"Written with precise skill and beautifully controlled power. The translation by Ivan Morris is outstanding." --The New York Times **Winner of the 1952 Yomiuri Prize** This haunting novel explores the complete degradation and isolation of a man by war. Fires on the Plain is set on the island of Leyte in the Philippines during World War II, where the Japanese army is disintegrating under the hammer blows of the American landings. Within this larger disintegration is another, that of a single human being, Private Tamura. The war destroys each of his ties to society, one by one, until Tamura, a sensitive and intelligent man, becomes an outcast. Nearly losing the will to survive, he hears of a port still in Japanese hands, and struggles to walk through the American lines. Unfazed by danger, he welcomes the prospect of dying, but first he loses his hope, and then his sanity. Lost among his hallucinations, Tamura comes to fancy himself an angel enjoined by God to eat no living thing--but even angels fall. Tamura is never less than human, even when driven to the ultimate sin against humanity. Shocking as the outward events are, the greatness of the novel lies in its uplifting vision during a time of crushing horror. As relevant today as when it was originally published, Fires on the Plain will strike a chord with anyone who has lived through the horrors of war.

In the Philippine island of Leyte, towards the very end of World War II, the Japanese army disintegrates as it is accosted by the advancement of American troops. Japanese soldier Tamura, hungry and sick, is forced to leave the hospital and wander through the jungle, the same one through which his brothers in arms also wander. Having broken all ties to society and turned into a pariah, Tamara will have to face himself in a place where all that's left is to survive and where murder and cannibalism are commonplace. "En la isla filipina de Leyte, a punto de finalizar la segunda guerra mundial, el ejercito japones se desintegra hostigado por el avance de las tropas estadounidenses. El soldado japones Tamura, enfermo y hambriento, se ve obligado a abandonar el hospital y a deambular por la selva, por la que tambien vagan otros companeros de armas. Quebrado todo vinculo con la sociedad y convertido en un paria, Tamura se vera enfrentado a si mismo en un lugar donde solo cabe sobrevivir y donde el asesinato y el canibalismo simplemente suceden. "