Ideological Transformation: Reading Cannibalism in Fires on the Plain

In 1953, Ōoka Shōhei (1909–88) published ‘Nobi no ito’, an essay in which he problematizes his powerful 1951 novel Fires on the Plain, a work whose central theme of cannibalism has received relatively muted treatment in the critical literature. ‘Nobi no ito’ functions as what Gérard Genette terms a paratext, but in so doing serves a crucial function in explicating the critical treatment of cannibalism in Fires on the Plain. This treatment illuminates the trajectory of two competing ideologies operative in the immediate post-war period: those of national guilt and of national victimhood. As the latter came to assume an increasingly hegemonic place in the discourse of war responsibility, the discussion of cannibalism in Fires on the Plain underwent a transformation that was visible, not only in the critical writings about the novel, but in further presentation of it, such as Ichikawa Kon’s 1959 adaptation of the novel for film. This article suggests one way we might conceptualize this process as part of a larger discourse on Japan’s self-defined position in the post-war era as a unique victim

Godzilla and Rodin\u27s The Gates of Hell

“Shin Gojira” released five years after the devastating triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of March 2011, is an unabashed metaphorical censuring of the Japanese government response to that disaster under Prime Minister Kan Naoto, as well as a warning of the dangers of continued reliance on nuclear power. In this respect, it diverges from the message of nuclear disarmament effected by its 1954 progenitor, “Gojira”, but it still hews true to Godzilla’s roots as the concretized fear of a particular historical moment with the atom at its heart. This new iteration of Japan’s favourite kaijū, however, offers a trenchant condemnation of Japan’s pursuit of energy autonomy by relying on nuclear power generation. An oblique evocation of Auguste Rodin’s “The Gates of Hell” at the end of the film and the tip of Godzilla’s tail drive this point home. Through the metaphor of the gate, Godzilla becomes a liminal marker of an alternative possibility. Ultimately, however, although Godzilla is positioned as both a destructive force and a source of hope—as was the atom—the current reality in Japan suggests that the safe path forward has already been closed to the Japanese population

Christianity Excised: Ichikawa Kon’s Fires on the Plain

Ichikawa Kon (b. 1915) adapted Ōoka Shōhei’s (1909–1988) masterful anti-war novel Fires on the Plain for film in 1959. In the process, Ichikawa effected the inevitable simplifications and homogenisations of the story with the consequence that the protagonist, Tamura, was no longer besmirched with the ethical and moral stain of cannibalism. Ichikawa also muted the Christian elements in the story, a decision that has several implications for the narrative, and for understanding the actions of the protagonist in the film. This absence of Christian elements provides the framework for explaining Tamura’s motives in refusing to eat human flesh, as well as justification for the shift in rhetorical stance between novel and film. The removal of the Christian sub-plot may also reflect the changing ideological stance of Japan in the post-war world order

Recovery versus Reversion: The Implications of Multiple Signifieds in Ooka Shohei’s Fires on the Plain

Much of the scholarship on Ooka Shohei’s Fires on the Plain (Nobi, 1952; trans. 1957) is predicated on the assumption that the protagonist, Pfc. Tamura, is insane. This issue crystalizes when, at the end of the novel, Tamura returns to behavior he had previously rejected, now unconcerned about what people might think of him. The language Ooka uses is subject to slippage which, in turn, creates trace structures of related meaning that problematize this assumption of insanity. As a consequence, the reader is forced to consider what meaning the text might have with a sane narrator, and why the author may have chosen to claim insanity for his protagonist. The answers point to both the expectations of readers in the aftermath of Japan’s defeat in World War Two, and a strengthening of the cautionary message implicit in the novel