The participants in the war bear witness to the capabilities of humanity, and the survivors are burdened by the internal struggles of wartime memories. Ooka Shohei's major anti-war novel of 1951, Fires on the Plain, describes the degradation of surviving Japanese forces in the Philippines in the final year of the Pacific War. Ichikawa Kon adapted the anti-war novel for film in 1959 and was consistent with the encounters of the protagonist, Private Tamura, as he explored the struggles between duty to the nation and duty to oneself. However, the film significantly departs from the novel through alterations in the Christian subplot, acts of cannibalism, and narrative style in portraying Private Tamura as a victim of war versus originally depicted as burdened by guilt. The killing of Nagamatsu, by the soldier Tamura, illustrates the significance of the alteration in the protagonist's characterization. The difference allows the film to reinforce the message that war is brutal and inhumane as represented by the Japanese soldiers' struggles for survival. The novel eludes to the fact that there is no relief from all the wartime memories and the burden of guilt. Different social and historical contexts influence the production of the novel and the film in presenting the consequences of the war from different points of view. Ooka Shohei is a veteran of the Pacific War, who has achieved great acclaim in the war literary genre and is among one of many influential post-war Japanese writers. Ooka Shohei fictionalized his war experiences and used the battle for the island of Leyte in the Philippines, in 1944, as a vehicle in the novel Fires on the Plain. The Battle for Leyte Island was an important step towards liberating the Philippines from Japanese occupation. The Japanese defeat at Philippi... middle of paper ......a seeks to preserve its humanity by returning to a civilized society after witnessing the inhuman consequences of the war only with acceptance from the Filipinos. Works cited Fires on the Plain. Dir. Ichikawa Kon. Perf. Funakoshi Eiji. 1959.Hauser, William B. “Fires on the Plains: The Human Cost of the Pacific War.” Noletti, Arthur. Reformulating Japanese cinema. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992. 193-209.lofgren, Erik. “Christianity Eliminated: Ichikawa Kon Fires on the Plain.” Japanese Studies (2003): 265-275.Lofgren, Erik. "Ideological transformation; reading Cannibalism in the fires of the plain." Japan Furum (2003): 401-421. Ooka, Shohei and Morris Ivan. Fires in the plains. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, 1957. Stahl, David C. "The Burden of Survival: Õoka Shõhei's Writings on the Pacific War." United States: University of Hawaii Press, 2003. 96-145.