To Heal the Heart

Kazutaka accepts a post in a newly built hospital and zealously pursues ideal psychiatric treatments. But then, he's diagnosed with cancer. Should he quit working and focus on his own treatment, or continue to see patients? With two children and a third on the way, Kazutaka searches for effective treatments and finally discovers what it truly means to "heal the heart."

An Kazutaka grapples with his identity after learning that his parents were born in Korea. After entering medical school with his close friend, he meets the love of his life and, guided by his teacher Professor Nagano, he decides to specialize in psychiatry despite the opposition of his father. In January 1995, his world is shattered when the Great Hanshin Earthquake strikes Kobe.

Two months after the earthquake, Kobe is rapidly rebuilding. Yet, many victims are being left behind. Among his emotionally traumatized patients, Kazutaka encounters Kataoka Kokoa, who suffers from severe mental illness and has multiple personalities. Kazutaka does all he can to treat her even as he discovers that his father Tekkei's business has slid into bankruptcy.

Immediately after the earthquake, Kazutaka begins working in a clinic that looks like a field hospital. With a keen sense of inadequacy, he visits evacuation shelters and struggles to do what he can as a psychiatrist. He's asked by an old acquaintance who works as a newspaper reporter to write a serial column on what the aftermath of the disaster looks like from the inside.