Participants in war witness the capacity of humanity and, the survivors, are burdened with the inner struggles of wartime memories. Ooka Shohei’s 1951 major anti-war novel, Fires on the Plain, portrays the degradation of the surviving Japanese forces in the Philippines in the last year of Pacific War. Ichikawa Kon adapted the anti-war novel for film in 1959 and was consistent with the protagonist, Private Tamura, encounters while exploring the struggles between duty to the nation and duty to the self. However, the film diverges significantly from the novel through alterations in the Christian sub-plot, acts of cannibalism, and narrative style in portraying Private Tamura as a victim of war from originally depicted as burdened with guilt. The killing of Nagamatsu, by Private Tamura, illustrates the significance of the alteration on the characterization of the protagonist. The difference enables the film to sharpen the message that war is brutal and inhuman represented by the Japanese solders’ struggles for survival. The novel eludes that there is no relief from all the wartime memories and the burdens of guilt. Different social and historical contexts influence the production of the novel and the film in presenting the consequences of war from different standpoint. Ooka Shohei is a veteran from the Pacific War, who earned high acclaim in the literary genre of war and is among one of the many influential postwar Japanese writers. Ooka Shohei fictionalized his war experiences and used the battle for Leyte Island in the Philippines, in 1944, as a vehicle in the novel, Fires on the Plain. The battle for Leyte Island was an important step towards Philippines’ liberation from Japanese occupation. Japanese defeat in the Phili... ... middle of paper ... ...a seeks to preserve his humanity by returning to a civil society after witnessing the inhuman consequences of war only by acceptance from the Filipinos. Works Cited Fires On the Plain. Dir. Ichikawa Kon. Perf. Funakoshi Eiji. 1959. Hauser, William B. "Fires on the Plain: The Human Cost of the Pacific War ." Nolletti, Arthur. Reframing Japanese Cinema. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992. 193-209. lofgren, Erik. "Christianity Excised: Ichikawa Kon's Fires on the Plain." Japanese Studies (2003): 265-275. Lofgren, Erik. "Ideological Transformation; reading Cannibalism in Fires on the Plain." Japan Furum (2003): 401-421. Ooka, Shohei and Morris Ivan. Fires on the Plain. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, 1957. Stahl, David C. "The burdens of survival: Õoka Shõhei's writings on the Pacific War." United States: University of Hawii Press, 2003. 96-145.
No two people are truly the same, therefore creating a mass difference in outlooks when experiencing things. This is seen in the writings of authors Linda Thomas and Joan Didion in their separate essays, Brush Fire and The Santa Ana. Theses essays revolve around the same experience both authors share of the Santa Ana wildfire in southern California, but in different perspective. In Brush Fire, Linda Thomas gives the reader a more beautiful insight on wildfires while Joan Didion has a more serious and disheartening perspective on them, which each author paints in their own way.
Okihiro, Gary Y. Whispered Silences: Japanese Americans and World War II. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996.
...ile the war is still happening. The lack of freedom and human rights can cause people to have a sad life. Their identity, personality, and dignity will be vanish after their freedom and human right are taking away. This is a action which shows America’s inhuman ideas. It is understandable that war prison should be put into jail and take away their rights; but Japanese-American citizen have nothing to do with the war. American chooses to treat Jap-American citizen as a war prisoner, then it is not fair to them because they have rights to stay whatever side they choose and they can choose what ever region they want. Therefore, Otasuka’s novel telling the readers a lesson of how important it is for people to have their rights and freedom with them. People should cherish these two things; if not, they will going to regret it.
The author of The Pacific War is Saburo Ienaga, is a leading Japanese scholar and political activist. Within the Note, located at the beginning of the book, is a brief overview of Ienaga’s career written by Frank Baldwin. The
Grodzins, Morton. Americans Betrayed: Politics and the Japanese Evacuation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949. Print
The fire started by campers thirty miles north of Winthrop in Okanogan National Forest in the Chewuch river valley. The fire was only 25 acres in size when twenty one Forest Service firefighters were dispatched to the fire.
During World War II, countless Japanese Canadians, and Americans, were relocated to internment camps out of fear of where their loyalties would lie. Because of this, those people were stricken from their homes and had their lives altered forever. Joy Kogawa’s Obasan highlights this traumatic event. In this excerpt, Kogawa uses shifts in point of view and style to depict her complex attitude and perception of the past.
Sabin, Burritt. "The War's Legacy [sic]: Dawn of a tragic era", Japan Times, February 8, 2004 (
The men stationed in the Pacific Theatre of World War II faced many challenges and hardships. The fighting that occurred with the Japanese far surpassed the level of brutality in the European theatre. Some American military units faced relentless fighting throughout the entire war, while other units waited for the entire war for orders to deploy into combat, and never actually saw any action. Only a few stories surrounding both ends of the spectrum of men in the Pacific Theatre exist, and even a fewer number do the men and women that served during that time justice. One of these authors who captured the nature of life during World War II in the Pacific Theatre, James Michener, did so in the novel Tales of the South Pacific. Michener not only offers an in-depth perspective of life during the time, but also brings up key themes of issues that existed during that period. He introduced a new outlook on the South Pacific during World War II, showing that a variety of people scattered around the Pacific joined for the common goal of a successful military operation. The primary purpose for this collection of tales from around the South Pacific focused on telling the tale of everyone who spent the war there. Michener used varying points of view within the plot line to strengthen this point. Within the main focus he brings up three themes: the first being of camaraderie and fellowship, the second the issues of power struggle, and finally racism in World War II. Michener utilizes diction to help characterize individuals to help literary convey these three themes. James Albert Michener brings up the issues of racism and power struggle in the South Pacific, while portraying the men that lived there during that period and the fellowship they s...
John Dower's "Embracing Defeat" truly conveys the Japanese experience of American occupation from within by focusing on the social, cultural, and philosophical aspects of a country devastated by World War II. His capturing of the Japanese peoples' voice let us, as readers, empathize with those who had to start over in a "new nation."
22. Muller, Eric,Free to Die for Their Country: The Story of the Japanese American Draft Resisters in World War II . 2001, University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition
Much of what is considered modern Japan has been fundamentally shaped by its involvement in various wars throughout history. In particular, the events of World War II led to radical changes in Japanese society, both politically and socially. While much focus has been placed on the broad, overarching impacts of war on Japan, it is through careful inspection of literature and art that we can understand war’s impact on the lives of everyday people. The Go Masters, the first collaborative film between China and Japan post-WWII, and “Turtleback Tombs,” a short story by Okinawan author Oshiro Tatsuhiro, both give insight to how war can fundamentally change how a place is perceived, on both an abstract and concrete level.
Leckie, Robert. Okinawa: The Last Battle of World War II. New York: Penguin Group, 1995. Print.
during the war. This novel is able to portray the overwhelming effects and power war has
When the war breaks out, this tranquil little town seems like the last place on earth that could produce a team of vicious, violent soldiers. Soon we see Jim thrown into a completely contrasting `world', full of violence and fighting, and the strong dissimilarity between his hometown and this new war-stricken country is emphasised. The fact that the original setting is so diversely opposite to that if the war setting, the harsh reality of the horror of war is demonstrated.