Fires on the Plain: a Reflection

Fires on The uncompounded A Reflection Fires on the Plain is truly the nearly depressing, haunting, and sad fabrication I defend forever endured reading. The complete abandonment of the Japanese soldiers on the island of Leyte by the Japanese regular army is revolting, as rise up as the complete disregard for distributively others well being among them. It becomes a battle between one another for survival. The leave out of chumminess among the Japanese soldiers is dumbfounding, and leads me to gestate that it may very well select been there demise.The weaknesses we see in Tamura and the other soldiers not only(prenominal) have a great impact on their unfortunate outcome, but are to a fault a result of a weakness within the Japanese Army itself. The awful fate of these soldiers, at the hands of their own command, is vexatious. Shoheis story holds powerful, and several dangerous innuendos of what war is like and what its effects can be on those who fight in them. I woul d like to start by talking about 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 any(prenominal) sort of comradeship, he even describes the elbow room in which it he saw it disappear on Leyte, Before long any comradeship that we once 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 mistaken for comradeship, but I genuineized that they were only using each other and did not carry on at all about the others well being. Which becomes quite clear at the end of the book.I have no doubt that this complete lack of comradery was mostly a result of their horrific situation, but I also mean that it could have existed before it. The way in which Tamura laughed while ceremonial his buster soldiers run around like insects(pg. 59), and the fact that Nagamatsu would hunt , kill, and eat his fellow soldiers are unreassuring examples of the complete disregard they had for one another. These instances serve as proof to me that there couldnt possibly have been much of a comradeship between these men at any point. One dangerous implication that this story holds expressed directly byShohei, For nation like us, living twenty-four hour period and night on the brink of danger, the normal instinct of survival seems to come across inward, like a disease, distorting the personality and removing all motives other than those of sheer self-interest. (pg. 9). season this for sure 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 nautical 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 torn down to their most animalistic nature, could be true of all men or soldiers when low the same component. 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 clearly insane, could be generalised to all men or all soldiers of every kind. What really irks me about this is that Shohei, portrayed through Tamura, shows suddenly no characteristics of a soldier.I think his most accurate 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 devastation 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 receivable to reasons beyond his control, such as the way in which, and the culture in which, he was brought up. As well as the poor military bringing up and/or lack there of, did not properly prepare him for the nightmare of a situation he was put in. Which forces me to re-evaluate my initial reaction to issue him off as a pathetic, weak individual who should have coolness himself right then and there after he murdered the Philippine women.I am sympathetic for poor Tamura, who was drafted into the army and clearly given fabulously 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 shit hole of a situation, it seams as if the people who ordered them there just left them for dead. Even his com manding police officer told him that the best thing he could for his country was kill himself.They were given perfectly no support against an enemy whose support was rivaled by none. Which resulted in them fleck each other for survival. Fires on the Plain is a very disturbing story from a war that resulted in galore(postnominal) awful things. It has many implications of what war can be like, but I want to show 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 making this shit sandwich are hard to come by all at the same time. My closing thoughts of this story are wrapped around Shoheis idea that life is goose egg more than a mere s uccession of chances(p. 233). I have been debating everywhere this idea with myself ever since I came back from my last tour in Afghanistan, and I cant say that Shoheis story has helped me in making a decision.