Chapter 3 Chapter 1 Mission - Study Japan
Of all the enemies the United States fought with all its might, the Japanese were the most elusive.The main adversary, whose actions and habits of thought are so different from ours, that we must take it seriously, is not the case in any other war.Just like Tsarist Russia in 1905, we are fighting against a fully armed and trained nation that does not belong to Western cultural traditions.The customs of war based on human nature recognized by Western countries obviously do not exist for the Japanese.This made war in the Pacific more than a series of island landings and difficult logistics, making knowing the "character of the enemy" a major problem.To combat them, we must understand their behavior.
The difficulties are enormous.In the seventy-five years since Japan's closed doors were opened, descriptions of the Japanese have always used a series of extremely confusing "but, again..." descriptions that are far from comparable to descriptions of other peoples in the world. .A serious observer of other non-Japanese peoples is not likely to say that they are polite and add: "But they are arrogant and arrogant." , and said: "However, they are very easy to adapt to drastic innovations"; nor can they both say that the nation is docile, but also say that they do not easily submit to the control of their superiors; nor can they both say that they are loyal and generous, and declare: "But they are rebellious and full of resentment"; nor can they say that they are brave by nature, but also describe how cowardly they are; have a sincere conscience; nor will they describe how they received robotic training in the army, but also describe how the soldiers of that army were disobedient and even committed rebellion; stubborn conservatism.He would not have written a book about the universal love of beauty in this people, the high honor given to actors and artists, and the obsession with the cultivation of chrysanthemums, and another book in which he added that the people respected the sword and the warrior's invincibility. Honor.
However, all the above-mentioned contradictions have become the warp and weft of the treatise on Japan.And, it's all true.The knife and the chrysanthemum are both part of a painting.The Japanese are extremely aggressive yet very gentle; militaristic yet glamorous; haughty yet polite; stubborn yet volatile; submissive yet repulsive; loyal yet rebellious; brave And cowardly; conservative and very welcoming of new ways of life.They are very concerned about what others think of their actions, but they are overcome by guilt when others are ignorant of their misdeeds.Their soldiers are thoroughly trained, yet defiant.
Now that understanding Japan has become America's preoccupation, we cannot ignore these and many other equally troubling contradictions.Serious incidents have emerged before us one after another.What will the Japanese do next?Can Japan surrender without attacking the mainland?Should we just bomb the palace?What can we expect from Japanese prisoners of war?In our propaganda to the Japanese army and to Japan itself, what shall we promote that will save American lives and weaken the will of the Japanese to fight to the last man?These issues have also caused considerable disagreement in Japan.If peace came, would the Japanese need to enforce martial law forever in order to maintain order?Is our army going to fight those crazy rebels in the fortress in the deep mountains and old forests of Japan?Will there be a French or Russian revolution in Japan before world peace becomes possible?Who will lead this revolution?Or, the Japanese nation can only perish?Our judgments on these questions are certainly divided.
I was commissioned to study Japan in June 1944.I was tasked with finding out what the Japanese nation was like, using all the research techniques available to a cultural anthropologist.In the early summer of that year, my country's large-scale counterattack against Japan had just begun.In the United States, many people believed that the war against Japan would last another three years, maybe ten years, or even longer.In Japan, some people think that this war will become the Hundred Years' War.They said that although the U.S. military had achieved a partial victory, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands were still thousands of miles away from the Japanese mainland.Japanese communiqués did not acknowledge the defeat of the Japanese navy at all, and the Japanese people still thought they were victors.
However, after entering June, the situation began to change.Europe has opened up a second battlefield, and the military priority given to the European battlefield by the Supreme Command in the past two and a half years has been fulfilled, and victory in the war against Germany is just around the corner.In the Pacific, our army has landed on Saipan.This is a major battle that foretells the complete defeat of the Japanese army.Since then, our soldiers have come into close contact with the Japanese army more and more.And, in New Guinea, in the battles of Guadalcanal, Burma, Attu, Tarawa, Biak, etc., we have seen clearly what a terrible enemy.
Thus, by June 1944, we urgently needed answers to many questions about our enemy, Japan.These questions, whether military or diplomatic, whether they arise from the demands of the highest decision-making or for the dissemination of propaganda pamphlets on the front lines of the Japanese army, must be answered with insight.In the general war launched by Japan, we must understand not only the motives and purposes of those in power in Tokyo, not only the long history of Japan, but also not only economic and military statistics.We have to figure out, what can the Japanese government expect from the Japanese people?We must understand the habits of thought and feeling of the Japanese, and the patterns formed by these habits.It is also necessary to clarify the constraints behind these actions and wills.We must set aside for a moment the presuppositions of American action, and try not to assume that what we would have done in a given situation would have been done by the Japanese.
The tasks I take are difficult.The United States and Japan are at war.It is easy in war to blame everything on the enemy country; it is much more difficult to know the enemy's own view of life.And this task must be completed.The question is how the Japanese would behave, not how we would behave in their situation.I had to try to use the behavior of the Japanese in the war as a "positive value" or useful information for understanding them, rather than as a "negative value" or disadvantage.I had to look at the way they approached the war itself, and not as a military issue for a moment, but as a cultural issue.As in normal times, Japanese behavior in wartime has its own Japanese characteristics.What are the characteristics of their way of life and way of thinking about war?The way their leaders boosted morale, reassured national fears, and deployed troops on the battlefield—all this revealed what strength they thought they had at their disposal?I had to study the details of the war carefully to see how the Japanese revealed themselves step by step.
But the fact that our two countries are at war inevitably has a serious disadvantage on my part.This meant that I had to abandon fieldwork, which is the most important method of research for cultural anthropologists.I cannot live in a Japanese family, observe with my own eyes the various styles of their daily life, and distinguish which are critical and which are not.I couldn't watch the complex process of making their decisions.I can't observe how their offspring are raised."Suye Village" by John Embree is the only monograph on Japanese villages written by anthropologists after field observation, and it is very valuable, but what we encounter in 1944 There are many issues that the book has not yet addressed.
Despite the enormous difficulties described above, as a cultural anthropologist, I believe that there are some research methods and accepted assumptions or premises that can be used.At least one of the methods cultural anthropologists rely on most—direct contact with the people being studied.Our country has many Japanese who grew up in Japan.I can fill in the gaps in our knowledge by asking many specific examples of their own experiences and discovering how they have judged;At that time, other social scientists engaged in Japanese studies mostly used books and documents, analyzed historical events and statistical data, and traced its development from the words and sentences of Japanese written or oral propaganda.I am convinced that the answers to many questions are hidden in the rules and values of Japanese culture, and the answers will be more satisfying by studying the people who live in this culture.
That doesn't mean I don't read books, or have been taught by Westerners who have lived in Japan.The rich literature on Japan and the many good western observers who have lived in Japan have been of great help to me, which is not available to anthropologists who go to the headwaters of the Amazon or study the non-literate tribes of New Guinea, etc. of.Those ethnic groups have no writing and cannot record with writing.The discourses of Westerners are also rare and fleeting.No one knows their past history.Fieldwork scholars had to explore their economic way of life, social class status, and the highest nobility of religious life without the help of any pioneer scholars.I study Japan but have a legacy of many scholars to carry on.The palaeo-curious literature is replete with descriptions of details of life.Europeans and Americans recorded their vivid experiences in detail, and the Japanese themselves wrote many unusual self-records.Unlike other oriental peoples, the Japanese have a strong urge to write about themselves, both about the details of their lives and about their plans for global expansion, with astonishing frankness.Of course, they didn't come clean.No nation would do that.When the Japanese describe Japan, they omit many important things, because they are so familiar to them, like breathing air, they are used to it without noticing it.The same goes for Americans when they write about America.Nevertheless, the Japanese still like to show themselves.
When I read these documents, it is like the way Darwin said he read when he founded the theory of the origin of species, that is, paying special attention to those things that cannot be understood.What do I have to know about the mass of ideas in the parliamentary speech?Why do they attack some insignificant behaviors, but do not mind appalling atrocities, and what is hidden behind this attitude?As I read, I kept asking, "What's wrong with this painting?" What do I have to know in order to understand?
I also watched a lot of films written and shot in Japan—propaganda films, historical films, and films about modern life in Tokyo and the countryside—and then discussed them with some Japanese who had seen the same films in Japan.Their perception of heroes and heroines and villains in movies is not the same as mine.Where I was puzzled, they felt nothing.Their understanding of plot and writing motivation is also different from mine. They understand it from the structure of the whole movie.Just like reading novels, there is a big gap between my understanding and those who grew up in Japan.Among these Japanese, some are quick to justify Japanese customs and habits; some hate everything in Japan.It's hard to say which kind of person taught me the most.But the picture they paint of the norms of life in Japan is consistent, whether they are embraced by those who accept them or those who bitterly reject them.
If only collecting data and seeking explanations directly from the cultural object (the people) he studied, the anthropologist was doing what all the best Western observers who lived in Japan have done.If his contribution ends here, he cannot be expected to add to the excellent writing on Japan by former foreign residents.Nevertheless, the cultural anthropologist's training has certain special abilities, and it seems worthwhile to expend some effort to add to his contribution to a field rich in scholars and observers.
Anthropologists know a variety of Asian and Oceanian cultures.Japan has many social customs and living habits, even very similar to the primitive tribes on the Pacific islands.These are similar, some in the Malay Islands, some in New Guinea, and some in Polynesia.Of course, it's interesting to speculate on the basis of these similarities that there might have been immigration or mutual contact in ancient times.But for me, the value of understanding cultural similarities lies not in such possible historical connections, but in being able to draw inspiration from these similarities or differences to understand the Japanese way of life.This is because I understand how these customs work in those simple cultures.I also have some knowledge of Siam, Burma, and China on the Asian continent, so I can compare Japan with other peoples that are part of the great cultural heritage of Asia.Anthropologists have repeatedly demonstrated in their studies of primitive peoples how valuable such cultural comparisons are.A tribe's formal customs may be 90 percent the same as those of a neighboring tribe, but may still require some modification to accommodate the different lifestyles and values of the surrounding peoples.In the process it may be necessary to exclude certain basic customs, however small their proportion to the whole, which may turn the future of the people in a unique direction.It is most instructive for an anthropologist to study such stark differences among peoples who, as a whole, have many commonalities.
Anthropologists must also adapt themselves to the greatest extent possible to the differences between their own culture and other cultures, and their research techniques must be honed to address this particular problem.They knew by experience that the manner in which men of different cultures encounter certain situations and must judge their meaning varies greatly among different tribes and peoples.In some arctic countryside or tropical desert they would encounter tribal customs based on kinship obligations or financial exchanges far beyond what any wild imagination could have imagined.Anthropologists must investigate, not only the details of kinship or exchange relations, but also the consequences of this custom in tribal behavior, and how each generation was bound by it from childhood, practiced it, and passed it on from generation to generation, just as its predecessors did. as the ancestors did.
Anthropologists' attention to such differences, constraints, and consequences can also be exploited when studying Japan.Today, everyone feels the deep-rooted cultural differences between the United States and Japan.We even have this saying about Japan: Whatever we do, they must do the opposite.It is of course dangerous for a researcher who believes this to simply think that the differences are too fantastic to know about that people.Anthropologists have amply demonstrated by their own experience that even the most bizarre differences do not hinder the researcher's understanding of it.Anthropologists are better than other social scientists at utilizing differences as a "positive value," that is, useful data, rather than as a "negative value."The more bizarre the differences between institutions and peoples appear, the more they pay attention.He takes nothing for granted about the way of life of the tribes he studies, and this allows him to look not at a few selected instances but at everything.Entire fields of many behaviors are often overlooked by those lacking training in comparative culture in the study of Western peoples.They take it too much for granted, and fail to study the little habits of everyday life and the accepted sayings about familiar things.However, it is such customs or accepted sayings that are projected on a large scale on the screen of the nation and affect the future of the nation far more than the various treaties signed by diplomats.
The anthropologist must develop techniques for the study of the mundane affairs which, in the tribe he studies, are quite different from the counterparts in his own country.When he tries to understand what is considered the most vicious in one tribe or the most cowardly in another, when he tries to understand how they would act and feel in a given situation, he will find , requires vigorous observation and attention to details which are often neglected in the study of civilized peoples.Anthropologists have good reason to believe that these are the most critical, and know how to dig.
This method is worth applying to the study of Japan.For the significance of the anthropologist's premise that human behavior in any primitive tribe, or in any most advanced civilized people, is learned from everyday of.However strange one's actions or opinions may be, one's way of feeling and thinking is always connected with one's experience.The more I am puzzled by a certain behavior of the Japanese, the more I am convinced that there must be some very ordinary condition at work in Japanese life which produces this peculiar behavior.The further my research goes into the details of everyday interactions the more useful it becomes.It is in the details of everyday life that man learns.
As a cultural anthropologist, I am also convinced of the premise that even the most isolated behaviors have some systematic relationship to each other.I appreciate how hundreds of individual behaviors form patterns that cover the population.A human society always has to make some kind of design for its own life.It expresses approval of the way certain situations are handled and the way they are evaluated, and people in that society take these conclusions as the basic conclusions of the whole world.No matter how difficult it was, they put these conclusions together.Once people accept the value system by which they live, it is impossible to think and act according to the opposite value system in another part of their life at the same time, otherwise they will inevitably fall into confusion and inconvenience.They will strive for greater harmony.They have prepared for themselves common reasons and common motives.A certain degree of harmony is essential, otherwise the whole system will disintegrate.
In this way, economic behavior, domestic activities, religious rituals, and political goals all mesh together like cogs.Changes in one department are more drastic than others, and the other departments are under great pressure, and this pressure comes from the need to achieve harmony.In a non-literate society that pursues power and rule, the will to power is not only expressed in economic exchanges and relationships with other tribes, but also in religious activities.In a civilized nation with ancient written scriptures, the church must keep the quotations of past ages.Not so with scriptless tribes.But as the public recognition of economic and political power grew, the Church abdicated her power in areas that contradicted it.Although the words and sentences remain, the content has changed.Religious teachings, economic activities, and politics are not in small pools separated by dikes. They always overflow imaginary dikes, communicate with each other, and become inseparable from each other.Since this is common sense, the more a scholar spreads his investigations into areas such as economics, sex life, religion, and even infant care, the more he can probe into what is going on in the societies he studies.He can effectively formulate hypotheses and collect data in any area of life.He can learn to understand the demands formed by any people, whether expressed in political, economic, or moral terms, as expressions of the ways of thinking and habits which they have learned from their social experience.My book, therefore, is not a book devoted to Japanese religion, economic life, politics, or family, but explores Japanese perspectives on the way of life.It only describes how these views reveal themselves in various activities, whatever the activities may be at the time.It is a book that explores how Japan became the Japanese nation.
One of the obstacles facing the twentieth century is that we still have vague and even biased ideas about why Japan is the nation of Japan, but also of how the United States is the nation of America, France is the nation of France, and Russia is the nation of Russia is also like this.Countries misunderstand each other due to lack of knowledge in this area.Sometimes, the dispute is only a slight difference, but we worry about differences that cannot be reconciled.And when a people, based on its whole experience and value system, has mentally formed a course of action very different from ours, we talk about common goals.We take no chance at all to learn what their habits and values are.If we learn, we may discover that a course of action is not necessarily bad, because it is not the one we know.
The statements of nations about their own thoughts and actions cannot be relied upon entirely.Writers of every nation strive to describe their nation, but it is not easy.No nation sees life through the same lens as other nations do.When people look at things, it is difficult to realize that they are looking through a lens.Any nation takes these things for granted, and the focal lengths and viewpoints accepted by any nation seem to be scenes arranged by God for that nation.We never expect people who wear spectacles to figure out their prescriptions, nor do we expect peoples to analyze their own view of the world.When we want to know the prescription of the eye, we train an ophthalmologist, and he will test the lens.There is no doubt that one day we will also admit that the task of the social scientist is to do the work of the ophthalmologist for the peoples of the contemporary world.
This work requires a certain firmness and tolerance at the same time.Some well-meaning people sometimes accuse our steadfastness of spirit.These "one world" advocates firmly believe and instill in people all over the world the belief that "East" and "West", black and white, Christians and Muslims, these differences are superficial, in fact, All people think alike.This view is sometimes referred to as "all men are brothers".However, I don't understand why the belief in "All brothers within the world" cannot be said that the Japanese have the Japanese way of life, and the Americans have the American way of life.It seems that these soft-hearted gentlemen sometimes seem to think that all the peoples of the world are printed on a single negative, without which goodwill cannot be established.But forcing acceptance of this singleness as a condition of respecting other nations is like forcing one's own wife and children to be exactly the same as oneself, which is too neurotic.Men of determination believe that differences should exist.They respect differences.Their goal is to establish a safe world that accommodates all kinds of differences.The United States can be authentic America without threatening world peace; the same is true for France and Japan.To attempt to restrain the growth of such attitudes by external pressure would seem absurd to any student who does not himself believe that difference is the sword of Damocles hanging over man.Nor does he have to worry about making the world dead by taking such a stance.Encouraging cultural differences does not mean making the world stand still.After the Elizabethan era, Britain had the Queen Anne era and the Victorian era, which did not lose its Britishness.This is precisely because the British have always been British, and thus have been able to recognize the existence of different standards and different national temperaments in different generations.
A systematic study of ethnic differences requires both a certain determination and a certain tolerance.People can only have unusual tolerance if they have their own unshakable beliefs.Only then can the comparative study of religion develop.They may be Christians or Arab scholars, or infidels, but they are by no means fanatics.The same is true for the comparative study of culture. If people are still tremblingly defending their own way of life and only believe that their own way of life is the only solution in the world, the comparative study of culture cannot develop.Such a person will never understand that acquiring knowledge of other ways of life increases devotion to one's own culture.They exclude themselves from pleasurable and fulfilling experiences.They are so reserved that they have no choice but to ask other peoples to adopt their particular ways.As Americans, they force all nations to accept our favorite creeds.However, it is difficult for other peoples to accept the way of life we require, just as we cannot learn to use the twelve base system instead of the decimal system for calculation, or learn to rest in the golden rooster independent style like some indigenous peoples in East Africa.
This book is, therefore, a book of Japanese customs, both expected and accepted.It will discuss what the Japanese expect of themselves, when they can expect compliments and when they can't; when they feel ashamed and when they feel embarrassed, etc.The most ideal basis for the matters discussed in this book may be ordinary street talkers, and there are everyone.This does not mean that these people have been in every particular situation mentioned in the book, but that these people will all admit that they will be in that situation.The purpose of such research is to map out the attitudes at the bottom of thought and action.It may not have achieved that purpose, but it is the ideal of this book.
In this study, the researchers quickly discovered that no amount of additional survey material would provide more certainty.For example, when someone bows to whom, there is no need to conduct a statistical study of the entire Japanese population.This recognized habitual behavior, any Japanese can prove to you, and a few more corroborating evidence will do, and it is not necessary to draw the same conclusion from tens of thousands of Japanese.
The job of the researcher who wants to ascertain the ideas on which the Japanese way of life rests is far more difficult than statistical verification.What is pressing for him to report is how these accepted behaviors and judgments form the lens through which the Japanese see what exists.They must explain how the Japanese perspective affects their focus and perspective on life.He also had to try to make it intelligible to Americans who viewed life through an entirely different lens.The most authoritative court in this kind of analysis is not necessarily "Mr. Tanaka"—that is, any Japanese.Because "Mr. Tanaka" can't express his point of view clearly.In his view, those explanations written for Americans are too analytical and unnecessary.
American studies of society pay little attention to the various prerequisites on which civilized national culture is built.Most studies consider these premises to be self-evident.Sociologists and psychologists are largely preoccupied with the "distribution" of opinions and behaviours, and their method of study is statistics.They conduct statistical analysis on a large amount of survey data, survey questionnaires, interlocutors' answers, psychological measurements, etc., trying to find out the independence or interdependence of certain factors.In the field of public opinion surveys, effective sampling survey techniques selected by scientific methods can be used nationwide, and this method has reached a high degree of perfection in the United States.In this way, it is possible to understand how many supporters and opponents there are for a candidate for office or for a policy.Supporters or opponents can be classified by country or city, low-wage income or high-wage earners, Republicans or Democrats.In a country where universal suffrage is practiced and laws are enacted by representatives of the people, such findings have practical importance.
Americans can use polls to survey Americans' opinions and learn about the results of the surveys.But they can do so on the obvious but inhumane precondition that they are familiar with the American way of life and take it for granted.The results of opinion polls are nothing more than adding to what we already know.To understand another country, a systematic qualitative study of the habits and opinions of the people of that country is necessary before voting methods can be useful.Careful sampling can give an idea of how many people support the government and how many people oppose the government.But what can the results of the sample survey tell us if we don't know in advance what kind of ideas they have about the country?Only after we understand their views of the country can we find out what the various factions are arguing about in the streets or in Congress.The opinion of a people about its government is of more general and lasting importance than the figures which mark the strength of the various parties.In the United States, both Republicans and Democrats regard government as an almost inescapable evil that restricts individual liberty.For an American, with the exception perhaps of the war years, government officials are no more socially superior than those who serve in civil service.This kind of view of the country is completely different from that of the Japanese, and even very different from that of many European countries.It is their views of this kind that we must first understand.Their views are expressed in customs, commentary on successful people, myths about their national history, and the rhetoric of national festivals.Research can also be conducted based on these indirect manifestations, but it must be a systematic study.
Just as we need to study the percentage of votes for and against votes in elections, we can also study carefully and in detail the basic views formed by a certain nation in life and the solutions they agree with.Japan is just such a country, and its basic concepts are worthy of our study.I do find that many of the inconsistencies in Japanese behavior that Westerners often see in Japanese behavior become clear once we understand how Westerners' ideas don't fit with their outlook on life, and grasp some of the categories and symbols they use. No more contradictions.I began to understand why the Japanese considered certain drastic changes in behavior to be part of a coherent system.I can try to explain why.When I worked with the Japanese, I found that the strange words and concepts they used at first became of great significance and full of long-term accumulated emotions.Morality and evil are completely different from what Westerners understand.Their system is unique, neither Buddhist nor Confucian, but Japanese - with both Japanese strengths and weaknesses.
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