Order is slowly being restored, and the situation of each survivor is revisited. The Novitiate is doing its part by taking in fifty refugees, including Mrs. Nakamura and her children, who are still vomiting every time they eat. At the Red Cross Hospital, Dr. Sasaki is discovering that things are finally becoming routine. Corpses are identified and burned on pyres. The Japanese feel that they have a moral responsibility to cremate and enshrine the dead; in this situation, even their grave obligation to the dead is in jeopardy. The Kataoka children, whom Father Kleinsorge befriended in the park, are reunited with their mother on Goto Island, off Nagasaki. The compassion and forgiveness of the Reverend Tanimoto is particularly evident when he goes to the bedside of a man who had wronged him. The military hospital is getting a large number of soldiers, so they evacuate civilians, including Miss Sasaki. She is placed on a ship and lies in the sun all day despite her fever. Eventually, she goes to see a fracture specialist from Kobe.
On August 15, Emperor Tenno gives a radio address, telling his people the war is over.
