Japanese ultranationalists’ devotion to the emperor is unrequited

THE Imperial Rescript on Education was issued on behalf of Emperor Meiji in October 1890. In 315 flowery characters, it urged his subjects to cultivate loyalty, filial piety and, above all, a readiness to dedicate their lives to the survival of the imperial house. Certified copies of the rescript were housed in small shrines to the imperial family in every school. Children committed the rescript to memory. It was a founding document for the notion of kokutai, a mystical state-forming bond between the divine emperor and his subjects. It was therefore the beginning of a road to indoctrination in which Japanese carried out orders in the name of the emperor—a road that led to militarism, total war and, ultimately, shattering defeat. It is no wonder, then, that kokutai, as a word, now jars as much as Lebensraum does in Germany. As for the imperial rescript, in 1948, three years after Japan’s surrender, the Diet revoked it.