Ooka Shohei
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Ōoka Shōhei (大岡 昇平; March 6,1909 - December 25,1988) was a Japanese novelist, critic, and translator of French literature. Ooka belongs to the group of postwar writers whose World War II experiences at home and abroad figure prominently in their works. Over his lifetime, he contributed short stories and critical essays to almost every literary magazine in Japan.
Born in Tokyo, Ooka attended Kyoto Imperial University where he specialized in French. Upon graduation in 1932, he worked shortly for a political tabloid, the Kokumin Shimbun, but quit after one year to devote himself to the study of the French writer Stendhal. In 1938 he was employed as a translator by a Franco-Japanese company in Kobe, and in his spare time, he began translating the works of Stendhal into Japanese. In 1944 however, his translations were cut short; he was drafted into the Japanese Imperial Army, given only rudimentary training and shipped off to the front line at Mindoro Island in the Philippines. On January 25 the following year, despite the stated Japanese military doctrine that to be taken prisoner meant ultimate disgrace for a soldier and his family, he was captured by American forces in the Philippine defeat and sent to a prisoner of war camp on Leyte Island.
It was not until his repatriation after the war’s end that Ooka began his career as a writer. On the recommendation of his mentor Kobayashi Hideo, he published an account of his experiences as a prisoner of war entitled Record of a Pow (Furyoki) in separate parts between 1948 and 1951. Its publication, along with winning the Yokomitsu Prize in 1949, established Ooka's postwar reputation.
In 1950 he published his second book, The Lady of Musashino (Musashino fujin).
In 1952, Ooka's most well-known novel Fires on the Plain (Nobi) was published. Based loosely on his own wartime experiences in the Philippines, the story is told through the eyes of a Private Tamura who after being deserted by his own company, chooses to desert the military altogether and wanders aimlessly through the Philippine jungle. It is there, told in sophisticated and at other times delirious reflections, that he is forced to confront nature, his childhood faith, mortality, hunger, and in the end, cannibalism. This novel was awarded the prestigious Yomiuri Prize. In 1959, Fire on the Plain was made into a prize-winning film directed by Ichikawa Kon.
In 1958, Ooka veered from his usual subject and produced The Shade of Blossoms (Hanakage) depicting an aging naive night club hostess’ struggle and ultimate demise from the destructive forces of desire and wealth in the decadent 1950’s Ginza. The setting had changed but the reoccurring themes had not. His characters were still adrift and struggling for survival in an inhospitable jungle.
Again in the late 1960's, Ooka revisited the subject of the Pacific War and the Japanese defeat in the Philippines to produce one of his last books, the detailed historical novel A Record of the Battle of Leyte (Reite senki). He compiled and researched through an enormous amount of information for three years in order to produce it. As with all his writing, it looks at war critically from the perspective of a person who despite his own ethics was forced to serve.
Along with translations and fiction, Ooka also devoted himself to writing the critical biographies of Nakahara Chuya and Tominaga Taro. From 1953 to 1954 he was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at Yale University. He has also been a lecturer on French literature at Meiji University in Tokyo.
Ooka died on Christmas Day, 1988 at the age of 79.
See also: The Second Generation of Postwar Writers (Japanese literature)ja:大岡昇平