You are cordially invited to a Special Seminar on

Shohei Ooka: On Writing about War in the Philippines

by Criselda Yabes
Fellow, Japan Foundation, and Guest Researcher, CSEAS

Date and Time: October 22, 2018, 16:00 to 17:30
Venue: Tonan Tei (room 201) Inamori Foundation Building
Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University

Abstract:
Shohei Ooka (1909-1988) was a Japanese writer whose books were about his experiences as a prisoner of war in the Philippines during World War II. He was drafted as a reservist to fight in the last stages of the war in the province of Mindoro and was later sent to the island of Leyte, which was the setting of his cult novel ‘Fires On The Plain’ that was later adapted into film. His war diary is a lengthy account of his life in prison, the subject of which could be diversified into current war stories in the way philosophy can shape survival. Ooka read much of Stendhal’s works when he was studying French literature in Kyoto University before the war.

About the speaker:
Criselda Yabes is a journalist and writer from the Philippines who has written extensively about the conflict in Muslim Mindanao in the south. She has also covered other wars elsewhere, those in the Middle East and the Balkans in the 1990s. She is currently a fellow of The Japan Foundation in collaboration with the Center for Southeast Asian Studies.

Contact: Caroline Hau