Quote:
Originally Posted by Dread Knot
Under traditional Japanese bushido, captives were to be treated with mercy. Surrender was common during the 1868-1869 Boshin Civil War that established the modern Japanese Empire. Japanese conduct during the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 and the First World War was also fairly honorable and professional.
It was not until after the First World War that the Japanese Army started to twist Bushido into a more brutal code. Apparently, seeing itself as disrespected by the Allied Powers in terms of territory awarded, and in the post-war naval disarmament treaties it was thought that more martial spiritual values would be needed to make up for material deficiencies. However, it was the often guerilla like nature of the endless war in China that really starting warping Japanese sensibilities. Often heavily outnumbered, the Japanese turned to ever higher levels of brutality to win territory and keep it won.
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Absolutely right. The irony is that traditional bushido placed great importance on the arts, literature and general learning, as well as codified rules of conduct and martial action. The goal was to gentrify the warrior class. The reality of politics in feudal Japan necessitated keeping relatively large numbers of armed men around. However, there would be major problems in having a bunch of swordsmen running around your city drinking and getting into all sorts of trouble. Bushido was used to turn their 'off-time' efforts to painting, music, reading and writing, as well as give them codified rules for martial practice and resolving of disputes.
The 'neo-bushido' of the Japanese militarists in the 1880's was about the opposite. The concept of death for the emperor, never surrendering and whatnot were designed to increase ferocity in battle. It was a decidedly Shinto approach, opposed to the Confucian and Buddhist overtones of traditional bushido.
EDIT: And, as Oberon noted, this was precisely the same problem that feudal European rulers faced. This lead to the occasionally-followed codes of chivalry in their effort to stem the problems of armed men with too much time on their hands.