Know Your Enemy

Korero (AEWS), Volume 3, Issue 12, 16 July 1945, Page 20

Know Your Enemy

A KORERO Report

So much has been written and spoken about the position of the Japanese Emperor in the life and thoughts of his people that there is danger of our picture of Japanese psychology being out of perspective. The Imperial cult, though it can truly be called the national religion, is of comparatively recent growth. It has influenced the Japanese people far less than either the domestic or communal cults. In very early days Japanese society was a collection of clan families. The “ heavenly sovereign ” was simply the head of a clan. As the clan increased by expansion and absorption, so his authority increased until he was recognized as the head of all. It is almost certain that the idea of divinity being attached to kingship was brought into Japan by the Southern or Malaysian immigration. To the “ king ” was traditionally attached the right of representing the different Uji or clans before the common ancestor. He was therefore held to have a unique relationship with the gods. In the early eighth century the ruler of the time ordered the compilation of the first official record of the past—the Kojiki. He, and he alone, it was to be shown, was in direct line from the divine

ancestors, and so forestalled any rival claimant. Two other functions also rested by tradition in the “ king ” — that of commander-in-chief of all forces in the field, should united action be necessary, and of deciding when a war involving such forces was to be declared, and when peace was to be made. The eighth century also saw a marked intensification of Chinese influence, which had made its first strong impression 100 years before. The Japanese were so struck by the splendid culture of China that Chinese manners and customs, methods of admininstration, and ceremonial were taken over completely without regard for the existing differences in background and circumstances. As could be expected, many breakdowns occurred, particularly in matters of administration. So by trial and error the Japanese learned the art of adaptation rather than of slavish imitation—an art of which they are now past masters.

It was Chinese influence in the court that led directly to the eventual seclusion of the Emperor. The Japanese were fascinated by the stately and complicated ceremonial of the Chinese court. Constantly added to and modified by succeeding Emperors, it became so burdensome that is was impossible for one man to perform both administrative and religious duties. The ruler could appoint a deputy for the former, but he alone could fulfil the latter. So arose the dual role in Japanese government—the Emperor with all the prestige and reverence attached to the office, and a regent or Shogun holding the real authority. We have seen that the basis of the Shinto religion was the conception of

loyalty, with its duties of absolute obedience and wholehearted service. But the circle of duty for each individual did not extend beyond the clan group to which he belonged. A retainer was, for example, ready to die for his feudal lord, the head of the clan group, but not for the Shogun, unless he belonged to his special military following. Thus the religion of loyalty, until the Restoration of 1868, was limited by the constitution of Japanese society. Under such conditions that larger loyalty —the love of king and country—could not fully evolve. Any duty to the nation, outside of that to his chief, had no place in the mind of the vassal.

This limited conception of loyalty the Shogun found politically valuable. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries we find orders forbidding the Daimyo (feudal district overlords) to approach the Imperial palace on their way to the

Shogun’s court at Yedo (Tokyo). They were also forbidden to make any direct appeal to the Emperor. There were additional regulations designed to stop communication between the Emperor and the Daimyate. This policy, by paralysing intrigue, kept the country at peace for more than 200 years, but it also stopped the growth of real patriotism.

With the arrival of Admiral Perry, the closed doors were forced open, and after two centuries of seclusion Japan was suddenly exposed to Western civilization. At the same time the centralized military government of the Shogunate was tottering, its authority recognized less, its administration more despised. If the clan Daimyos were to cause trouble, civil war would rend the country. Such danger needed the union of all social units. Clan and tribal groupings must be dissolved, and all authority centred in the

one representative of the national religion. The feudal duty of loyalty and obedience to the territorial lord must be replaced by the duty of loyalty and obedience to the divine Emperor. This religion of loyalty, evolved through one thousand years of the ancestral cult, must be diverted and transformed. It could, if properly utilized, prove itself to be a national heritage of incalculable worth.

It is impossible to give details of that great event in Japanese history known as the Restoration of the Emperor Meiji (1867). It is enough to say that the Daimyos were induced to return to the Emperor their governing powers and authority. Gradually the new conception permeated the ranks of the people. The different loyalties were united ; the former limited sense of duty expanded into the new national sentiment of trust in, and obedience to, the Emperor and the country. The modern conception of patriotism came into being. The domestic and communal cults did not suffer. Such cults now became lesser circles, contained in the vast circumference of the national religion, but each in its limited sphere exerted as powerful an influence as before. This is the chief influence that has formed the Japanese of to-day. This great religion of loyalty,

so vast in its potentialities for good or evil, is the parent soil in which are embedded the roots from which the Japanese character has sprung.