Chapter 3 Wartime Japan (1)

Every nation has creeds about war, some of which are common in Western countries.For example: when to mobilize the whole people, how to regain confidence in partial defeat, a certain stable ratio of war dead to captured, how to treat prisoners of war, etc.These are all to be expected in the wars of western countries, because these countries belong to the same cultural source. Japan's reason for launching the war is almost the opposite of that of the United States. Their understanding of the international situation is completely from another perspective.The United States believes that the Axis aggression led to the war. They bullied the weak for no reason in Manchukuo, Ethiopia and Poland.

Small, they trampled on the law of "survive and let others live" and violated the international practice of "opening the door" to free enterprise.Japan believes that as long as countries have absolute sovereignty, the world will always be in chaos; Japan should fight to establish hierarchical order.Of course, the leader of this order is Japan, because only Japan is the only country that has truly established a top-down hierarchy.Japan has achieved peaceful reunification in the country, quelled civil strife, and built roads, electricity, and steel industries.According to official figures, 99.5% of Japanese teenagers are educated in public schools.Therefore, it should help its backward neighbor --- China. The "Great East Asia" co-prosperity circle is full of people of the yellow race. Japan should first remove the United States, then Britain, and Russia from this area, so that each ethnic group in the circle can "get its own place."All countries in the world should define their own positions in the international hierarchy in order to form a unified world.It is an expression of the creativity of the Japanese nation, a sacred aspiration that best suits its heart.

For how to win, the Japanese and the Americans think differently.It clamored that Japan would surely win, and that spirit would triumph over matter.They said: The United States has a vast territory and strong military strength, but what is this?They have long foreseen these gaps, and there are enough ways to make the gaps not work.The Japanese read the following passage from one of their large daily newspapers, the Mainichi Shimbun: "We would not have gone to war if we had been afraid of numbers. This war has not added much resources to them. We have!" "Yes, matter is necessary, but matter cannot remain unchanged for a thousand years. Only spirit can represent everything!" Words like this appear constantly in newspapers.Even when Japan was victorious, Japanese politicians, base camps, and soldiers repeatedly emphasized: "This war is not a contest of armaments, but the belief of the Japanese in willpower and the belief of the Americans in material things." war between the two." When the U.S. military was victorious, they repeated: "In this contest, material forces are doomed to fail." When Japan suffered big losses in Saipan and Iwo Juan, they made excuses. It is said that this is because the material gap is overemphasized and the spiritual combat power is not fully exerted; and as early as the months when the Japanese army showed off their great victories, long before Pearl Harbor, this kind of slogan has always played the role of marching battle flags. In the 1930s, General Araki, a former Minister of War and fanatical militarist, wrote in a propaganda pamphlet called "Report to the Japanese Citizens" that Japan's "sincere mission" is to "promote the emperor's way to the world, and the disparity in power is not enough to worry about." , why should the people of our emperor be afraid of material things!"

Of course, Japan is also worried that its real military strength is not enough.Throughout the 1930s, the proportion of national income devoted to armaments rose very rapidly.In the year of the attack on Pearl Harbor, nearly half of the national income was spent on armaments for the army and navy.Fiscal expenditures for civilian purposes accounted for only 17% of total government expenditures.However, the big ships and cannons are only the external manifestation of the eternal "Japanese spirit", just like a samurai's saber, and the quality symbolizes his inner moral quality. Wartime Japan took this set of beliefs to the extreme.

In their tactical manual there is a slogan: "With our training against the enemy's numerical superiority, with our flesh and blood against the enemy's steel." This is their traditional slogan, not for this war. specially formulated.On the first page of their army manual, there are four words "must read and win" printed in bold letters.Their pilots rammed our warships in a suicidal manner.Among the people, those in power in Japan also promote the belief that spirit is superior to material conditions.Didn't the common people, for example, work 12 hours in a factory and be exhausted by nighttime air raids?They said: "The more tired the body, the more high-spirited the spirit", "The more tired the more you can exercise yourself." Isn't it very cold for ordinary people in the air-raid shelters in winter?The Great Nippon Sports Association ordered everyone to do cold gymnastics on the radio, saying that this gymnastics can not only replace heating equipment and bedding, but also make up for the nutritional shortage of ordinary people.They say: "Of course, it may be said that there is no gymnastics when food is scarce. This is not true. The more food is scarce, the more we must strengthen our strength by other means." That is to say, Physical strength must be increased by means of additional physical exertion.During the war, Japanese broadcasts were even more extreme, even saying that the spirit can overcome the physical reality of death in battle.A radio station once aired the myth of a hero pilot overcoming death:

After the air battle, the Japanese aircraft flew back to the airport in small formations.A captain was among the first to return.After stepping off his plane, he gazed at the sky through binoculars.His subordinates returned one after another, and he counted them one by one. His face was extremely pale, but he was very calm.Seeing the last plane returning, he wrote a report and walked to the headquarters.Arrived at the headquarters and reported to the chief.However, just after the report, he fell to the ground.The officers present rushed forward to help, but alas, he was dead!Upon examination, it was found that the body was cold and that he had been shot in the chest and was fatally wounded.A person who has just died cannot be cold.And the captain's body was as cold as ice.The captain must have died a long time ago, and it was his spirit that supported him in making this report.To be sure, it was the strong sense of responsibility that supported the deceased to create such a miracle.

Of course, in the eyes of Americans, this is a complete nonsense.Educated Japanese, however, do not laugh at such broadcasts.They begin by pointing out that the captain's heroism is "a miraculous fact."Why can't there be miracles?The soul is trainable.The captain was clearly a master of self-discipline. "A perfect spirit can last a thousand years", so why can't this spirit stay on the captain who takes "responsibility" as his whole life for a few hours?The Japanese firmly believe that through special practice, a person's spirit can reach such a state.The captain learned, and it worked.