The Origins of the Samurai and

Bushido Codes
"The Origins of the Samurai and Bushido Codes." 28 Nov 2010

"Explain the meanings and discuss the concepts and origins of Samurai and
Bushido code, then relate these concepts towards the modern Japanese Soldier
and Leader during World War 2 and show evidence to support that the Japanese
soldier treated enemy prisoners exploiting Samurai and Bushido traditions."

Bushido -the feudal-military Japanese code of behavior; the way of the warrior
[samurai] Japanese chivalry [knighthood]

In order to understand bushido and its traditions, a comparison must be made

between the 'traditional' bushido (idealistic) and the bushido code which was
adopted into the Japanese military during World War II. The Japanese justified
that the reason they treated the prisoners in a form of such brutality is because
it's a part of their way of life, the concept of 'no one surrenders'. However if so
surrendered then your life is pretty much hell, and according to the Japanese
custom your family back home is brought shame. With the evidence from source
material though, it seems that the Australians and very likely other nations in
there prison camps understood what was going on around them. Indeed the
Japanese breached the Geneva convention but what is it exactly, did the other
countries follow it accordingly? The Japanese method of dealing with Allied
prisoners was seen through the 'western eyes' as brutality, scum and inhumane.
Yet by the same according to source material some Australian soldiers
recognized that the Japanese did what they did, and in some cases they
exploited the true meaning of bushido or did they?

To understand if the Japanese soldier and leaders in particular abuse the code of
bushido, the traditional bushido must be looked at.

The Traditional background on bushido

In Japan there exists a mindset which, in various forms, has existed for over 2000
years, and has been frequently misinterpreted by other countries. This way of life
is known as Bushido. It basically sums up the moral and religious ideas of Japan.
Also known as kokoro, "the heart within", it has been called "the soul of Japan".
Bushido, which translates to "way of the warrior" in its more common form, was
originally developed as a way to maintain controlled relations between a warlord
and his samurai. It is difficult to describe the samurai in Western terms. The word
"samurai" comes from the verb "to attend upon a noble". They were soldiers
whose sole purpose in life was to serve their masters. The lord was a benefactor,
provider, and protector or the samurai. It was the duty of the samurai to, in turn,
protect the glory and safety of his lord by any means necessary, even if it
included sacrificing his own life for his master. When a war took place, the
samurai was expected to do battle at his master's order. "A man is for one
generation, honor, for all generations". This was a common Bushido belief. Acts
of cowardice brought great disgrace, not only to the samurai, but to his warlord.
Acts of valor earned not only praise, but also considerable material rewards.
Absolute loyalty to his lord was top priority to the samurai. In battle, surrender
was unacceptable. There was no honorable way to survive a defeat. Most
samurai, when faced with defeat, either faced death as inflicted by the enemy, or
by their own hand. This form of ritual suicide is known as seppuku (or hara kiri),
self-inflicted disembowelment. The average samurai would carry two blades. The
katana, for battle, and a dagger, for seppuku. Bushido was a way of life often
fraught with tragedy.

Bushido can be broken down into 7 key areas, The Empire, The Imperial Army,
Discipline, Unity, Cooperation, Aggressiveness and The Conviction to Win. Each
of these points are crucial in order to understand bushido and if that is achieved
then it is easier to think like a Japanese person, in order to anticipate their
actions.

The Empire Japan is the Kokosu (Empire). The Tenno (Emperor) rules over it
everlasting in a line unbroken through the ages as the successor in the high and
broad cause established by the Imperial Ancestor at the time of the founding of
the Empire. Imperial benevolence is extended to all without favour, while the
Imperial virtues enlighten the world. The people too, handing down the traditions
of loyalty, filial piety, and valour from generation to generation, and enhancing
thereby the morality peculiar to the Empire, have assisted the Throne-a perfect
national unity under the Throne-which has brought about the present national
prosperity.

"Soldiers in the field should seek to achieve, with unshakable determination,

their mission of defending the Empire by laying to heart the essential character
of the national polity."

The Imperial Army The Army, under command of the Emperor, assists in
furthering the Imperial fortunes by enhancing the glories of the Empire through
the embodiment of the lofty spirit of valour.

"This spirit is the basic factor in realizing universal peace; for it is the spirit of
justice combined with bravery and of valour tempered by benevolence, in
conformity with the Imperial wishes. Valour requires strictness, while
benevolence must be universal."

Should there be an enemy who dares to oppose the Imperial Army, the Army
must resolutely resort to force of arms and deal him a rushing blow. However,
even though force may compel the enemy to submit, should a lapse in virtue
occur by striking of those who do not resist or by failure to show kindness to
those who surrender, it cannot be said that such an army is perfect.
"Modesty in its strength, unostentatious (unaffected)in its kindness, the Imperial
Army becomes the object of admiration when it quietly displays its valour and
benevolence."

The mission of the Imperial Army lies in making the Imperial virtues the objects
of universal admiration through the exercise of justice tempered with mercy.

Discipline The essence of discipline in the Imperial Army lies in the lofty spirit of
complete obedience to His Majesty, the Grand Marshal. High and low must have
deeply engraved in their minds the solemnity of the right of command; those
above should exercise the right in all seriousness, while those below should obey
the commands in the utmost sincerity. Essential to victory and requisite for
maintaining peace is the condition wherein the entire Army, united in the bonds
of absolute loyalty, moves as one in response to a command.

"Especially on the battlefield is the utmost observance of the spirit of obedience

necessary. The spirit of the soldier is best exemplified by those who silently do
their duty, joyfully braving death in obedience to a command given at a time
when they are undergoing great hardships."

Unity The Army looks up in awe to His Majesty as its august head; it must be
united in compliance with the Imperial Will, as one in spirit and in body and in
single-hearted loyalty. In keeping with the basic principles of command, an army
unit should form a solid yet genial group with its commander as its centre.

It is essential that each man, high and low, dutifully observing his place, should
be determined always to sacrifice himself for the whole, in accordance with the
intentions of the commander, by reposing every confidence in his comrades, and
without giving even the slightest thought to personal interest and to life or
death.

Cooperation Soldiers should not only be united in mind in carrying out their
tasks, but should display the spirit of cooperation by forgetting themselves for
the sake of victory.

Every unit should carry out its mission with responsibility, upholding its honour,
placing confidence in others and assisting one another, volunteering to face
hardships, exerting all its strength in cooperation, and fighting valiantly to
achieve its objective.

Aggressiveness should constantly prevail in combat, which must be carried out

with bravery and determination. When attacking, be determined and positive,
always taking the initiative, fighting vigorously and stubbornly, vowing not to
cease until the enemy is crushed. In defence, always retain the spirit of attack
and always maintain freedom of action; never give up a position but rather die.
In pursuit, be thorough and inexorable.

Act boldly intent on victory; be fearless and calm, meeting the situation
courageously, undergoing hardships with indomitable perseverance so as to
overcome all obstacles.
The Conviction to Win Faith is strength. He who has faith in combat is always the
victor. The conviction to win grows from constant and rigorous training.

"Develop the strength to conquer the enemy by every possible effort and by
improving every moment."

The destiny of the Empire rests upon victory or defeat in battle. Do not give up
under any circumstances, keeping in mind your responsibility not to tarnish the
glorious history of the Imperial Army with its tradition of invincibility.

The mentality of Bushido during the Second World War it seems, is more fragile
in terms of a feeling is felt; that during the great war a final desperate gasp is
seemed to be made at a hold of identity and tradition but over rated in a sense
and to the extreme for example. During World War II, Japanese society was a
volatile combination of feudalism and nationalism that concluded in a national
acceptance of military rule during the war years. The Japanese armed forces
were a highly nationalistic, well established modern fighting force. Their doctrine
was the Bushido code of feudal Japan permitted the fighting code of Japan's
servicemen. Bushido, the code of the Samurai warrior extolled the offensive,
created a lust of battle and condemned weakness. It demanded bravery, loyalty,
allegiance to orders and forbade surrender.

"It was believed that death in combat was honorable. In combat, this code was
used to rally troops into suicidal banzai charges, or to encourage encircled troops
to take their own lives with grenades before they could be captured."

Surrender was disgraceful not only to the soldier, but to his entire family. There
are documented accounts of soldier's wives driving themselves to disgrace or
death because of rumors that their husband dishonorably surrendered.

Example of the attitudes towards Japan's surrendered enemies can be seen in

the death marches. The infamous Bataan Death March, and the much less well-
known Sandakan Death March on Borneo, were typical of Japanese attitudes
toward surrendered enemies. The code of the Japanese military said that the
Japanese soldier, sailor or aviator was incapable of surrender. He was expected
to fight to the death, and one who surrendered was considered to have ceased to
be Japanese. For all the lip service given to bushido and the samurai tradition in
Japanese propaganda, the truth is that both honorable surrender and even
switching of allegiances in mid-conflict were part of samurai history.

In both the Bataan and Sandakan Death Marches the publicized goal was to
move large numbers of POWs: on Bataan, it was from the location of capture to a
prison camp, and on Borneo it was from a coastal camp in danger of being
attacked and liberated to one deep in the interior of the third largest island in the
world.

"The real goal for both was to finish the marches with as few prisoners as
possible to guard and feed."
The prisoners - sick and wounded on Bataan, sick and malnourished at Sandakan
- were pushed at the pace of a healthy soldier. Any prisoner who dropped by the
wayside from illness, injury or simple exhaustion was killed immediately to keep
the march from slowing down while their mates tried to help them. In most
cases, bayonets were used in order to conserve ammunition.

In the case of the Sandakan camp, the removal of all prisoners was deemed
necessary in order to allow the Japanese to obliterate the site, to prevent the
Allies from discovering the atrocities that had occurred there.There was enough
evidence that General Baba Masaro, who ordered the march, knew full well that
his remaining 75 prisoners would not arrive at the Ranau Camp, considering how
few healthy prisoners had survived the far less arduous march to Sandakan two
years before. General Baba was tried as a war criminal and hanged for this.Not
surprisingly, all of the marchers either died or were killed by guards along the
way.

As an Australian P.O.W (Prisoner of War) said,

Jack Sloane, "It never occurred to me to bash a Japanese just because he was
Japanese. I knew enough of them to realize that their code of conduct was
completelt foreign to us, but that didn't justify bashing just any Jap because we
had been bashed from time to time. If it was a particular Jap, well that was
different in my book. We are aware that some of the occupation forces had made
it possible for people to take action if they wished. A story going around was that
one Australian was given the opportunity and he took it but in doing so broke his
wrist. It is debatable whether that was worthwhile."

This diary entry, brings an extremely controversial issue up, because there
seemed to be a trend that everyone (Australian, American etc.) hated the
Japanese not only for what they did but as a race as well, however what Jack is
saying although it is only one peace of evidence seems to put forward that they
didn't really care about the race when it comes down to it, it's more a matter of
fact of what they did. For example Chemical and Biological Experiments on
POWs, The infamous Unit 731 camp on the outskirts of Harbin in Manchukuo
(Manchuria) could be argued to be the most horrifying example of man's
inhumanity to man during World War II. It was Josef Mengele writ on an immense
scale. Unit 731 was set up to research, develop, test and produce biological
weapons. From this original "mandate" they branched out into chemical
(chlorine, mustard gas, etc.) and environmental (temperature extremes,
exposure, etc.) experiments.

In conclusion there is a very good case for the fundamental difference between
the systematic and carefully planned atrocities of the Japanese military in World
War II and the spontaneous atrocities that occur in most other. There is much of
the blame on the Japanese society and its interpretation of bushido that had
virtually no concept of individual human rights, which found its epitome in the
Japanese military, to whom the concept had no semantic value whatsoever.
All orders were given "in the name of the Emperor", and so the leaders could
never be questioned. Japanese soldiers tried as war criminals were genuinely
shocked to have this defense set aside. Simply the fact that they would also
attempt to kill themselves for the Emperor too. Either and Explotation of the
Bushido code or the Japanese just saught revenge on the white race, due to race
relations maybe because the Japanese were looked upon as yellow people from
Asia like the Chinese and not capable to fight a 'western country'.

Questions:

1. What is Bushido? How long has it existed for? Who was it originally created
for?
2. What are the 7 key areas of Bushido?
3. Why do the Japanese consider honor so important?
4. What is the reason the Japanese took very little POWs?
5. What is seppuku?
6. Why did the death marches occur?