preface:
With the continuous development of the times, globalization has become the main trend of development, and the relations between countries have become closer and closer, and the exchanges between them have become more and more frequent. And those countries that are developing fast and have strong economic strength also have a very important impact in today's era of globalization. In Asia, for example, Japan is a very powerful country that has had a huge impact on many neighboring countries.
Japan's cultural output is very powerful, and in Japanese Chinese culture, the most impressive should be the samurai culture, in many literary works and film and television works we can see that many Japanese samurai if they fail to complete the task, or lose in the war, they will eventually choose to kill themselves to maintain the dignity of the samurai. After the end of World War II, the American general MacArthur also asked the Japanese emperor why Japan was defeated and the emperor did not kill himself like a samurai. The emperor at that time replied with only 4 words.
The history of the Japanese people cutting their abdomen
In fact, as early as 989 AD, we can find the Japanese record of cutting the abdomen, and this culture has existed in their history for many years. At that time, there was a very famous family in Japan called the Fujiwara family, and there was a person named Fujiwara Yoshi within the family. He was a very bad criminal, committing many crimes in the local area, causing very serious trouble to the local people, so the official clothes also sent people to hunt him down, and even the Fujiwara family wanted to get rid of this stain.
Although Fujiwara was very good at hiding, there were too many people to pursue him, and he was eventually arrested. At that time, Fujiwara Yoshi was surrounded by people around him, and there was no way to escape. He sat directly on the ground, took out a flute and began to play, people felt very strange in the face of his actions, and at this time, Fujiwara Yoshi suddenly put down the flute, directly from the waist of a knife, inserted into his stomach, everyone saw this scene in front of them, indeed frightened, but this kind of behavior of cutting the abdomen was deeply imprinted in people's minds, and since then, the culture of cutting the abdomen has also begun to be popular in Japan.
Later, in Japan, it was their bushido spirit that rose to prominence, and the samurai of the time, after hearing fujiwara's story, incorporated suicide into their culture. At first, the abdomen was only cut as a punishment for those samurai who escaped from the battle, but later this behavior was attached to some spiritual attributes, and the Japanese samurai believed that if the mission failed, cutting the abdomen and committing suicide was also a kind of redemption, and if he died in this way, he would be very honorable and could be forgiven.
MacArthur's question
Therefore, in the 19th century, after Japan began the Meiji Restoration, suicide by cutting off one's abdomen was also vigorously publicized, and it was considered to be a heroic and heroic act. It was at that time that countless Japanese people began to become very united, and with the invasion of foreign countries, they re-understood the world. But this also made them go to the other extreme, militarism quickly sprouted, Japan became a fascist country, in order to develop rapidly, they decided to go to war with the world, Japan also became a war on the Asian battlefield, the initiator, began to invade various countries in Southeast Asia.
At that time, they also sneaked into Pearl Harbor in the United States to seize the power of the United States in the Pacific, but they underestimated the strength of the US military. In the end, Japan chose to surrender in the face of the offensive of China, the Soviet Union and the United States. After the end of the war, Japan also suffered a very severe punishment, the US military under the leadership of General MacArthur, stationed in the Japanese mainland, enjoyed extremely high treatment in the local area, especially as a general MacArthur, even the Japanese emperor needed to see his eyes.
At that time, the emperor of Japan represented the supreme power of Japan, but he also had to bow his head in front of the Americans. MacArthur often found various reasons to humiliate the emperor, and once when he met with the emperor, he asked him directly, saying that the Japanese soldiers were very brave, and if they lost the battle, everyone would often choose to kill themselves. But as the emperor of Japan, facing the defeat of the national war, why don't you choose to cut your belly and apologize to the people of the whole country? The King of Heaven knew very well that MacArthur's questioning was obviously humiliating himself, but he did not dare to resist, so he only answered the 4 words of powerlessness.
The Emperor's answer
His answer is actually understandable, after all, the system of cutting one's abdomen and committing suicide was originally created by the rulers in order to control the samurai class, and the reason why these soldiers chose to kill themselves after the defeat was actually just to maintain the emperor's rule, and it had no practical significance at all. Even if there was a war, the emperor still lived a leisurely life, he had never been on the battlefield, he had never experienced any harsh environment, even if he was defeated, he was only a spiritual symbol of the Japanese, and he had no actual rights, let alone any punishment, how could he choose to kill himself?
There is also a very important reason, although the Japanese emperor does not have particularly substantial rights, but he belongs to the spiritual symbol of the Japanese people, the Japanese people have always believed that the war can be won, but in the end did not expect to lose so badly, the people's hearts have long been broken. If the emperor is now choosing to kill himself by cutting his stomach, then the whole country is expected to collapse directly, not only the emperor does not want to see this side, but even the Americans do not want to see this result.
Although MacArthur was an insult to the emperor in every way, he knew very well that the purpose of his coming to Japan this time was to rebuild Japan as long as he chose a country in Asia that would be available to the United States in the future and brought it under the camp of the United States. There is certainly no problem in insulting Japan, but the japanese personality is originally better face, if the persecution is too close, it is likely to lead to the death of the fish net, so when the two people are together, they are only laughing, in fact, the cooperation between the two is very close.