(TV Asahi reporting earthquake-hit "Tomei" highway)
(Fuji TV reporting a North Korea's gorgeous but mysterious resort)
(All observed by EEE Reporter humble himself, so that you may click to enlarge.)SECRET OF IMPERIAL SAMURAI REGIME BEFORE 1945
The samurai period of Japan usually means an era where there were no civilians in the government, since only samurais (military officers) were qualified for bureaucrats.
And, even till 1945 after Japan's modernization started in 1868, a majority of Japanese bureaucrats were sons or grandsons of samurai(s) who had lived in the traditional samurai world insulated from outer world; accordingly the samurai era is regarded as having continued till 1945 or the end of WWII.
Japanese samurai were far more sophisticated and educated than Korean warriors, Chinese warriors, Indian warriors, European warriors, and American officers and generals, since they were trained intellectually as members of the top social class, namely the "Bushi (samurai)" class, higher than any other class except the imperial families while high-ranking samurai had also aristocratic titles.
For example, in the Edo period (1603-1867), the Japanese social classes were ordered in the following way: the bushi (samurai) class as No.1, the farmer class as No.2, the craftsman class as No.3, and the merchant class as No.4.
Yet, it is a kind of miracle that samurais never ventured into overseas war during the Edo period, though one of the early Tokugawa Shoguns (governing great samurai generals) forbade sending samurai beyond the sea for war or any purposes.
Then what changed these peaceful samurais into cruel officers and generals in WWII?
Devils coming from Europe and America?
Or is there anybody to take a legal case for samurai or Imperial officers and generals of WWII before the God (but not allied forces)?
SECTION I: Samurai Period: 1192 - 1945
There are only few historians and professors who can agree with me, regarding August 1945 as the last moment of the samurai era in Japan.
In my theory the 750-year-long samurai era was finally closed when the Empire of Japan surrendered to the allied forces, mostly consisting of the U.S. with atomic bombs and a million troops and thousands of military planes further prepared for invasion of Mainland Japan and the U.S.S.R. with a million troops and thousands of heavy tanks funneled from Europe to the Far East prepared for invasion of the Japanese northern territory, on August 15, 1945.
The Imperial Army and Navy were under the code, rule, and spirits of samurai militarism. They belonged to the samurai spiritual world rather than a modern citizen-oriented world.
After the 1868 Meiji restoration of the long-minimized authority of the emperor and subsequent modernization, the Japanese society was reasonably liberalized and intensively industrialized while importing and remodelling various Western cultural products.
But, the core of the Imperial Military was the samurai paradigm, since most of officers and generals were ex-samurai or sons and grandsons of samurai who lived before the Meiji restoration.
It is true that the Empire of Japan was superficially well modernized and westernized since the late 19th century. But, its military was apparently based on the time-honored samurai moral, while the Imperial Military was the largest sector in the Empire.
Accordingly, Imperial officers and generals all behaved as honest descendants of samurai who lived before the Meiji restoration. (Even Imperial Family members were implicitly requested to behave like samurai after the Meiji Restoration...)
That is why officers and generals of the Empire forced their conscript soldiers to fight like a samurai whose main mission was to fight and die for his lord with gladness if not from the bottom of the heart. (When politicians and generals of the Empire found that European and American politicians and generals were not genuine gentlemen, they came to more rely on traditional samurai ethics...)
However, there was a huge gap between forcibly-drafted ordinary soldiers of the Imperial Army/Navy and Imperial (samurai-spirited) officers and generals. It was just like a samurai leading peace-loving farmers and townsmen to a war zone where ten times more Chinese troops or ten-times-more armed U.S. troops were waiting for them. Iron discipline and control was a must, no matter how cruel it looked to non-samurais.
Accordingly, cruel things happened, which could be only rationalized and justified in the samurai world, not only to Chinese citizens and U.S. soldiers but also to the drafted and dutiful Japanese soldiers.
It is so, since the Japanese history is divided into three periods:
I. Pre-Samurai Period: till 1192
II. Samurai Period: 1192 - 1945
III: Post-Samurai Period: from 1945
So, Ah, how much I like to see many historians and professors agree with me, regarding August 1945 as the last moment of the samurai era in Japan and thus interpreting every cruel act by the Imperial Military from a different view, since samurai as leaders of the nation live ultimately for fight and death (of their own or enemies) as their profession to defend territory!
(Accordingly samurai were good learners of Buddhism, Confucianism, and other classical literature, since there were no samurais who could not make verses...)
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Nonetheless, after all the samurais were gone with their spirits having been upon their descendants, Japan started to grow in a different direction since 1945 to be the second largest and advanced economy in the world, especially adopting the New Constitution drafted by young American Christians working in the General Headquarters of the allied forces stationed in Japan for several years after August 1945.
Yet, the reason why the new Pacifist Constitution has worked well in the post-war society of Japan can be also found in the Japanese history.
SECTION II: Taira-Minamoto War: The First Major War among Samurai Clans
But, how could samurais hold the political hegemony in Japan 800 years ago?
How could they nullify the Imperial authority having been exercised over Japan since ancient days?
It was established through a war and a victory of an ambitious samurai clan over another loyal to the Imperial Court in 1192.
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The Genpei War (Genpei kassen, Genpei gassen) (1180–1185) was a conflict between the Taira and Minamoto clans and in late-Heian period Japan. It resulted in the fall of the Taira clan and establishment of the Kamakura shogunate under Minamoto Yoritomo in 1192.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genpei_War
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(To be continued...)
(Si tout le monde est parti, ma princesse, le soleil, le ciel et la mer restera. Nobody has ever won the sun, the sky, and the sea. That is why there is no other way but being humble before the sun, the sky, and the sea. Yet, your Lord must be the God Almighty...Anyway take it easy, since I am here.
http://www.alpha-net.ne.jp/users2/thwin/jazz/z010.htm
Source:http://www.alpha-net.ne.jp/users2/thwin/index.html
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~UD3T-KRYM/902-jasrac/0910-yozoranotrumpet.htm )
Mat 8:13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
Mat 8:14 And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever.
Mat 8:15 And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.