Hara-Kiri: Japanese Ritual Suicide (9 page)

On the same day of the Pearl Harbor attack, a steamer, the 5,000-ton "Nagasaki-Maru," met the mammoth s. s. "President Harrison" (15,000 tons) on the China Sea and captured her after pursuing her for eleven hours. The captain, Suga Genzaburo, made himself famous by this exploit. Five months later, his ship sank off Nagasaki after striking a mine. A week later, he performed seppuku, because his ship was a total loss. He cut his abdomen crosswise with a razor and then his carotid artery in four places. A policeman who inspected his corpse exclaimed in admiration, "I have never seen such a heroic seppuku. And look how peacefully he sleeps! He is almost godlike!"

Despite the elimination of seppuku from the legal codes early in the Meiji Renovation, it never ceased to occur, especially during World War II, when the spirit of Bushido was strongly emphasized. Many cases of seppuku occurred on the mainland as well as on isolated islands in the South Seas. The
kami-kaze
attacks were in themselves manifestations of Bushido.

When unconditional surrender was announced on 15 August, 1945, General Anami, then the Army Minister, disemboweled himself, and other ultra-nationalistic military officers followed suit on the Palace Plaza, facing the Imperial Household. On the drill-field at Yoyogi, later called Washington Heights, ten military men disemboweled themselves while cursing the military forces of the U.S.

Oddly enough, Bushido reached its zenith, in a sense, after feudalism was abolished at the start of the Meiji Restoration. Main factors contributing to this were the concentration of loyalty on the Emperor, the enactment of the conscription law (leveling the difference between samurai and
chonin),
and the Imperial Rescript to Military Men which helped to strengthen the code of Bushido among soldiers and sailors.

Downfall of Bushido

Japan had fought China for nine years and other great powers for five years until she surrendered in 1945. The militarism of Japan, with its thousand years of history, was defeated. Bushido appeared to have been completely eradicated.

The deep and general conviction of defeat among the people and the comparative success of the American Occupation policies served to wipe out the last traces of Bushido. Japan had never before been completely defeated and the effect on the Japanese mentality was extremely profound. A feeling somewhat akin to religious resignation dominated the minds of the people. Everything belonging to the militaristic past was abhorred.

This abhorrence of war was subtly utilized in the Occupation policies. A quiet but thorough social revolution was wrought. Under the Occupation, headed by General MacArthur, severe blows were dealt to the traditional nationalism of Japan. The most important single factor was the declaration by the Emperor of non-divine status. Others were the prohibition of the reading of the Imperial Rescript for Education in schools, the implantation of democracy, and the constitutional renunciation of war.

General MacArthur demanded that the Emperor deny his divinity, but it must be remembered that it was not the wish of the Emperor that he be thought a god. Rather, this was the work of militarists and ultra-Shintoists. The Emperor at first declined to make the demanded declaration. However, when he did, it had a profound influence on the reorientation of the national spirit of Japan. Primary school education was shaken to its foundations, and is still not too well ordered.

The Imperial Rescript for Education read in all schools had been the supporting pillar of Japanese education since 1890. The principles flowing through the Rescript are a blend of Shintoistic national history and Confucianism. Prohibiting its reading caused the teaching of Confucianism, directly or indirectly, to be removed from national education.

Nor did the edicts stop there. What was most feared was a revival of militarism. Previously, all main shrines throughout Japan were government supported. Now, they lost their annual subsidies by command of SCAP (Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers). Christianity, which had been repressed from time to time, was assured freedom of activity. The underlying purpose was to assist the spread of Christianity, while discouraging the nationalistic religion of Shinto.

In destroying the ultra-nationalism of prewar Japan, the Occupation enjoyed almost complete success.

Along with that, there was an implantation of democracy in the Japanese mind. Thoroughgoing democratization was carried out in all governmental offices, and most civil organizations followed suit.

The promulgation of the new Constitution was an epoch-making event of the Occupation. In Article 9 of Chapter II, the Japanese people took a step revolutionary among modern, civilized nations: They decided to "... forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes." Although this stipulation is part of a document formulated under the guidance of SCAP's Government Section, it stands nonetheless as a tribute to man's aspirations.

It also lowers the final curtain on Bushido. The protagonists, some in the garb of samurai and others in the uniforms of
kami-kaze
pilots, have left the stage, with the underlying theme symbolized in the cherry blossom insignia: Live briefly but gloriously. One's evanescent life is but a preparation for death. The fall of the blossom is as moving as its beauty on the limb and the final moment, ceremonialized in the ritual of seppuku, is indeed the moment of truth!

*
The newspaper men, especially the editors and columnists, were often from the former samurai class.

GLOSSARY

ashigaru:
literally, light footed; a foot soldier; a lower-ranking samurai.

azukari-nin:
caretaker of seppuku ceremony.

bakufu:
the Shogunate government of feudal Japan.

bushi:
warrior; samurai.

Bushido: the code of the samurai of Japan.

byobu:
a folding, standing screen.

choku:
small sake cup.

chonin:
merchant.

chugi-bara:
hara-kiri to show loyalty to one's master.

daimyo:
feudal lord.

daki-kubi:
technique of "retaining the head" in decapitation by leaving a portion of uncut skin at the throat so that the head would not roll away but would hang down.

doshin:
constable.

funshi:
seppuku caused by indignation.

futon:
comforter, heavy quilt.

gempuku:
rite celebrating a boy's attaining "adulthood" observed at age fifteen.

hakama:
formal trousers.

haniwa:
clay statues of persons and animals buried with their masters in lieu of living creatures.

hara:
abdomen.

hara-kiri:
cutting the abdomen.

hatamoto:
a direct feudatory of the Shogun.

hina:
a doll.

hito-bashira:
human pillar.

jijin:
to commit suicide with a sword.

jisai:
self-destruction.

jisei:
death poem.

jumonji:
crosswise cut.

junshi:
to follow one's master in death.

joruri:
a kind of ballad-drama, using puppets (Awaji is is the home of this form of theater in Japan).

kabuki: the classical theater of Japan.

kaishdku:
assisting at seppuku.

kaishaku-nin:
the assistant at seppuku.

kami-kaze:
literally, divine wind. In World War II, the pilots of the Special Attack Corps who dove their bomb-laden planes into U.S. navy craft.

kamishimo:
old ceremonial dress with high winglike shoulders.

kana:
the Japanese syllabary as differentiated from the more difficult Chinese ideographs
(kanji).

kanji:
the Chinese ideographs which form the base of the written Japanese language.

kanshi:
hara-kiri for purpose of remonstration.

karo:
principle retainers.

kataginu:
ensemble of
kamishimo
and
hakama.

kenshi:
inspector dispatched to observe seppuku ceremonies.

kiru, kiri:
to cut, cutting.

kodan:
storytelling.

koku:
a unit of weight; 4.9629 bushels.

kombu:
kelp or seaweed.

kozuka:
a small blade.

kubi-shozoku:
dressing of the decapitated head.

kun:
native Japanese style of pronouncing Chinese written character (see also
on).

matsugo-no-mizu:
literally, water for the last moment.

metsuke:
supreme judge; also,
ometsuke
(the "o" is honorific).

Mikado: the Japanese Emperor; a word seldom used by the Japanese.

mikire:
literally, three slices; also, to cut flesh.

mujoki:
white streamers ("banners of heartlessness").

munen-bara:
hara-kiri from mortification.

naniwa-bushi:
a kind of recital.

nehan-mon:
Nirvana gate.

oibara:
suicide to follow one's deceased master.

on:
Japanese rendering of Chinese reading of Chinese written character (see also
kun).

otoshi-zashi:
method of carrying sword by attaching to the belt.

o-zen:
small raised tray for individual dining.

raise:
the next world or life.

rochu:
feudal cabinet; also, member of this body.

ronin:
warrior without a master.

rusui-yaku:
custodian of seppuku ceremony.

sake: rice-wine.

sambo:
offering tray.

samurai: warrior.

sanzoku:
mountain bandit.

senryu:
a satirical poem.

seppuku: self-disembowelment.

seppuku-mono:
idiom meaning situation calling for seppuku.

shaku:
a unit of measurement; 11.93 inches.

shi:
four; also, the root of the word meaning death.

shinju:
literally, revealing the heart; suicide by two lovers.

shizoku:
a descendant of a samurai.

shogun: a generalissimo; the
de facto
military rulers of Japan during the feudal period.

shugenja:
an ascetic hermit of the mountains.

shugyo-mon:
ascetic gate.

shushi:
ethics.

sokotsu-shi:
expiatory seppuku.

sugihara:
a type of Japanese tissue paper.

sun:
a unit of measurement; 1.193 inches or one-tenth of a
shaku.

suzuri:
the ink slab used in Japanese calligraphy.

tachi:
the long sword of the samurai.

tachi-oshiki:
thin wooden plate with four long legs.

tatami:
a reed mat three by six feet in size.

wakizashi:
the short sword of the samurai.

yomi:
the "nether world" in Shintoism.

yukaku:
the officially licensed gay quarters.

zankanjo:
an assassin's written vindication of his deed.

Zen: a sect of Buddhism.

zori:
straw sandals.

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