ABSTRACT
In his book, The Soldier and the State, Samuel P. Huntington stated ‘To a larger extent, the officer’s code is expressed in custom, tradition, and the continuing spirit of the profession’ (Huntington 1972, 16). When looking at the Japanese warrior’s ethics, we should go back to the Kojiki, written in the sixth century, which is Japan’s oldest publication. In the Kojiki, we find the ideal warrior, named Itsu-no-ohabari. Amaterasu, the sun goddess, wanted to win over Izumo led by Okuninushi. She dispatched one intelligence god and then another armed intelligence god, but both were convinced by Izumo and made no report back to her. Masao Yaku wrote in his book The Kojiki in the Life of Japan:
The Japanese Sankei-News published a book entitled The Self Defence Force Came from the Country of Bushido: the Iraq Reconstruction Support Group. This is a story of the Self Defence Forces’ operations directed by Colonel Bansho, the first Commander of the Iraqi Reconstruction Support Group. Colonel Bansho said, ‘We Japanese should be sincere from the bottom of our hearts, and be dignified with strict discipline, as befits Self Defence Force servicemen from the land of Bushido’ (Bansho 2004, 35).
