A Study of Ōoka Shōhei’s Taken Captive：A Japanese POW ’s Story

Abstract

Ōoka Shōhei 大岡昇平 (1909-1988) became famous with fiction depicting his experiences during World War II, while before the war he was just another ordinary clerk. Without a doubt, this remarkable change occurred due to his personal experiences in the military. This paper focuses on his breakthrough story Taken Captive：A Japanese POW’s Story (Furyoki 俘虜記), published as a single volume in 1952. By examining Ōoka’s creative motivation and analyzing the structure of Taken Captive, I can demonstrate that its core lies in the way Ōoka ‘recognizes’ and understands the wartime ‘way of thinking’. He uses his personal way of ‘recognizing’ his comrades’ fighting experiences and their experiences of being prisoners of war, and he thereby indicates (and criticizes) the reasons for the degeneration of the prisoners of war. From all this, it becomes clear that the creation of Taken Captive is closely connected to Ōoka‘s war experiences, and that his way of ‘recognizing’ the war was crucial for him becoming a writer.