Trauma of Tamura in Fires on the plain

Trauma is identified with both physical and psychological conditions in which the patient suffers an injury or shock. Literature across the world contains the depiction of many a character as being subjected to trauma in one form or another. Such trauma is commonly encountered in persons who take part in wars or for whom violence is a necessary part of life which cannot be wished away. Such examples of representations of trauma is found to be depicted in most literature relating to the world wars, whether in American literature, the Korean literature or even the Japanese literature. Japan, in particular, has faced a lot of political and violent up-heals in both the ancient and modern times. So, Japanese literature is rich in war trauma or even trauma concerning women, child and so on. This paper seeks to examine one particular piece of modern Japanese literature popularly known in English as the Fires of the plain. This novel has been translated several times in various languages and is still one of the leading classics of Japanese modern war and post-war literature. The attempt is essentially to understand the depiction of trauma in this well-known novel which has also been time and again transformed into cinema or other mass media by many leading cinematographers and Japanese experts. The classic novel is actually the work of Shohei Ooka who wrote it in 1957. However, it is perhaps better known in its celluloid incarnation, the film of the same name made by filmmaker Kon Ichikawa in 1959. Again, it is indeed fascinating to examine how the earliest modern Japanese authors treated the concept of trauma theory and how their leading characters in their literary masterpieces successfully reflected the war-torn conflicts and their deep-rooted effects on the psyche of the Japanese.

The aim of this paper is to thus to examine the characterization of trauma in Japanese modern literature in general; but, it seeks to understand how, with particular reference to the novel by Ooka, i.e., Fires on the plain, Tamura, the hero of the novel, is subject to deep psychological trauma in course of serving as a private in the army during the Second World War. Hence, one needs to also understand the context of the novel since there existed certain extreme conditions during the time depicted. Indeed, violence was an underlying phenomenon in Japanese society, and there are records of such occurrences during that period which point to the endemic nature of suppression, oppression and human rights abuses, whether by the Japanese army on the Filipinos or by them again on their own populations. History is replete with gory details of forced labor camps, sex slavery, the killing so the Filipinos in mass numbers, or even about the notorious Baten March when hundreds of POWs perished. That Tamura, the lead character of the novel, is constantly shown as being anxious and himself a person under tremendous pressure of suppression by circumstances, by the lack of freedom, by the dread that he may not even survive the war, and indeed, by being the center of abject human oppression, internal confusion and lack of well-being. The novel is subtle in touching upon Tamuras disturbed state of mind and this nonetheless, brings out a literary narrative that is at once a dark tale of human oppression, both physically and mentally, and representative of the dilemma that many a dilemma that other Japanese soldiers like Tamura daily faced during those tumultuous war years in Japan. It is of essence here to understand the depiction of the character of Tamura in the novel. In examining such characterizations of similarly traumatized individual characters in two other novels, namely Atonement (London: Vintage Press, 2001) and Saturday

(London: Vintage Press, 2006), Pitt (2009) even goes so far as to observe that trauma is an emotional response of the character depicted in such novels to an event that is personally overwhelming to such character and such traumatic events even disrupt the previously held notions about the self and bring about changes in the way or standards by which the individual assesses that self. While Saturday relates to the World Trade Center attacks, the other novel, viz., Atonement, like Fires on the plain, relates to the World War Two. The particular novel under study, Fires on the plain also concerns a similar war or war like situation where the mental balance is disturbed in the main character of the novel, Tamura. Tamura is a private soldier who is part of the Japanese troops that attack the Filipinos. Then too, as in case of the more recent 9/11 attacks, the basic feeling of the characters was one formed by the psychological impact of facing or fighting against an enemy, known and unknown, by the need to maintain ones cool amidst the continuous violence and against hard adversities, and also by the feelings of uncertainty and fear that pervaded the mind. The psychological or emotional response to adverse conditions and as Tamura also was subjected to, is what may be referred to as psychological trauma, which has actually been studied right from Sigmund Freud to others after him in what is known as trauma theory. Trauma theory basically maintains that trauma, whatever its form or circumstances, always disrupts the growth of the individual or character. Such disruption is usually only temporary but in case of Tamura, owing to the difficult conditions of Japan in those war-torn days, the trauma persisted for an extended period of time. Trauma essentially necessitates the adjustment of the character to the adverse conditions and hence, the individual response to such trauma also implies a response by means of

alteration in behavior patterns. But trauma is intensely jarring on impact and disruptive; it needs to be strongly adjusted to by self-belief and determination. Often, the individual may not be up-to it and in this case can shirk facing the situation altogether. Such is the power and impact of the trauma that it may even distort the previously held notions or images in the mind of the individual subjected to trauma. This is often unobservable externally or even recognized as such by the character himself (or herself); the response may thus be conscious or even unconscious. Hence, it is most often difficult for trauma victims or traumatized individuals to accept the actual nature of the self and this makes it infinitely more difficult for such individuals to overcome the adverse effects. Hence, in almost all novels, it can also be found that the principal characters who may face trauma are often seeking the path to betterment, the path of healing and peace; indeed, such novels even depict these traumatic individuals undergoing a gradual process of healing or transformation just as Tamura himself also underwent in trying to emerge from his traumatized experiences of the war. Trauma disruption leads to the reflection on the self in a new way so that the direction towards better moral consciousness or awakening can be achieved. The constant anxiety as well as the subconscious desire for awakening from the traumatic experiences is perhaps central to the emotions of Tamura in all that he does or thinks. Tamura is representative of the desperate Japanese soldier and his depiction is driven by the authors own experiences as a soldier and prisoner of war. Indeed, Ooka could well understand the desperate conditions of the concluding stages of the Second World War. The Japanese troops who numbered around 65, 000 had been very cruel in subjugating or torturing the Filipinos during their occupation of the Philippines. The

disturbed conditions get compounded for Tamura because of his contracting the disease of tuberculosis. Tamura even faces a situation in which he faces the possibility that hospital treatment may be denied to him. In the circumstances, he is ordered to blow himself up with the last grenade he possesses. Hence, he faces the dilemma of death or survival. For him, the survival is also bleak since the conditions are extremely adverse for survival; the novel even depicts the other soldiers as ravenous enough to even consider eating him. The incidence of cannibalism is also documented in historical accounts of the times. Indeed, for Tamura, survival appeared as much as threatening as the possibility of death in the grenade blast. Tamura like others of his regiment, is also exhausted, and have no adequate food, medicine, clothes or equipments. The representation of traumatic conditions in war-torn Japan was thus intensely dramatic as also quite stark in its depiction of reality and the futility of war. Hunger and starvation are detailed in the novel and this adds to the picture of desolation and human suffering. The narrative is almost a death march that mirrors the almost corpse-like Tamura, who in spite of his desperation, even fights starvation, unlike his companion soldiers who take monkey meat. This serves to highlight the possible triumph of man over adversities (Croce, 2007). Ina review of the film, Rafferty (2005) observes that Tamura essentially behaves as the archetypal hero who ultimately becomes alone in thoughts and deed; he appears to console himself at the last with the fact that in spite of the wars traumatic impact on his psyche, he has managed to retain a self that he still can recognize as being human. The novel uses colorful language to depict the sense of desolation, using vivid imagery to describe by means of senses of sight, smell, and sound. While the ideals of Japan like thinking for the country before thinking for self appears to be threatened by thought of

self preservation and the soldiers even think about their own survival, Tamura appears to at least retain a semblance of sanity and humanism. The ground reality is that of survival of the fittest and Tamura may appear weak in physical strength and spirit. Nonetheless, his apparent attempt to stay away from his cannibalistic comrades and also try and help others in need speaks of the inner struggle that he must experience as his good fights over the evil in him. Other soldiers try to make a show of their idealism although in reality they are shorn of any noble intentions. However, Tamura presents a saner, more human and infinitely more honest character amidst the struggle for survival as the novel so graphically describes. In recent decades, traumatic theory has emerged as a distinct literary approach. The theory makes use of various tools like psychoanalysis and narratology in describing the repressive experiences of characters like Tamura. Psychologists conclude that trauma deeply impacts the human brain and resides in several space-temporal dimensions therein. While Freud attempted to understand trauma and succeeded only in a limited way, it was Janet (1889) who first showed how emotional responses to trauma can lead to hysteria in patients, as also the role of exhaustion, or even physical illness in producing hysterical symptoms (1889, 1897). Extreme responses to trauma could also lead to what is nowadays known as post-traumatic decline (Titchener, 1986). Indeed, the disintegrative effects of the trauma induced emotions appear to impact the most currently formed or recent aspects of the individuals personality or character (Van der Hart & Horst, 1989). Characters like Tamura even appear to cause a splitting of the ego such that two distinct thoughts, wills and actions are present in him, one he is aware of, the others he is not (e.g., Taine, 1878). Janet even speaks of certain strong emotions, as different

from feelings, which he saw as regulators of behavior. He observes further that human emotions, like anger or fear (as Tamura gets subjected to in the novel), and which the individual is not able to carry out (Tamura is confused and cannot carry out similarly his actions), often manifest as dissociative episodes and events when the energy gets discharged into lower level actions (Janet, 1909). In conclusion, it can be stated that traumatic experiences affect both the feeling and emotions of an individual. Trauma appears to be a central theme in the novel, Fires on the plain written during the period Japan was facing the aftermath of a destructive World War Two. Tamura represents the conflicting emotions of a confused man who is traumatized by events and the constant anxiety and suppressed state that he is subjected to due to the war. In spite of all the destruction and life threatening circumstances, there is also an undercurrent of intense belief in the faith in humanity and the will to survive.

References
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