Normally a defeat would produce shame but there are some ways in which defeat can be converted into an honorable end that redefines a personal failure into an overcoming of the circumstances, usually through honorable death. Defining what constitutes shame is a difficult task, primarily due to the fact that different countries have different ideas about what constitutes shame and how to face it.
For most societies the basic definition of shame can be broken down into categories, for example: shame could be the loss of face, meaning somebody causes another person to feel embarrassment or to have their reputation tarnished in some way. Shame can also be related to loss of personal honor or degrading of a person’s social status. Shame is often times revealed in times of disaster or in the face of some form of catastrophe.
A failure to properly handle a negative situation such as a disaster, or receiving blame for one’s role in a situation [in which the majority of public opinion indicates that disaster might have been preventable if only X solution had been implemented earlier] causes a loss of face which in turn is an example of shame.
One example of a disaster situation in which the blame was placed on persons who had a public role in the disaster was the recent incident in Fukushima, Japan. This incident was followed by resignations and a loss of face on the part of the Japanese government due to the Japanese people’s perceptions of who was at fault in the management of the disaster and its consequences.
The Japanese reaction to the shame [in this case the negative publicity attached to the handling of the situation] is somewhat different from the western perceptions and reactions. Especially in relation to war and warriors,...
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...tion is brought into question, the chances of losing face are multiplied (Nitobe, 38). The most important thing about shame, is how it is handled with in the context of the country in which it is experienced and therefore within which it is judged.
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Much of what is considered modern Japan has been fundamentally shaped by its involvement in various wars throughout history. In particular, the events of World War II led to radical changes in Japanese society, both politically and socially. While much focus has been placed on the broad, overarching impacts of war on Japan, it is through careful inspection of literature and art that we can understand war’s impact on the lives of everyday people. The Go Masters, the first collaborative film between China and Japan post-WWII, and “Turtleback Tombs,” a short story by Okinawan author Oshiro Tatsuhiro, both give insight to how war can fundamentally change how a place is perceived, on both an abstract and concrete level.
Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi. Racing the enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the surrender of Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005.
Joseph Conlans “State of War; The Violent Order of Fourteenth Century Japan” is an depth look at Japans emerging warrior class during a time period of constant warfare in Medieval Japan. His work however doesn’t revolve around the re-fabrication and in-depth analysis of battles sieged like many contemporary examinations of wars and battles won and lost. Instead the author vies to navigate the reader on journey into the warrior class’s lives and how they evolved through a statistical analysis of records. This illustrates how warfare changed and transformed with the constant evolving of the Samurai, but it also includes how their actions affected their Political environment as well as the society in which they dwelled from the bottom up. Through his survey of records and documents, Conlan is able to give readers a compelling look into the Warrior class and at times shatters in the process many of the pre-conceived general notions that one may hold about this ancient class of professional warriors. Many of the notions & common misconceptions debunked in this scholarly piece include the idea that the Samurai was a male only fraternity, reserved for those of impeccable candor and loyalty. When truth be known, woman and young men (boys) were also trained in the art of war and thus were as likely to be found on the battle fields as men when times were tough and solider numbers were depleted. Further, another misconception (Generally thought to be caused by the popular and well known; “The Bushido Code: The Eight Virtues of the Samurai”) of the warrior class is that all of these men were truly Samurai which translated to “one who serves” when really, loyalty for the warrior class as Conlan points out only went as far as ones right to ...
When most American people think of Germany, they think of sports cars made for the autobahn, sauerkraut, Adolf Hitler, and the Holocaust. Compared to Germany, when most American people think of Japan they think of sushi, Godzilla movies, Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World War II was such a significant event in history that almost 70 years after it came to an end, today’s younger generations often associate former Axis controlled countries with the war. People around the world are filled with disgust and immense hate when they hear the name Hitler, mainly because of his leadership under the Holocaust; which was the discriminatory mass genocide of 11-17 million people, the vast majority of which were European Jews. Hirohito, former Emperor of Japan, should strike a similar bell with people when they hear his name because Japan carried out genocide on Chinese civilians and soldiers in World War II. Japan’s attack on the Chinese city of Nanking, was one of the most atrocious events in history. This event has been named both the Nanking Massacre and the Rape of Nanking. The torturous, violent techniques used by the Japanese army upon Chinese civilians and soldiers including dehumanizing them, addicting them to drugs, and other perverse and violent acts, are some of the most grosteque methods ever recorded that could only be thought of by sadistic Japanese soldiers. The events committed by the Japanese army in Nanking, are equally as disgusting as the acts that Nazi Germany committed and should become a major topic involved with World War II in the future, despite the lack of light shed on it in the past for various reasons.
Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. McQuade, Donald, ed., pp. 113-117.
Sabin, Burritt. "The War's Legacy [sic]: Dawn of a tragic era", Japan Times, February 8, 2004 (
“Glory, built on selfish principles, is shame and guilt.” A quote by William Cowper and his quote suggests that if you achieve glory but achieved it by being or making selfish choices you haven’t achieved true glory. It’s like the character brother from the short story, “Scarlet Ibis” written by James Hurst. Brother has a little brother named Doodle and Doodle was born with a heart condition and everybody thought he was going to die but didn’t. Initially everyone thinks doodles going to die. Brother doesn’t like doodle and Brother had even made plans to kill doodle. However Doodle lives and brother tries to change Doodle for his own selfish ways because he wants a brother to fit into society. Brother is embarrassed of Doodle. Consequently Brother pushes Doodle to his limit and Doodles heart fails and he dies. This shows that selfish choices can hurt those who care about you.
21 Pitts, Forrest R., Japan. p. 113. -. 22. Davidson, Judith. Japan- Where East Meets West, p. 107.
War changes people’s lives; it changes the way people act, the way they think, and what they believe in. The people of Japan hold tradition and honor above everything else, this is something that did not change throughout the war. Though the world is changing right before the Japanese peoples’ eyes, they keep honor and tradition locked into their minds as well as their hearts. Frank Gibney’s statement, “There is no question that the Japanese people had participated wholeheartedly in the war effort.” is partly true as well as not. True in the sense that the Japanese did do certain things that may be counted as participating in the war, yet these acts were not done wholeheartedly.
In the piece Shame on You by Paul A. Trout, he discusses the value and disrespect involved in shaming and how this has changed our academia values in our current society. In this work, he both discusses how shame has changed the interactions between professor and students and also the backlash if a teacher goes too far in their shaming.
Tsuzuki, Chushichi. The Pursuit of Power in Modern Japan, 1825-1995. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Questia. Web. 28 Apr. 2011.
Shame is like a dark shadow that follows us around, making us second guess what we are about to do, and always something we refuse to talk about. As Brown puts it, shame “derives its power from being unspeakable.” If we recognize our shame and speak about it, it’s like shining a flashlight on it; it dies. This is why vulnerability and shame go hand in hand. We must embrace our vulnerability in order to talk about shame, and once we talk about shame and release ourselves from its bonds, we can fully feel vulnerable and use that vulnerability to find courage and dare greatly. In order to reach this level of wholeheartedness, we must “mind the gap,” as Brown says, between where we are and where we want to end up. We must be conscious of our practiced values and the space between those and our aspirational values, what Brown calls the “disengagement divide.” We have to keep our aspirations achievable, or disengagement is inevitable. Minding this gap is quite a daring strategy, and one that requires us to embrace our own vulnerability as well as cultivate shame resilience. Accomplishing our goals is not impossible if we simply cultivate the courage to dare to take action. We can’t let this culture of “never enough” get in our way, and we have to use our vulnerability and shame resilience to take that step over the
Guilt is the personal remorse an individual has over an undesirable behavior and is usually seen in individualistic cultures. Shame is the personal remorse an individual has over a negative behavior that has brought a bad reflection onto a group of people that the individual belongs to. Guilt is seen towards the end of the movie when Walt is confessing his sins to the priest and explains how he feels guilty for not being able to have a great relationship with his sons because he didn’t know how to. He puts all the blame on himself and none on the fact that his sons are superficial and selfish and only care about themselves. In the Hmong community, we see shame occur within the Lor family after Thao tries to steal Walt’s Ford Gran Torino. His family is ashamed of what he has done because he has made them all look bad and they want Thao to work for Walt to pay off his debt. Thao’s bad decision has effected not just him, but his entire family. Whenever someone engages in an activity that may make him or her feel guilt or shame, they attempt to save face. Saving face means not being publically revealed for the immoral behavior a person participated in. The Lor family feels that they can “save face” if Thao is able to work off his debt for
One of, if not the most influential part, of allowing the bombs to drop is because of the mentality of the Japanese military and the pull they had in politics. As Maddox stated, “[t]he army, not the Foreign Office controlled the situation” (Maddox, pg. 286). Although Japan had an influential leader in regards to their emperor, the military wanted to and would have engag...
Shirane Haruo. et al. Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology 1600-1900. New York: Colombia University Press, 2002. Print.