Novel
Fires on the Plain
野火
Shohei Ooka · 1951
Synopsis
In the Philippines, during the Battle of Leyte, at the end of 1944, Private Tamura has tuberculosis; the hospital, lacking resources, sends him back to his regiment, which wants only able-bodied men and sends him back to the hospital, according to The Modern Novel. With no food and no bed, he flees when the hospital is attacked. Driven out by his company, he wanders alone in the jungle, on the edge of delirium, facing hunger and death.
Context
The novel appeared in 1951, and Shinchōsha issued the volume edition in 1952, according to The Modern Novel. The author had already drawn an autobiographical account from his captivity in 1948, according to the Britannica edition for students. Ivan Morris, who translated it into English in 1957, regarded it as one of the most powerful accounts ever written on the obscenity of war.
Who it is for
A short novel, with no fighting to speak of, for those who want to read about war from the side of those who endure it.
Prizes and reception
Winner of the Yomiuri Prize, the novel was adapted for the cinema in 1959, then again by Tsukamoto Shin'ya in 2014.
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