Original scientific paper
Study on the Ethical Concepts of the Japanese Writer Yukio Mishima, Ultra-nationalist
K. Yamamoto
Abstract
After WWII, ultra-nationalism, which was the leading ideology of wartime Japan,
seemed to have lost its power to inspire the Japanese. In the 1960s, when the Japanese
began to enjoy economic prosperity, Yukio Mishima, deploring that the Japanese were
losing the traditional spirit and morality of the nation, was one of those citizens who felt
a strong nostalgia for wartime Japan. In an attempt to revive the spiritual exaltation of
wartime Japan, Mishima took radical action as an ultra-nationalist, and killed himself
by Hara-kiri. Mishima’s ethical concepts, which center on the ethos of warriors who
dedicate themselves to the defense of their commune, have structural similarities to the
ethical structure of the Kanun, which may be called the ethics of »blood«. Mishima’s theory
of ultra-nationalism has a paradoxical logic, which seems to be related to the ethical
concepts of a society without state power
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
17229
URI
Publication date:
16.12.2000.
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