A group of old men take over an empty house and proclaim it to be a new "country" they have founded, called Yama. ("Yamato" is one of the oldest names for Japan, "yama" itself means "mountain.") The men basically refuse to be thrown out of this domicile by some gangsters, and they are successful for several months. Their resistance started on December 8th, the date Pearl Harbor was bombed (not the 7th because one crosses the International Date Line and gains a day while heading west from the U.S.) and lasts until August 15th, the date when Japan officially surrendered at the end of World War II. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi