Help me understand!

[gwendy85]

Hello guys!

Please please help me understand! I am desperate and I don't want my character to go out of character.

I think I've said here before that I'm writing a WWII novel with a Japanese soldier protagonist. He has been captured and nursed back to health by guerillas (can't disclose much info) but I read that to be captured alive is a great dishonor, enough to do *edited* seppuku (my character is currently attempting this).

Now, my problem is, I don't feel his shame, so I can't describe it properly. Why is it so shameful for a WWII Japanese soldier to be captured alive? I really need to understand how it feels like, why it is shameful. Please please please help!

Thanks!

 

[Yoshida Shoin]

Read the Hagakure. Honor is the only thing that matters. Samurai had to be prepared to die at any time. Dying with your honor in tact was the highest goal in Bushido. Being captured means you lost control of yourself. Your fate is no longer in your own hands. You could be tortured, jailed or something else that will cause you to lose your honor.
The samurai's mindset (ideally) was not so much different from a terrorist today. They are anxiously awaiting their death. They are constantly in preparation for it.
The Hagakure tells them to meditate on death for hours a day. Death was everything, life is just an opportunity to lose your honor.

 

[yukio_michael]

One thing I'll tell you is that the word hara-kiri is considered vulgar by Japanese, and is not in use in Japan. The prefered word is seppuku.

I think you'll have to do a lot of reading to get into the mindeset of a Japanese male character. I suggest something like Patriotism by Mishima, Yukio... a particularly relevant story to you of a Japanese military man & wife who choose to die for the emperor.

 

[pipokun]

...
The samurai's mindset (ideally) was not so much different from a terrorist today. They are anxiously awaiting their death.
...

No. What on the earth do they, terrorists today, get to kill civilians?
Bushido was nothing but a way to find legitimacy how the ruling samurai class stayed on power without katana, I mean, physical violence in the Edo.
So many samurai pretented to be samurai or noble, even though there were tons of richer merchants or farmers.
"Samurai should bite a toothpick on his mouth to pretend to eat fully, even though he cannot aford to eat", this is a driving force why the Meiji Restration succeeded, I think.
This is indeed an interesting topic, but this thread is about the WWII...

 

[Elizabeth van Kampen]

Hello Pipokun,

Glad to see you back.
Me too I am very curious why Japanese soldiers couldn't be captured alive during WWII. So many young Japanese in those days died...for nothing(in my eyes). But of course I know that they all died for their Emperor. Do you think that the young Japanese would do the same thing today if Japan was attacted, for example by North Korea?

 

[Yoshida Shoin]

This is indeed an interesting topic, but this thread is about the WWII...

That's true but the whole idea of Death before dishonor originates from the samurai class and Bushido.

When I made the reference to terrorists, I wasn't talking about killing civilians. Samurai did kill civilians to test their swords, but that's another issue. My point was that they craved death. Books like the Hagakure promoted a culture of death. In this respect, they are similar to modern day terrorists.

I don't really think you could say that the Japanese of WW2 died for nothing. They died fighting for a chance to make them a dominant global force. If America and it's allies lost, you would be saying the same thing about them.

 

[pipokun]

...
Do you think that the young Japanese would do the same thing today if Japan was attacted, for example by North Korea?

I don't know, but at least many people don't belive the DPRK is the paradise at all. The problem is that there are still some who believe so.

 

[Han Chan]

I have been told that the nationalist regime used the samorai ideals regarding honor in order to brainwash the soldiers about their duties. Some were talked into going on suiside missions, while most soldiers certainly did not wish to die. Actually very few captured japanese WWII soldiers ever comitted suicide.

However, in Okinawa some civilians, even women, did choose death rather than disgrace. One should understand that the propoganda was very intense in those days, and therefore people were very affraid of the US soldiers. I guess many japanese women expected to be raped by the concering army.

 

[ricecake]

I have been told that the nationalist regime used the samurai ideals regarding honor in order to brainwash the soldiers about their duties. Some were talked into going on suiside missions,while most soldiers certainly did not wish to die. Actually very few captured japanese WWII soldiers ever comitted suicide.

This is a more accurate assessment,except for a few nationalistic fanatics dedicated to the old samurai code Bushido.

Japan invested entire nation's wealth in war machine,majority of Japanese foot soilders were dirt poor peasant class from the country side.

 

[Mars Man]

I hope things are gettin better.