Posted on 11/26/2016 8:03:47 AM PST by ebb tide
Japan and it’s people were an entirely different culture, almost completely unknown to most Americans and their method of warfare and the code of Bushido were unknown to the American soldier who fought them. The American military had never before fought an enemy who had no compunction what so ever in killing himself if it meant he killed you in the process and for whom surrender was unthinkable. Surrender for the Japanese soldier was beyond unthinkable. It meant that not only had he dishonored himself, his comrades, the Emperor and his family but it meant he dishonored his ancestors as well. It meant that for all intents and purposes he was a dead man, a ghost. And if you know Japanese culture their attitudes and belief of ghosts is very different then ours is in the West.
The Japanese soldier was taught that for him the moment of supreme honor was when he vanquished his enemy in battle and died a glorious death, much as the chrysanthemum, the emblem of the Japanese throne, does when it blooms. This is why so many Allied prisoners of war suffered so horribly in Japanese captivity. The Japanese believed that all these Western soldiers had surrendered like cowards, denying them of their glory in battle. It didn’t help all these Allied soldiers, sailors and Marines who sported tattoos because at one time in Japanese history criminals were branded with tattoos indicating the offense that person had committed and you know the Japanese are a very fastidious people. So in seeing this the average Japanese soldier saw that not only were these Westerners cowards, they were criminals as well. To them it must have seemed like a great insult.
LOL! Hillary and her ‘’hamaki’’.
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