Isn't this what WWII Japan experienced? All suffering was for the glory of the Emperor and "Japan", which in practical terms turned out to be the military, as the enactor's of the Emperor's and "Japan"'s will.
Yeah, from the Meiji Restoration until 1945 the emperor was the center of a cult-of-the-nation, explicitly based in Shinto, and a Shinto that became more and more...not imperialistic, precisely, though it was used for imperialism in Asia, but--the Japanese phrase is 八紘一宇, the eight corners of the world under one roof: the emperor had the right and the (moral, ethical) imperative to bring the world under the Japanese state Shinto banner. And going along with the ratcheting up in state Shinto after the Showa emperor came to the throne was a concomitant emphasis on the national subject's duty owed to the emperor, whether in the form of soldiering or raising the children in the home islands or working for the railway company in Manchukuo, with an increasing emphasis on sacrificing oneself for the emperor--schoolbooks talked about regarding life as lightly as a cherry blossom, and by the end a good part of that duty did consist of simply enduring--when the emperor spoke to the nation announcing the surrender he told them that they had to endure the unendurable.
no subject
Date: 28 Jul 2010 03:29 am (UTC)Yeah, from the Meiji Restoration until 1945 the emperor was the center of a cult-of-the-nation, explicitly based in Shinto, and a Shinto that became more and more...not imperialistic, precisely, though it was used for imperialism in Asia, but--the Japanese phrase is 八紘一宇, the eight corners of the world under one roof: the emperor had the right and the (moral, ethical) imperative to bring the world under the Japanese state Shinto banner. And going along with the ratcheting up in state Shinto after the Showa emperor came to the throne was a concomitant emphasis on the national subject's duty owed to the emperor, whether in the form of soldiering or raising the children in the home islands or working for the railway company in Manchukuo, with an increasing emphasis on sacrificing oneself for the emperor--schoolbooks talked about regarding life as lightly as a cherry blossom, and by the end a good part of that duty did consist of simply enduring--when the emperor spoke to the nation announcing the surrender he told them that they had to endure the unendurable.