The Lost Principality of Japan.. How did the samurai rise up on the foundations of religion and modernity together?

On August 9, 1945, the US Department of War (Defence) released a documentary film about the Pacific war directed against Japan, entitled "Know Your Enemy: Japan", where the film came out in the form of a historical review of Japan and the culture of the Japanese people , the personal and psychological features of the Japanese soldier that made him that "barbaric" brutality, according to the filmmakers;

This made US President Harry Truman describe the Japanese as "brutals who hate Christianity and democracy."

The film began by talking about “the ambiguity of the Japanese and the Americans’ lack of understanding of their privacy,” reviewing in its first half the cultural features of Japan with a lot of generalization, stereotyping, and discrimination; With the aim of justifying the second half of the film about the "propaganda" of war, its justifications and its necessity to rein in this "savage" nation. Although the film was not shown until 1977 due to differences between Hollywood and the US administration, this does not detract from the implications of the film, which was based on an intelligence report before the invasion of Japan during World War II entitled "Japan's Soldier Psychology", a report detailing the characteristics of the film. And the characteristics of the "emotional and barbaric" Japanese character embodied in the Japanese soldier, who is "the most dangerous thing Japan has produced," according to the movie (1).

This is the same view that continued to paint the "Japan character" in the Western imagination, even after the country was destroyed by two nuclear bombs, occupied and rebuilt under the eyes of US military bases.

As for what the film did not show, it is the context of the renaissance of the Japanese nation, which is often reduced to technical concepts such as mastery or seriousness, and ignores the religious and ideological load of this different renaissance in its roots and essence from the European Renaissance movement and Westernization movements around the world, other than that the film did not present the historical context that Japan inherited the complex of revenge and retaliation that pushed it towards the path of war one day, even if it proved in the end to be a wrong and disastrous path.

Enlighten Japan by force

In late 1995, three American soldiers assaulted a twelve-year-old Japanese girl outside their military base in Okinawa, a prefecture in southern Japan. Two of them confessed to kidnapping her, and the third confessed to raping her, and then a Japanese court sentenced them to seven years in prison. However, the ugliness of the crime sparked a hurricane of protests that swept Japanese-American relations, and brought back memories of the demonstrations that erupted against the "Treaty on Security and Mutual Defense" known for its acronym (Anpo) after the Americans occupied Japan at the end of World War II. Soon the entire issue of the US military presence was highlighted, and the question was asked again: "What have all these Americans been doing in Japan for thirty-five years?" (2).

This was the same question the Japanese asked themselves at least three centuries ago, when the Japanese islands were filled with European missionaries and merchants;

What the Japanese felt about danger and threat, not only to their religion, but to their entire social system, and to the balance of power that began to change by means of the firearm that entered with European merchants, especially the Portuguese, and was known as “Arquebus”, as well as through the Christianization campaigns that It was attended by missionaries and monks, and with it the number of Japanese Christians increased to more than 300,000, including some leaders of "samurai" and "daimyo" (provincial rulers) at the beginning of the seventeenth century (3).

"Arquebus" is a firearm that entered Japan with European merchants, especially the Portuguese.

Japan was ruled at that time by the "shogun", a military ruler appointed by the emperor and followed by an army of "samurai."

As for the Don shoguns, it was the daimyo, the powerful rulers of the provinces, the most famous of which was Hideyoshi, who was a samurai at the same time, and served under the powerful and famous daimyo also known as Nobunaga, who made the first attempt to unify the provinces of Japan under one strong rule with the aim of eliminating the The administrative and military fragmentation of the country, which succeeded in imposing his word on the shogun, becoming the de facto ruler of Japan between 1568 and 1582.

Nobunaga

Social and political conditions stabilized during the reign of Nobunaga and his successor, Hideyoshi, and socio-religious trends flourished, urging adherence to the values ​​of justice and social solidarity propagated by two religious sects, namely: "Jodo-shu" and "Nichiren", which have been mixed since the two centuries The twelfth and thirteenth between the teachings of the Buddhist and Shinto religions. At that time, the religious culture of the samurai class, who dedicated themselves to defending the sanctity of the land of Japan, which should not be trodden by invaders, was strengthened (3).

However, Hideyoshi adopted a policy contrary to the policy of his predecessor "Nobunaga" in tolerating Christian missionaries, as he did not take strict measures to prevent them, and some documents indicate the presence of Christian advisors inside the court, and that one of Hideyoshi's sons converted to Christianity, and that the number of Christians in the middle of his reign rose up remarkable.

The flow of foreign missions to Japan continued in the first phase of his rule, whether the Portuguese Jesuit missions or the Spanish “Franciscan” missions that came from the Philippines in 1592. At that time, the Shogun began planning a military campaign abroad to explore the world, starting with Korea and China It lasted more than five years during which foreign missionaries enjoyed almost complete freedom (3).

Hideyoshi

One of the most prominent of these missionaries is Father Martinez, one of the great Jesuit fathers, who made Kyoto (the capital at that time) a center for his missionary activity in 1596, the same year in which a Spanish missionary ship that ran aground on the coast of Japan was detained and the investigation revealed that it carried a large quantity of missionaries. This incident coincided with Hideyoshi's return from his failed campaign to occupy China, and he ordered the crucifixion of 26 foreign missionaries and their Japanese followers in February 1597(3).

However, the gold-laden steamer was not the only reason for the Japanese government’s decision to ban Christianity in 1637, to wage a bloody war of liquidation against the victorious Japanese, and then to close Japanese seaports to European merchants for more than two centuries. New Christian ideas influenced the strict samurai value system, a system known as "Bushido", which contained the seven pillars of warrior values: justice, courage, benevolence, respect, honesty, honor, and loyalty. On the social level, the Shinto religion has become the subject of criticism by supporters of the new missionary values, and the most dangerous for the Japanese is what happened in 1637, when the victorious daimyo gathered in “Kyushu” and launched a rebellion accompanied by a popular uprising that took a bloody character against the central authority, and then The capital responded with a severe crackdown, which led to the killing of a large number of Japanese victors and the escape of those who survived by sea.This was followed by the government's historic decision to liquidate the local pillars built by the West in Japan for nearly a century, and to enter into voluntary isolation to protect Japan from the dangers of foreign invasion, both cultural and military (3).

New Christian ideas influenced the strict samurai value system, a system known as bushido, which contained the seven pillars of warrior values.

The decision of Japanese isolation was final and decisive. The instructions of the shoguns stipulated restricting foreign navigation to state ships only, imposing the death penalty on immigrants who leave Japan, and prohibiting “boshi” or Japanese merchants from trading directly with foreigners or storing some of their goods in Japanese warehouses. . The instructions also stipulated banning foreign missions from operating in Japan, and banning the export of Japanese weapons abroad. The phase of voluntary isolation that Japan entered was a reason for building a strong Japanese society with fixed features and a solid social hierarchy whose base was formed by the peasant forces, which reached 90% of the population, and were firmly attached to their customs and traditions, in addition to the class of craftsmen and merchants who moved to the cities that began growth and expansion, and finally the samurai military class.However, Europe and the Western powers have never forgiven what happened to their monks in Japan, and they have been planning to infiltrate its volcanic islands culturally, commercially and, if necessary, militarily.

The Return of the Black Ships...The Formation of the Kokutai Doctrine

“You know all about Japan’s economic power, and you know all about the tea party ceremonies, but these are all but images and masks of Japanese humility and Japanese technological capabilities. We are still, after one hundred and twenty-five years of modernization, opaque in the eyes of Europeans and Americans, who do not They are still not willing enough to understand these people who make so many Hondas."

(Japanese novelist Kenzaburo)

Japanese novelist Kinzaboro

These words were written by the Japanese novelist "Kenzaburo Oe" who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, whose novels are filled with tales expressing the deep turmoil in the Japanese character, between the new reality and the social and religious legacies, as the Japanese evade between this and that, seeking in the latter towards concealment, just as it is usual over its long history. Japan decided in the seventeenth century to bury itself in secret, and while the world was raging with wars, and the newly formed armies and fleets searched for nations to invade, the Japanese nation searched within it, and then the fever of education spread to all classes of the samurai, who then participated in the education of themselves The Japanese, religious schools attached to temples spread, along with district schools for secondary or higher education "Hanko", until the proportion of literate people in Japan reached 30% of the population in 1868, a proportion similar to some Western European countries at that time (3).

However, during that period in which civil peace prevailed and internal wars declined, the need for the role of the samurai diminished, which in turn led to new social transformations. The samurai had to find another source of livelihood, so some of them turned to agriculture, and others moved to the vicinity of the central authority. In the capital or castles in major cities such as “Osaka” and “Kyoto” or even to smaller castles to work as administrators and teachers in the service of the daimyo, and some of them turned to the profession of trade and industry in the cities (3).

At that time, specifically at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Britain had succeeded to a large extent in keeping the Netherlands away from the Far East and taking its place, and after Britain and France completed their concentration in most of the countries of South and East Asia in the first half of the nineteenth century, the Americans found The international area in front of their trade is constantly narrowing.

As a result, US President Millard Fillmore ordered the commander of his Commodore Fleet “Matthew Perry” stationed off the coast of Japan to approach Tokyo Bay and issue an ultimatum to the Japanese government in July 1853, brandishing the need to open the doors to international trade, and the warning period was set at ten months to respond to points contained therein.

The Treaty of Kanagawa, March 8, 1854, provided for the opening of the ports of "Shimoda" and "Hakodate" to American trade, and allowed the Americans to open consular posts in the country.

However, Iyoshi, the ruling shogun at the time, suffered from illness, and soon died after a few weeks of warning, leaving the affairs of government to his weak son, "Isada", and then the decision fell to the new shogun government to respond to the American ultimatum within the specified time. After a dispute between government officials and the emperor’s court, the final decision was made that some Japanese leaders would take over the issue of negotiating with the Americans, and the negotiations ended with the “Kanagawa Agreement” on March 8, 1854, which provided for the opening of the ports of “Shimoda” and “Hakodate” to American trade, and allowed the Americans By opening consular offices in the country, and obligating the Japanese to provide aid to ships that are sinking near their coasts.

Under the same agreement, the Japanese government allowed the Americans to be stationed in Edo and Osaka, but the matter did not end here, as this was just the beginning of a series of agreements that the major countries rushed to extract from Japan, as the country signed a similar agreement with the Netherlands, Russia and Britain France in 1858, with Portugal in 1860, with Prussia in 1861, with Switzerland in 1864;

Those countries unilaterally established fixed centers for their diplomatic missions in Japan, as Japan did not open any diplomatic centers in those countries in turn.

As a result of these agreements, the sacred islands that were protected by samurai swords, and which the shogun government saved from the Western invasion two centuries ago, became a hotbed for Westerners of various affiliations and creeds. Directly not less than 50%. The Japanese economy began to suffer from a large crowding of foreign goods, and prices rose by rates ranging between 300-400% in the period between 1830 and 1865, and foreign companies benefited mainly from these crises, in addition to some Japanese wholesalers. The crisis was exacerbated by the widespread spread of cholera due to malnutrition and poor health conditions, until the signing by the Shogunate of the London Protocol on International Trade in 1862, and the trade tariff agreement known as the “Edo Agreement” in 1866, to be the last straw that broke the camel’s back and ignited the fires of popular resentment in Japan.

Yoshinobu pursued a policy of bargaining and making concessions to resolve conflicts between the Japanese.

Popular resentment came in the form of a wide wave of assassinations of American, Russian, English, German and other subjects. These assassinations were carried out by individuals and groups supporting the rule of the emperor, including samurai fighters, who justified their actions by refusing to submit to the authority of foreigners and their unjust treaties, and rejecting the policy of the shoguns of the "Tokugawa" family and their government council. The matter culminated when the samurai leaders of Chucho Province opened artillery fire on European warships passing through the Shimonoseki Strait in June 1862.

The European response did not come immediately, but after more than a year, the French admiral "Goris" ordered the bombing of "Shimonoseki" in June 1863, targeting the fortified positions behind which a large number of daimyo opposed to the shogun were stationed, followed by another bombing in August of the same year long Kagoshima, the stronghold of the emperor's most important supporters. However, the confrontation became more solid and fierce, as the governor of the "Choshu" region led a wave of violent conflict with the Western powers and the shogun government, until his army was annihilated and bloody liquidation in September 1863.

Not satisfied with this, the foreign powers sent a punitive expedition of three French, four Dutch, and nine English ships; To completely eliminate the remnants of the anti-Shogun forces, the campaign began with the bombing of the city of "Hiroshima" and then its occupation; What prompted the samurai to agree to a truce was quickly reversed by the return of civil war between the anti-shogun fighters and the government allied with foreign powers.

After the death of the shogun "Iimushi" in 1866, his successor "Yoshinobu" pursued a policy of bargaining and making concessions to resolve conflicts between the Japanese, but the balance of power soon turned upside down, as the emperor died and his son "Mutsuhito" came, who held comprehensive national reconciliation procedures, and announced The end of the rule of the "Tokugawa" dynasty and the shogun's regime, and then he took control of himself and called himself Emperor "Meiji", meaning the enlightened or just.

From that moment on, the Japanese began to chant aloud the slogan that the samurai had launched in the name of the emperor since the "cursed" black ships entered the ports of Japan.

Mutsuhito, who held comprehensive national reconciliation procedures, announced the end of the rule of the Tokugawa dynasty and the shogunate system, and then took control of himself and called himself Emperor Meiji.

The rise and fall of the Japanese "caliphate"

"The Eight Clouds Advance...

Izumo Eightfold Fence..

For men and women to rest and sleep..

What an eight folded fence...

These verses quoted from one of the first poems known to Japan revolve around its religious history closely related to its social and political history. Japan is seen as eight clouds and eight walls; Because in ancient history it consisted of eight islands, and today the visitor still finds evidence of the precious archaeological wall in Izumo (a coastal city in southwestern Japan), where it is said that an ancient god descended there from the sky. On this belief, the Shinto doctrine was established, the main religion in the islands of Japan, as this deity was manifested in all the manifestations of nature in the name of the god "Kami." for almost everything; And the souls of the Japanese after death join this deity, and they become soldiers of his power (4).

One of the manifestations of this "kami" is the kami of the sun, which is one of the most sacred manifestations of the kami, and from the kami of the sun descends the dynasty of the emperor, who the Japanese believe is a descendant of the god. However, the Shinto religion mixed with Buddhism and Confucianism, and there were many temples that officially represented the religion until the ancient Palace Temple was founded in 1485 with the aim of unifying all Japanese religious temples. Yoshida distinguished between two types of Shintoism: the first, which he called the original founding Shintoism, and the second, which includes all types of Shintoism influenced by Buddhism and Confucianism. The samurai recalled these ideas at the end of the nineteenth century, and based on them the “kuktai” doctrine, which starts from the founding Shinto and ends with the sanctity of Japanese land that should not be desecrated by the feet of invaders (5).

The Japanese Renaissance and modernization processes began during the Meiji era, but it did not represent a complete break from the Tokugawa era, but rather an extension of some of its reforms.

The reforms were led by the urban samurai class, who were engaged in trade, culture and education, and reform decisions usually began with an emphasis on the uniqueness of Japan because it "contains a homogeneous people residing on a sacred land cared by the gods", and that the emperor is a descendant of the gods and the father of all Japanese who form one family with a state One considers them equal in rights and duties (6).

The Japanese government published the book "Basic Principles of National Unity" (Kokutai No Hongi) in 1937, and it was distributed to all schools of Japan as an anti-Western ideology.

Soon, the emperor began to form his powerful modern army, which besieged any attempt at rebellion or secession with extreme cruelty, and the young samurai gathered around him, who had lost their social privileges for many years, and found in the new state a way to social progress.

The religious-political feature became very clear in the Meiji era, when the government published the book “Basic Principles of National Unity” (Kokutai no Hongi) in 1937, and it was distributed to all schools of Japan as an ideology against Western thought.

Culturally and socially, life in Japan was formed from a series of strict morals that define what is permissible and what is forbidden. However, the new Japanese culture was not completely cut off from the world, nor did it reject modernization completely, but this modernization was only a means to achieve the goal of steadfastness in the face of foreigners and getting rid of foreigners. Of the humiliating agreements imposed by foreign powers and their black fleets at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

The Japanese researcher Motoko Katakura clarifies the complex relationship between heritage and modernization in Japan, stressing that the matter is not limited to the duality of accepting or rejecting Western sciences. .

Then she continues: "Japan succeeded because it did not abandon its traditional cultural heritage, and did not adopt any of the Western principles to make them stable rules in Japanese life. Japan benefited from various Western philosophical sayings and systems, but it did not adopt them as they are, but chose from them only what suits the components of As a result, it maintained the continuity of spiritual principles during the process of modernization and building the material foundations of Japanese society on the basis of permanent benefit from modern sciences” (6).

During the Second World War, Japan was one of the great powers in the world, but the wrong political behavior that it took because of its turbulent history with the Western powers ended in a bloody clash with the United States of America, which rejected the Japanese modernization model, and saw it as a grave danger to its hegemony, so it threw it With two nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and from that moment a fundamental revolution took place in the structure of the modernization process inside Japan, which was not brought about by black ships or missionaries, and modernization became an end and the inherited traditions a mere means, and the features of Japanese modernity are complicated to this day, moving away from its renaissance model prior to the World War The second and its errors (7).

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