Discussion On The Relationship Between The Evolution Of Shinto And Bushido And The Japanese Militarism

Concerning of the natural and ethnic religion in Japan, Shinto is the oldest one,and it is deeply related to politics, economy and culture within its history. For mostof the Japanese, due to the permeating of Shinto, it is regarded much more as a habitbut not a kind of religion. However, when praying to the spirit or showing theirgratitude in festival celebrating, it subconsciously contains the meaning of religion tosome extent.Bushido, as the obligations and responsibilities Japanese samurai should do, iswhat the ethics Japanese samurai must comply with. Although it isn’t the writtenrules, bushido greatly has an influence on the samurai for a long time constraining ofthe Japanese samurai behavior. Bushido is the important outlook of life and theworld which regulates Japanese samurai’s actions. Since the modern developmenthad also become the moral norm of Japanese soldiers and all citizens need to abideby, which was accepted by the social bracket. And bushido deeply affect people’soutlook on life and world view, playing a powerful constraint in the whole nation inJapan.During the Meiji restoration, Japan went to the road of militarism, waging warsfor aggression and expansion, Japanese politics, economy, military, education andother aspects all served for it. During the process of Japanese militarism, Shinto andbushido have played an important role to help push it. This paper mainly studies the relationship between the formation anddevelopment of Shinto and bushido and Japanese militarism. Japanese militarismuses wars as the main means to promote national development through the expansion.To the domestic, they control the national thoughts and rule despotically. On theother side, they launch the war to evade and constantly promote all aspects of thecountry to the development of the military. Shinto is an influential national religionfor Japanese society. After the Meiji restoration, Shinto became the main body of theJapanese religion and developed into State Shinto. Shinto claims that the Mikado isthe incarnation of god, with the status of the supreme position. State Shinto pushedthe Mikado to the foreground of history, advocated that Japan is "the kingdom ofGod". In order to complete the Mikado’s "sacred mission" that unified the world,people must carry out wars for aggression. By the religious belief that affectedJapanese nationals’ thoughts, they make the thought of Japanese aggressionreasonable. Bushido is the moral standard of the samurai, with "loyalty" being thecore idea. Affected by the Shinto thought, bushido from faithful to his master turnedinto loyal to the Mikado after the Meiji restoration. Bushido unites the thought of themilitary and national to loyalty to the Mikado, and applied the soldier and national tosupport and obey the militarism with the Mikado’s flag implementing policy ofaggression. Bushido provides specific standards of behavior for the Japanesemilitary and national and becomes the ideological weapon of the Japanese militarismfrom the spiritual level to control Japanese people. And because of the special statusand the influence of Shinto and bushido, which makes them become an importantmeans of the Japanese militarism for aggression and expansion. The Japanesemilitarism makes Shinto as the abstract guiding ideology, and bushido as the specificbehavior guide. To the inside, they corrode the soldiers and all the people’s thoughts; while to the outside, they launch a brutal war to the other countries for aggressionand expansion.