ABSTRACT

Japan’s military catastrophe in 1945 was also seen in a cultural context. Like many Europeans after the Russian defeat in 1905, some Japanese attributed their own bloody demise in 1945 to decadent worldliness: ‘We have been too wedded to selfish ethics; we have forgotten true progress.’ Defeat could even be seen to be culturally and spiritually beneficial – echoes of Solovev and Bruisov. ‘How else can Japan be saved except by losing and coming to its senses. We will lead the way. We will die as harbingers of Japan’s new life. That’s where our real satisfaction lies . . . .’1