The Origins of the Samurai and Bushido Codes
"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.
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...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'.
In 1864 the Geneva Convention was formed internationally. The Convention laid down rules concerning the treatment and protection of prisoners during wartime. The Japanese did not follow this Convention as they continuously mistreated many prisoners including Australian troops/soldiers and civilian prisoners. The Japanese saw the prisoners in camps as people who surrendered, therefore they were considered weak and cowardly because of a belief that the Japanese held that soldiers should die out respect for their emperor and country, known as the Bushido Code. A medical officer at the time was told by a Japanese commander,
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Bushido or the way of the samurai introduces samurai as both men of culture and as warriors. The art and culture of samurai encompasses more than 800 years of Japans history as well as its creative past. From the 12th century through the modernization of Japan.
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...t only in the code of chivalrous Honor does Loyalty assume paramount importance. The eighth and last virtue is character and self-control. Bushido teaches that men should behave according to an absolute moral standard, one that transcends logic. What’s right is right, and what’s wrong is wrong. The difference between good and bad and between right and wrong are givens, not arguments subject to discussion or justification, and a man should know the difference. Finally, it is a man’s obligation to teach his children moral standards through the model of his own behavior: The first objective of samurai education was to build up Character. The subtler faculties of prudence, intelligence, and dialectics were less important. Intellectual superiority was esteemed, but a samurai was essentially a man of action. These are the eight virtues of the samurai code bushido.
The word Bushido dates back as far as 17th century in Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate, the word appeared in Koyo Gunkan which was a writing of military exploits. The term Bushido did not gain popularity until the late 19th century when Inazo Nitobe published Bushido: The soul of Japan. The Bushido code was an unwritten “samurai code”. It is said that a true warrior was to show loyalty, courage, veracity, compassion, and honor as important, above all else. An appreciation and respect of life was also imperative, as it added balance to the warrior character of the Samurai. The bushido code held major influence on Japanese soldiers and their military. It is said that when the United States invaded Japan during WW2, the
During the relatively peaceful Tokugawa period, the samurai were not as occupied with waging war as they had been in the past, and as such they had begun devoting their time to other things. The samurai spent more time in intellectual and artistic pursuits, and thanks in part to Tsunetomo himself, the culture of Bushido flourished. Bushido became a formal ideology and was pieced together by the samurai at the time (specifically Tsunetomo), similar to how chivalry had been formalized in Europe. Bushido was becoming a properly formalized code of conduct, a philosophy of loyalty, detachment and honor in death, where death is more highly revered than victory. Bushido is one of East Asia’s most influential schools of thought. What would Sun Tzu, the Chinese author of The Art of War, think of this death-oriented military ethos?
There are many historical aspects of the Japanese, but the most interesting is the history of the Samurai. In Japans history war played a large role in the country. Controlling clans fought for parts of the land and overall control of the country. These clans were powerful families that resided in the country and who all wanted power and control of Japan for themselves. The families that would be in control were known as Shoguns. These shoguns would have warriors that fought for them if any of the other clan families would try to attack him in order to overthrow him and take his power from him. The Samurai followed a code that developed from Chinese beliefs when in battle. The Samurais code was known as the Bushido. This code was also known as “The Way of The Warrior” which was the main belief s...
I believe we can all agree that Japanese samurais and European knights are two of the most skilled and famous forms of warriors in history, right? Well both warriors began their trade at a very young age, and went through multiple stages of training throughout their lives. They both had a code of honor basically, but they differed from one another in quite a few ways. The big question is, “Were the similarities greater than the differences?”. Right off the bat I began to ponder the technicalities of the answer to this question. Before I get too scrambled up in the technicalities, let’s discuss some these differences and the similarities and figure out how this plays out. Before we conduct this discussion, let’s review our key terms. A clan is a group of close-knit and interrelated families. Feudalism was a political and economic system that flourished in Europe from the 9th to the 15th century, based on higher classes giving random services and items in exchange for something else. Knights were men who served their lord as a mounted soldier in armor. Samurai’s were members of a powerful military social class in feudal Japan. A shogun was a hereditary commander-in-chief in feudal Japan. Chivalry was the medieval knightly system with its religious, moral, and social code. Bushido was the code of honor and morals developed by the Japanese samurai.