‘Children Untold’ shines a light on the plight of postwar orphans

Japan’s defeat in World War II left an estimated 120,000 children orphaned, many of them destitute and abandoned. These children are the subject of Miwa Nishikawa’s latest film “Children Untold,” which she scripted based on her own extensive research. Told from the perspective of a tenderly raised, musically talented 12-year-old girl, the film is neither as heartbreakingly sad as the 1988 anime masterpiece “Grave of the Fireflies” nor as cheerily upbeat as the hit 1950 musical “Tokyo Kid,” which starred postwar enka icon Hibari Misora as a war orphan with a big heart and voice.