We-e-ell, I don't know that I would really say it's part of Japanese culture--it was an imperialist slogan for an imperialist period, and all the explicitly expansionist ideology was swept away with the surrender. State Shinto as a whole was a very deliberate creation, and most people in Japan would tell you that it didn't have much to do with actual Shinto as it was practiced then or is now.
That said, you're welcome. It's kind of my specialty, and I do love the chance to blather about it. ^^
no subject
Date: 29 Jul 2010 02:42 am (UTC)That said, you're welcome. It's kind of my specialty, and I do love the chance to blather about it. ^^