Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit
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Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit
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Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit
#2If the concept of Bushido didn't become popular until Japan's modernization (at the end of the 19th century)...how much of Japan's conduct in WW2 (notably, the fighting until death) can be attributed/blamed to this misinterpretation of samurai history?
Looking at the Wikipedia entry for Kamikaze [1], I was surprised to read that the concept of suicide attacks only became formalized late in the war (June 1944), rather than something ingrained in the Imperial Japanese fleet from even before the start of conflict.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze#Beginnings
OT: I really love the posted article's massively deep footer, which also looks good on mobile. I frequently have trouble designing nice footers around a long list of links and I'm bookmarking this site as a place to copy from.
Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit
#3If the concept of Bushido didn't become popular until Japan's modernization (at the end of the 19th century)...how much of Japan's conduct in WW2 (notably, the fighting until death) can be attributed/blamed to this misinterpretation of samurai history? Looking at the Wikipedia entry for Kamikaze [1], I was surprised to read that the concept of suicide attacks only became formalized late in the war (June 1944), rather…
[deleted]
Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit
#4Related but at a tangent - after a lifetime of interest in karate I came to realise that most of the stuff taught at karate is not practical.
Katas and karate punches and kicks - most of this better thought of more as dancing or ceremonial. A bit like Tai Chi - except that Tai Chi claims no real world martial value.
The myth remains however of karate being great self defence training.
Our local karate club is packed with ever more kids going every week to learn pointless moves, with parents thinking the kids are learning to defend themselves.
Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit
#5I was immediately very interested by one of the references, which extensively compares five different versions of Nitobe's book: the original (English) and 4 translations (in Spanish, French and Japanese). They study the overall texts as well as side-by-side passages in detail, and show how the seemingly innocuous translations are each tainted by the motives and environment of each translator and author. I'm always fond of translation studies and this one is captivating.
English version here (the original is in Spanish... we'll have to trust the (apparently uncredited) translator on this one)
Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit
#6HN mods need to rewrite title to "Bushido seems not to be what people think it is."
Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit
#7HN mods need to rewrite title to "Bushido seems not to be what people think it is."
Doesn't the existing title say the same thing but in a more pithy way?
As an aside, it seems that Project Gutenberg has the text of Nitobe's book that the article discusses:
Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit
#8Chivalry, Bushido... the reality of knights wherever they cropped up and under whatever name, is that they abused people beneath them, and each other. A lot.
Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit
#9Related, and an excellent write up on Shalin Monks: Demythologizing Shaolin Monks( https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4516 )
Re: Bushido: Way of Total Bullshit
#10So, the only academic paper in the sources in the post is a PhD thesis which appears to be the entire argument undergirding this post.
If you're interested in the subject, that might be a good place to start: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/...