USING curly braces ' { } ' as part of JOIN

Need help understanding the purpose or use of the braces in this statement:

SELECT .....
FROM    TABLE_1 A,  TABLE_2 B,  TABLE_3 C,
             { oj { oj TABLE_4 D  LEFT OUTER JOIN
             TABLE_5 E ON D.umLocationID = E .umLocationID } LEFT OUTER JOIN
             TABLE_6 F ON D.umLocationID = F.umLocationID } INNER JOIN
WHERE
...

How would this query be interpreted?  Isn't there an easier way to do what's trying to be done here?  

I take it the notation ' oj ' means to do an OUTER JOIN on the results of the statement located inside the braces ?

Thanks