Citation

Yamamoto K. Coll. Antropol. 2000; 24(2): 597-605.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, Croatian Anthropological Society)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11216427

Abstract

After WWII, ultra-nationalism, which was the leading ideology of wartime Japan, seemed to have lost its power to inspire the Japanese. In the 1960s, when the Japanese began to enjoy economic prosperity, Yukio Mishima, deploring that the Japanese were losing the traditional spirit and morality of the nation, was one of those citizens who felt a strong nostalgia for wartime Japan. In an attempt to revive the spiritual exaltation of wartime Japan, Mishima took radical action as an ultra-nationalist, and killed himself by Hara-kiri. Mishima's ethical concepts, which center on the ethos of warriors who dedicate themselves to the defense of their commune, have structural similarities to the ethical structure of the Kanun, which may be called the ethics of "blood". Mishima's theory of ultra-nationalism has a paradoxical logic, which seems to be related to the ethical concepts of a society without state power.

Language: en

Keywords

Cultural Characteristics; Ethics; Famous Persons; History, 20th Century; Humans; Japan; Literature, Modern; Logic; Male; Politics; Social Conditions; Suicide; Warfare