Indoctrination and Re-Education of Japan's Youth
1944; University of British Columbia; Volume: 17; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/2751997
ISSN1715-3379
Autores Tópico(s)Religious Education and Schools
ResumoT HE JAPANESE STUDENT is at once the hope and the concern of post-war Japan. It is from his class that the nation must eventually draw its leadership in the political, economic and moral reconstruction of the country. But it is also his generation that has been subjected to an ideological indoctrination beside which Hitler's education for death is at best a crude imitation. The contrast between the two systems reveals the hemispheric gulf which separates Prussian from Japanese mentality. The Nazi soldier has been taught primarily the material aspects of power. The modern samurai of Japan, while not ignoring material strength in the form of twentieth-century weapons, has made spiritual training the most vital part of his indoctrination. Neither system has produced the superman. In the case of the Japanese warrior, however, most of his education has emphasized ritual and dogma at the expense of independent reasoning, with the result that he finds it virtually impossible to escape by any rational process from the convictions to which his training has bound him. On the battlefield this makes the Japanese soldier the more formidable foe. When forced into a hopeless situation, as at Attu, New Guinea or Tarawa, the Japanese have fought virtually to the last man. The German has also proved himself a brave, tough fighter, but in Russia, Tunisia and Italy, when driven into a corner, German forces have surrendered in droves. The Japanese system, however, has produced one serious weakness. Lacking reason and initiative, adverse circumstances have often thrown the Japanese soldier into abject confusion where he takes his own life rather than sell it at the highest possible price. But far more often he fights to the bitter end and exacts the maximum toll. It takes more than ordinary military training to produce the Japanese soldier we know today. His fanatical courage and fortitude are the
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