Book Exploration
State of War: The Violent Order of Fourteenth Century Japan by Thomas Donald Conlan tracks the events in Japan between 1336 and 1392. Conlan provides his wisdom on how state and society operated in the Nanbokucho period through various source documents portraying the warriors not by their romanticized “knights of the round table” ideal, but rather showing that while there were alliances of connivence, they could be broken just as easily as they were made, revealing that pragmatism was paramount above all else.
State of War is comprised of eight chapters. It begins with a characterization of a common warrior, Nomoto Tomoyuki, who pledged allegiance to Ashikaga Takauji. Extracting from a detailed petition for reward (gunchujo), Conlan recounts Tomoyuki’s conduct in battle and his death. Conlan explains:
“Among the thousands of petitions that survive, one submitted on behalf of Nomoto Tomoyuki is uniquely suited for reconstructing the experience of the fourteenth-century war for several reasons. This first is its length...the second is its reliability...the third reason stems from its comprehensiveness...the fourth is Tomoyuki’s anonymity. This petition represents a plea for rewards that largely went unheeded,” (Conlan 13-14).
After six hundred and sixty plus years Conlan believes that Tomoyuki wouldn’t be displeased by how he is remembered, no matter how small.
Next Conlan addresses the question of battle tactics and unit organization. Plodding through what had to be no doubt a great many gunchujo to see with what regularity and what ways warriors endured injury. He demonstrates that the fighting around the fall of Kamakura shogunate was far and away the most extreme of the fourteenth century and that the prepo...
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...st tozama implicitly believed that the onus of responsibility rested not on themselves, but on the competing regimes to secure support by granting rewards. Instead of land grants guaranteeing obligation, service (chusetsu) demanded adequate compensation,” (Conlan 150).
The slogan “then was then; now is now; reward is lord!” (Conlan 150) perhaps sums up best these largely pragmatic warriors minus Chilafusa and his ilk.
Being a relative neophyte to medieval Japanese history I found Conlan’s State of War to be an enlightening series of chapters about the changes that developed out of the Nanbokucho experience. With the requirement for compensation, rewards being imperative for service, and the often times capricious nature of loyalty; Conlan demystifies the Japanese warrior, revealing them to be no gods or buddhas, rather by and large merely pragmatists.
In the book Samurai, Warfare and the State in Early Medieval Japan, Karl Friday focuses on war in early medieval Japan. A central thesis could be the political primacy of the imperial court. (Lamers 2005) This is the tenth through fourteenth centuries, before the samurai became prominent in Japan and were trying to form themselves into more of what we think of them today. Friday focuses on five aspects of war in his book; they are the meaning of war, the organization of war, the tools of war, the science of war, and the culture of war.
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.
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 ...
Christopher Benfey’s work The Great Wave is a narrative driven by a collection of accounts, stories and curious coincidences tying together The Gilded Age of New England in particular with interactions and connections to the Japan of old and new. In the context of The Great Wave, Benfey's own personal journey to Japan at the age of sixteen should be understood. Embarking on this voyage to learn traditional writing, language and Judo, his story can also be seen as a not only a historical continuation, but also a personal precursor to the vignettes he discovers and presents to the reader.
Ives, Christopher. "Wartime Nationalism and Peaceful Representation: Issues Surrounding the Multiple Zens of Modern Japan ." Japan Studies Review Five (2001): 37-46. Print.
Stories about war and implements of such can be observed throughout the course of Japanese history. This shows the prevalence of martial training and the profession of arms as a tradition that has not faded since ancient times (Friday and Humitake 13).
The Discourse acts as a forum for the exploration of the political pathways that Japan could follow following the Meiji Restoration in 1868. At a time when Japan had just begun to consolidate herself, Chomin’s Discourse was aimed at discussing Japan’s long-term trajectory through three imaginary mouthpieces, ‘The Gentleman of Western Learning’, his opposition ‘The Champion of the East’, whose debate is being observed and arbitrated by a ‘Master Nankai’.
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.
The Tale of the Heike is a collection of tales that depict the livelihood of warriors during the Heian and Kamakura period. These tales illustrate that warriors during this period spent their existence dedicated to their duty to the Buddhist Law and that the growing contention arose from each warrior’s devotion and loyalty to the Buddhist Law.
...the Japanese Army facilitated specific forms of gender identity, in which to be a soldier meant to be a real man. Men often think to achieve their manhood they have to go through military service in the army, especially through combat. As hard as it was to be in the army the soldiers say that it has made a man out of them, and in some cases army life was easy compared to the hardship they were going though just trying to make a living. The effects of discipline that the army puts upon the soldiers may vary depending on the class origins of the recruits; they come together towards the production of a dominant model of manhood. This also includes rape, plunder, and arson, which was to demonstrate their power or bravery. However, I argue that military versions of masculinity are deeply contradictory, in that feminization and masculinization are enacted simultaneously.
Schrijvers, Peter. Bloody Pacific: American Soldiers at War with Japan. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Yukio Mishima’s Temple of the Golden Pavilion represents the hardships, evil, and rebirth throughout the timeline of the war and after, creating the individual experience and perspective of a young man fighting his own personal, internal wars. This is highlighted through first person accounts of brutal acts of military officials and the contrast of the beauty in
Giles, Lionel. The Art of War by Sun Tzu. 1994-2009. http://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html (accessed December 2, 2013).
...direct assistance of a male. In Japan’s Comfort Women, the “weakness” of women is seen again. Rape and sexual trade became a power play by individual men all the way up to the highest levels of government. But it was also a story of strength and courage on the part of victimized women. The Pacific War changed many things in Japan and the evolution of those institutions of Japanese society happened rapidly. The changes, however drastic, however gruesome, however sorrowful, were what shaped the history and future of Japan.
Griffith’s study also includes four different appendixes. The first is A Note from Wu Ch’I, the second is titled Sun Tzu’s Influence on Japanese Military Thought, the third is Sun Tzu in Western Languages, and the fourth appendix is Brief Biographies of the Commentators.