Empire of the Sun

This novel, written by James G. Ballard in 1984, is a re-imagining of his own experience as a young boy captured by the Japanese Army during the Second World War, when they invaded Shanghai in 1941. He was exactly the same age as Jim in the novel when the Japanese invaded Shanghai.

Ballard's father with his family.

Ballard was imprisoned in the Lungwa Civilian Assembly Centre for approximately two years between 1943 and 1945, along with his parents. By the time he wrote Empire of the Sun and published it in 1984, he had turned 50. It launched him from being a prolific writer of genre science fiction into a major literary figure. He was awarded the Guardian Fiction prize in 1984, the James Tait Memorial prize, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

J G Ballard aged 50 when he wrote Empire of the Sun

A house similar to the one

As a young boy, Jamie was nerdy-obsessed with aeroplanes, both British and Japanese. Of the Japanese, the Mitsubishi A6M and the Nakajima Ki-43 were the most commonly used around the time Shanghai was invaded.

Nkajima Ki43

The real-life Japanese invasion of Shanghai was terrifying for all its inhabitants.

This is a street similar to the one J G Ballard lived on with his parents in Shanghai

In Spielberg's film, James is separated from his parents.

Life in the Camp

Coming of age and learning his own moral ambiguity