime service. Plot In 2004, twenty-six-year-old Kentaro Saeki is repeatedly failing the national bar examination and is uncertain about his future. One day, after the funeral of his grandmother, Matsuno, he is startled to learn from his mother and older sister Keiko that his maternal grandfather Kenichiro was not his blood-relation. Keiko and Kentaro start hearing stories about their real grandfather, Kyuzo Miyabe and visit many of his former comrades, all of whom begin by criticizing his "timidity" in battle. During conversation with an old comrade of his grandfather, Izaki, who is in hospital dying of cancer, Kentaro finally learns the reason why Miyabe became a kamikaze pilot. Izaki talks about his relationship with their grandfather to Keiko and Kentaro, claiming that only the "timid" Miyabe gave him the hope to save his own life after he was shot down over the ocean.