Asako Suzuki

Young women at a precision optics factory in wartime Japan push to exceed production quotas, enduring illness, injury, and personal hardship to “serve the country.” Led by Tsuru Watanabe, they fight fatigue and setbacks to keep their line moving—even when duty collides with grief.

The body of a woman was found in a manhole. Is it an affair? The victim is a clerk at a mannequin manufacturing company. At the age of 26, she was a widow with a child, and she went missing after he went to collect her salary from the bank. A colleague at work said the victim was wearing an opal ring, but the bank clerk says she wore a jade ring when he came to withdraw money.