Japanese Nazi
Japan is known to have the strongest country brands (FutureBrand 2014) due to its reputation for high quality products, being desired to visit or study in & perception of good infrastructure. On the other hand, when people think of Japan, they think of nationalism & one of the most obvious expression of nationalism in Japan is fascism.
Fascism in Japan started very early, long ago before Italy or German nazi (Nguyen 2012). Ever since the IX century, some military forces depended on the strength of the samurais took over Japan, the royalties no longer have any authorities to the country. In the late XII century, the Japanese government belonged to a fascist force led by a general (shougun) & all the power went to the samurais. Their laws, which was called the Bushido, became the ethical system throughout Japan. In 1867, King Meiji recovered the power of Japanese royalties, rejected the samurais & founded the constitutional monarchy. However, the fascist forces still have a lot of impact in Japanese daily life.
Between 1932 and 1936, admirals ruled Japan & the idea of the ”Greater East Asian CoProsperity Sphere” emerged within the government. (History of World War II, 2014). The Japanese started sensing their national identity as the Shinto myth. To their belief, the emperor was a descendant in the direct line of the sun goddess & the people were also descents from lesser gods (W. G. Beasley 1987). The belief that their country is superior and more important than other countries started to become solid in people’s minds. As the citizens believe that their emperor is the sun of the Sun, they put all their loyal towards him and make him their sourse of life. No other king can be better or replace the emperor, to their belief. Along with the idea of expanding territory, Japan started invading other nations. Before World War II, Japan had successfully conquered and owned multiple colonies such as Manchuria (1931), Vietnam (1940), Malaysia (1942), Singapore (1942), etc.
During that time, Japan also had major conflict with China & America. Japan took pride in being better at military force than China (Wilson, 2013) but ever since America started collaborating with China & Thailand, Japan had many difficulties in taking over the Pacific fronts.
In 1941 Japan station troops in IndoChina (Vietnam) after forming an alliance with Germany and Italy. The Americans did not approve of this, and cut off exports to Japan. Japan was not happy about this and attacked Pearl Harbor. Meanwhile Japan were also attacking Southern Asia, and expanded their land to the Great East Asia CoProsperity Sphere aiming to prove their position in the World Map . That led to US's decision to declare war on Japan and were burning for revenge. In the following years, Japan was bombed heavily and were pushed back into their original land. Japan cities were being torn down. Then came the final blow, two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, one in Hiroshima, the other in Nagasaki. Both of them combined killed an estimated 110,000 people (Atomic Archive, n.d).
The Empire of Japan finally surrendered but Japanese has never settled for the burning nationalistic desire to prove their national identity.
Japan is known to have the strongest country brands (FutureBrand 2014) due to its reputation for high quality products, being desired to visit or study in & perception of good infrastructure. On the other hand, when people think of Japan, they think of nationalism & one of the most obvious expression of nationalism in Japan is fascism.
Fascism in Japan started very early, long ago before Italy or German nazi (Nguyen 2012). Ever since the IX century, some military forces depended on the strength of the samurais took over Japan, the royalties no longer have any authorities to the country. In the late XII century, the Japanese government belonged to a fascist force led by a general (shougun) & all the power went to the samurais. Their laws, which was called the Bushido, became the ethical system throughout Japan. In 1867, King Meiji recovered the power of Japanese royalties, rejected the samurais & founded the constitutional monarchy. However, the fascist forces still have a lot of impact in Japanese daily life.
Between 1932 and 1936, admirals ruled Japan & the idea of the ”Greater East Asian CoProsperity Sphere” emerged within the government. (History of World War II, 2014). The Japanese started sensing their national identity as the Shinto myth. To their belief, the emperor was a descendant in the direct line of the sun goddess & the people were also descents from lesser gods (W. G. Beasley 1987). The belief that their country is superior and more important than other countries started to become solid in people’s minds. As the citizens believe that their emperor is the sun of the Sun, they put all their loyal towards him and make him their sourse of life. No other king can be better or replace the emperor, to their belief. Along with the idea of expanding territory, Japan started invading other nations. Before World War II, Japan had successfully conquered and owned multiple colonies such as Manchuria (1931), Vietnam (1940), Malaysia (1942), Singapore (1942), etc.
During that time, Japan also had major conflict with China & America. Japan took pride in being better at military force than China (Wilson, 2013) but ever since America started collaborating with China & Thailand, Japan had many difficulties in taking over the Pacific fronts.
In 1941 Japan station troops in IndoChina (Vietnam) after forming an alliance with Germany and Italy. The Americans did not approve of this, and cut off exports to Japan. Japan was not happy about this and attacked Pearl Harbor. Meanwhile Japan were also attacking Southern Asia, and expanded their land to the Great East Asia CoProsperity Sphere aiming to prove their position in the World Map . That led to US's decision to declare war on Japan and were burning for revenge. In the following years, Japan was bombed heavily and were pushed back into their original land. Japan cities were being torn down. Then came the final blow, two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, one in Hiroshima, the other in Nagasaki. Both of them combined killed an estimated 110,000 people (Atomic Archive, n.d).
The Empire of Japan finally surrendered but Japanese has never settled for the burning nationalistic desire to prove their national identity.
In Japan history, initially samurai associated with lord in order to protect their families. However, in modern life, people do not need samurai. Through several years, samurai became one of the most resplendent spirit in Japanese culture. According to Britannica (n.d), the population of samurai is less than 10% total Japanese population. Since their childhood, samurai were educated to have self discipline and sense of duty, together with for goods and for fear, pain and especially death. Samurai were trained as senior officers in military tactics and special strategy, hence their status in Japanese society is very high, and they often receive a lot respect from others. In the book “Bushido: The soul of Japan” by Inazo Nitobe (2013) there are eight virtues to use to describe samurai spirit: rectitude, courage, mercy, politeness, honesty, honor, loyalty, and self control. Japanese are really proud of their samurai spirit, and they believe that those ethics help them to become a great nation in the world (Hutchinson 2004).
In the movie “The Last Samurai”, the storyline happened during late 19th century, when Japanese was living in the world in transition from ancient of rituals of honor into a more modern empire of industry and trade. The entire movie is about pride and honor of Japanese culture, when Japanese traditional values was inferior to modern Western values. Nathan Algren, an American military advisor who embraced the Samurai culture after he had been hired to destroy and captured in battle. Algren’s passion is swayed when he lives in Samurai village and learns about their traditions and code of honor. In Japan, code of honor is the way of the samurai life, most commonly stressing some combination of frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honor until death. After the long process of trying to find information about the enemy, Algren began training in the way of a samurai and came to love their way of life, and Japanese nationalism. He gave up his Western identity, become a Japanese samurai, and fight together for their survival. Algren’s successful transformation is the effect of Japanese patriotism. During the time in samurai village, Algren was not treated as an enemy. Villagers here were born with code of honor, and all they want to do is to cure his wound, and hope he would learn something about the Samurai honor. This is a typical example of Japanese patriotism, because the highest level of patriotism is shown when people want foreigners to learn and adapt their traditional values (Nussbaum 2010).
In addition, patriotism of the Japanese in the movie was shown through their kindness, which is one of the eight virtues. With the positive concept about Japanese ideas, Western society is seen as evil and exploitative, and Algren is the mirror to reflect exactly what it is. After spending time in samurai village, he stopped abusing alcohol, learned yoga, regained his dignity, and honorably conducted himself on the battlefield to ears what he had done previously. In other words, the Japanese traditional values and the samurai code filled a void in his soul.