WHERE SUICIDE IS HONOUR

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 92, 19 April 1930, Page 16

WHERE SUICIDE IS HONOUR

HARAKIRI'■. STILL ■ SURVIVES". IN "JAPAN-

Though'liarakiri was once the ; favourite", national form of suicide, responsible for not less than 1500 deaths a yeaf ); :it was the samauri, or military class, who kept the tradition, alive. These stoics,- who lived only for honour, used to commit liarakiri rather than fall, alive into the hands of the enemy, and later law-breaking samauri wero allowed this end as a caste privilege. Officials who had broken the law or been disloyal to their leaders received a courteously worded note from their mikado, intimating that they wero to die. Usually:the mikado sent a jewelled dagger, with which to commit the deed. The noble never questioned the decree of the mikado, but made ceremonious preparation for his death. The funiitdre, the meals, and the whole of the activities of the house wero arranged according! to a set litual. When his time came, the official arranged the models of the Three Treasures in the exact position prescribed by tradition, and had a dais arranged, cither in his own baronial hall or in a temple. Upon this a rug of red felt was placed, and around it gathered in a semi-circle witnesses and friends. Eobed in his ceremonial uniform, and wearing his sword,- the official stepped on to the dais, and the- mikado's representative, with many obeisances, handed him the dagger. After making public confession, the condemned man plunged the dagger into his own body, and was immediately beheaded by his own best friend. When compulsory harakiri was abolished, the general practice still' continued. Harakii' was not only a means of punishment, but the most effective form of protest known to a proud and stoical people. It might be committed as a complaint against official abuses when no ordinary plea could roach the authorities, or it might be used to turn a liege lord from evil courses. In this, not the least frequent cause, the suicide rises to heights of extraordinary jnobility. The victim does- not even; know, whether his sacrifice will be of the least avail; whether his name willbe honoured or execrated; ; i The samauri who carried the practice of harakiri into modern times certainly do not regard it as a relic of barbarism. " They have grown up in a Japan which is full of luxury and temptations to easy living; and thoir insistence on the stoic virtues is largely a .protest against the softening ef; feels of a Western civilisation, and a. claim for the hardihood.and manliness which the old regime exacted. Countries where suicide is regarded as a cowardly evasion of life and an offence against civilisation must still grant to the Japanese harakiri its own grim -virtues.

The Japanese of Eabaul who i'ailcd to commit liarakiri because he had collected butterflies when the Uinperor wanted beetles, has possibly had his conscience blunted by long residence in foreign lands, says a writer in an overseas journal. Even in modern times, suicide by harakiri has proved1 the gate of honour for many Japanese officials who were faced with similar humiliation. Newspaper readers' will remember that less than two years ago a Japanese citizen of the United States committed harakiri before the gates of the Japanese Embassy in Washington as a i>rotcst against anti-Japanese legislation. In 1025 a prominent Japanese official dealt himself the same fate to signify his disapproval of his Government's foreign policy. Men like these have carried into the presciit v day the stoic virtues of the feudal samauri, for whom self-destruction was a soldier's privilege. There was nothing in the least sentimental about. this attitude .to death, for suicide did not present itself as an easy and romantic way out of life's - difficulties and dangers. Where sui- . cide is sought as preferablo to life's stress, the easier and less painful paths 1o oblivion, are sought by the victims. ■ Harakiri means literally disembowelmont, and by this ghastly method thousands of Japanese have died with heroic fortitude rather, than face dishon- .' our. • . ■ A few years ago the peasants in a rural district, who objected to a railway line which spoiled their lands, destroyed the newly laid rails. The Government oflicial in charge of the work, who was a descendant of the samauri caste, took the damage to Government ■ property so ill, and his own "responsibility so heavily, that he committed harakiri. His attitude caused a controversy in the Japanese Press, for a section of modernised Japan considers such a suicide overdone; but in general it was acknowledged that his death would bring home to the countryside tho ethical standards that were falling into decay, and by showing that men . still valued honour above life/ would uphold spiritual values. A Japaries6 writer in "The TransPauiflc" (Tokio) points out that the harakiri of to-day is only a symbol of the appalling torture undergone by the samauri in olden days. -Then a man" who had plunged the dagger into his stomach died slowly by the loss 6f blood. During a .peaceful age, when the,battle cries had been silent for so long, .the/ bushi were not- able to contemplate this method- with indifference, and those who were obliged to witness tho scone could not look on for pity. , -A friend, or secpnd, was. introduced, to , decapitate the body immediately the fatal blow had been struck.