Fires on the Plain: a Reflection

Fires on The Plain A reprehension Fires on the Plain is truly the intimately depressing, haunting, and sad story I have ever endured seeing. The drop abandon workforcet of the Japanese soldiers on the island of Leyte by the Japanese Army is revolting, as well as the complete slackness for each otherwises well cosmos among them. It becomes a battle between unriv whollyed another for survival. The lack of camaraderie among the Japanese soldiers is dumbfounding, and leads me to believe that it may truly well have been there demise.The flunkes we fancy in Tamura and the other soldiers not only have a great impact on their ominous outcome, plainly are also a result of a weakness within the Japanese Army itself. The awful fate of these soldiers, at the hand of their own command, is infuriating. Shoheis story holds powerful, and several dangerous implications of what contend is equivalent and what its effectuate can be on those who weigh in them. I would like to start b y talking near comradery. Comradery can be defined as the spirit of friendship and community in a group, like a group of soldiers.Tamuras story shows zero evidence of whatsoever sort of comradeship, he even describes the sort in which it he saying it disappear on Leyte, Before long any comradeship that we in genius case felt for each other had virtually disappeared. (pg. 9). I could also see this in the way they treated each other. Initially, Yasuda and Nagamatsus relationship could be foolish for comradeship, but I realized that they were only using each other and did not care at all about the others well being. Which becomes quite clear at the end of the volume.I have no doubt that this complete lack of comradery was mostly a result of their steep situation, but I also believe that it could have existed before it. The way in which Tamura laughed while watching his fellow soldiers run around like insects(pg. 59), and the point that Nagamatsu would hunt, polish, and eat h is fellow soldiers are disturbing examples of the complete disregard they had for one another. These instances serve as proof to me that there couldnt possibly have been a lot of a comradeship between these manpower at any point. peerless dangerous implication that this story holds expressed directly byShohei, For people like us, living day and night on the brink of danger, the normal intelligence of survival seems to strike inward, like a disease, distorting the personality and removing all motives other than those of sheer self-interest. (pg. 9). While this certainly seems true for the Japanese soldiers in this story, I refuse to believe it to be true for all men. My personal experiences from being a Marine and doing two tours in Afghanistan have showed me what true comradery is. My fellow Marines and I would have gladly died for one another, and some did.In class, we discussed how the way in which these Japanese soldiers turned on one another when mangled down to their most animalistic nature, could be true of all men or soldiers when under the same circumstances. The fact that somebody could believe that to be true is not only offensive, but scary. It is scary to me that examples from a book written by someone who is clear insane, could be generalized to all men or all soldiers of every kind. What really irks me about this is that Shohei, portrayed through Tamura, shows absolutely no characteristics of a soldier.I think his most faultless depiction was when he said they resembled domestic animals helplessly uprooted and perplexed(pg. 35). I believe that he portrays someone with certain mental weakness. He wonders about the island countryside, it seams, waiting for his death to come. He has no plan but death. I understand that his circumstances are beyond my understanding, but they way in which he so easily abandons any hope of surviving, and doesnt put up any real fight for his survival, doesnt sit with me.It makes me realize that this weakness is most likely due to reasons beyond his control, such as the way in which, and the culture in which, he was brought up. As well as the silly military training and/or lack there of, did not mightily prepare him for the nightmare of a situation he was put in. Which forces me to re-evaluate my sign reaction to write him off as a pathetic, weak soul who should have shot himself right then and there after he murdered the Filipino women.I am sympathetic for poor Tamura, who was drafted into the army and clearly given incredibly insufficient training. Tamura did not belong there and, I feel, none of them belonged there. The infuriating part of this story is the way in which these men were sent to what any person with intellect could tell was a certain, horrific death. Not only were they ordered to go that island, to that fix hole of a situation, it seams as if the people who ordered them there just left them for dead. til now his commanding officer told him that the best thing he could for his country was kill himself.They were given absolutely no support against an enemy whose support was rivaled by none. Which resulted in them fighting each other for survival. Fires on the Plain is a very disturbing story from a war that resulted in many awful things. It has many implications of what war can be like, but I want to emphasize that not all wars are the same, and the men and women who fight in these wars certainly are not either. I would hope that those who read this understand that they shouldnt generalize the behavior of these poor Japanese soldiers to all soldiers or fighting men.I believe that the circumstances surrounding this horrific example of what war can be like are incredible and the ingredients that went into qualification this shit sandwich are hard to come by all at the same time. My final thoughts of this story are wrapped around Shoheis radical that life is nothing more than a mere succession of chances(p. 233). I have been debating over this idea with myself ever since I came back from my destruction tour in Afghanistan, and I cant say that Shoheis story has helped me in making a decision.