Hitoshi Tamaru

Hitoshi Tamaru is a young Japanese soldier stationed on Peleliu during World War II. He holds the rank of Army Private First Class and serves in Second Lieutenant Shimada’s platoon of the Second Battalion. Before being drafted, he worked at his family’s restaurant and dreamed of becoming a manga artist. Gentle, timid, and artistic, he often draws in his spare time and struggles to adjust to the brutality of war.

Because of his ability to invent stories, Tamaru is appointed the unit’s “Merit Officer,” responsible for recording fallen soldiers and writing embellished accounts of their final moments to their families. He becomes close friends with Yoshiki, and the two promise to survive and return to Japan together.