Mokusatsu
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is a
Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...
word meaning "ignore", "take no notice of" or "treat with silent contempt". It is composed of two
kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...
characters: (''moku'' "silence") and (''satsu'' "killing"). It is frequently cited to argue that problems encountered by Japanese in the sphere of international politics arise from misunderstandings or mistranslations of their language. In 1945, ''mokusatsu'' was used in Japan's initial rejection of the
Potsdam Declaration The Potsdam Declaration, or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, was a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman, Uni ...
, the Allied demand that Japan surrender unconditionally in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. To this day, the argument, or myth, that ''mokusatsu'' was misunderstood, and that the misunderstanding interrupted a negotiation for a peaceful end to the war, still resurfaces from time to time. The consensus of modern historians is that the Allies had understood the word correctly.


Usage

It was the adoption of this term by the government of Japan that first gave rise to the prominence of the word abroad. In 1945, ''mokusatsu'' was used in Japan's initial rejection of the
Potsdam Declaration The Potsdam Declaration, or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, was a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman, Uni ...
, where the Allied demanded Japan to surrender unconditionally in
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. This was understood to mean that Japan had rejected those terms, which contributed to President Harry S. Truman's decision to carry out the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and implied that in spurning the terms, Japan had brought down on its own head the destruction of those two cities. In 1950, an argument emerged claiming that ''mokusatsu'' had been misunderstood by the Allies due to a mistranslation that interpreted the word to signify ''ignore'' rather than ''withhold comment.'' The third edition of the authoritative Kenkyūsha Japanese-English dictionary (1954) responded by adding an innovative gloss to its former definitions by stating that it also bore the meaning of 'remain in a wise and masterly inactivity'. However, the context around the word makes the intended meaning clear, and even if the new definition added in 1954 was used, it would not change the overall meaning of the statement.


Context

The Allies were aware that within the Japanese government an attempt to reach a negotiated termination of hostilities had been underway, especially via diplomatic contacts with
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...
, which was still neutral. On 12 July 1945 Tōgō Shigenori, the Japanese Foreign Minister, asked Naotake Sato to inform Moscow, on behalf of the Emperor, that Japan had no alternative but to see the war through to the end using an all-out war effort if England and the United States were to persist in demanding an unconditional surrender. The Potsdam declaration presented one further occasion for mediation, but it was strongly opposed by the War Minister General
Korechika Anami was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II who was War Minister during the surrender of Japan. Early life and career Anami was born in Taketa city in Ōita Prefecture, where his father was a senior bureaucrat in the Home M ...
, with backing from the army and navy chiefs of staff, all demanding that the Declaration be rejected with a broadcast containing a point by point rebuttal. The Army also demanded that the public be kept unaware of the Declaration. In a compromise, the Foreign Minister Tōgō Shigenori gained a Cabinet consensus to have the Declaration translated and released to the public, but in a censored version that deleted mentions of an imminent "utter destruction of the Japanese homeland," "stern justice" for all war criminals, that disarmed soldiers would be allowed to return home to live constructive lives in peace, and comments about "self-willed military cliques." The version given to the public was issued by the 'tightly controlled press' through the Dōmei News Service. In this form it appeared in the morning edition of the ''
Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition a ...
'' on 28 July 1945, to designate the attitude assumed by the government to the Potsdam Declaration. This newspaper and others clearly stated that the ultimatum, which had not only been transmitted to the Japanese government diplomatically via Swiss intermediaries but also to the Japanese public via radio and airdropped leaflets, was formally rejected by the Imperial Government. Later that day in a press conference, the Premier
Suzuki Kantarō is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Minami-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan. Suzuki manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a variety of other small internal com ...
himself publicly used it to dismiss the Potsdam Declaration as a mere rehash (''yakinaoshi'') of earlier rejected Allied proposals, and therefore, being of no value. The key part of the statement was translated into English by Dōmei Press as "the Japanese government ignores this, and we are determined to continue our bitter fight to the end." Three postwar translations of Suzuki's statement in context exist:
'I believe the Joint Proclamation by the three countries is nothing but a rehash of the Cairo Declaration. As for the Government, it does not find any important value in it, and there is no other recourse but to ''ignore it entirely'' (') and resolutely fight for the successful conclusion of this war.'
"My thinking is that the joint declaration is virtually the same as the Cairo Declaration. The government of Japan does not consider it having any crucial value. We simply '. The only alternative for us is to be determined to continue our fight till the end."
and:
"I think that the joint statement is a rehash of the Cairo Declaration. The government does not think that it has serious value. We can only ignore it. We will do our utmost to complete the war to the bitter end."
Suzuki apparently recognized that the Potsdam declaration flagged an intention to end a war which, in logistical terms, Japan was no longer capable of sustaining. However Article 6 stated that the militarists would be stripped of their authority and power forever, and the Japanese army was resolutely opposed to its own thorough dismantlement, and heavy pressure was brought to bear on the Prime Minister therefore to have him reject the declaration. Suzuki's stating that the declaration's terms would be literally 'killed off by silent contempt' (''mokusatsu'') reflected this necessity of placating the extreme position of the army.
John Toland John Toland (30 November 167011 March 1722) was an Irish rationalist philosopher and freethinker, and occasional satirist, who wrote numerous books and pamphlets on political philosophy and philosophy of religion, which are early expressions o ...
also argued decades later that Suzuki's choice of the term was dictated more by the need to appease the military, which was hostile to the idea of "
unconditional surrender An unconditional surrender is a surrender in which no guarantees are given to the surrendering party. It is often demanded with the threat of complete destruction, extermination or annihilation. In modern times, unconditional surrenders most ofte ...
", than to signal anything to the Allies. Although ''mokusatsu'' may not have been intended to communicate to the Allies a refusal to surrender, the Potsdam ultimatum nevertheless allowed for only one acceptable answer: unconditional surrender. Any other answer would, as the declaration warned, cause "prompt and utter destruction". It was only after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs, two assassination attempts on the then Prime Minister Suzuki Kantarō, an attempted military coup against the Emperor, and declaration of war by the Soviet Union that the
Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...
himself broadcast acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration that resulted in Japan's unconditional surrender, which ended the Pacific War.


Postwar controversy

Five years after the end of World War II, Kazuo Kawai, a lecturer in Far Eastern history at Stanford University, first raised the idea that an incorrect translation directly led to the bombing of Hiroshima. Kawai based his argument on notes and diaries written at the time, notes taken while he covered the discussions underway in Japan's Foreign Office regarding the Declaration. Kawai argued that both the choice of this term and the meaning given to it by Allied authorities led to a fatal 'tragedy of errors' involving both Japanese bureaucratic bungling and a 'deficiency in perception' by Japan's enemies. Kawai's point was then taken up by William J. Coughlin in a widely read article for '' Harper's'' magazine three years later. In some reconstructions that espouse this interpretation, it is stated that it was probably Hasegawa Saiji, a translator for Dōmei Press, who translated this as: "The Japanese ignores this, and we are determined to continue our fight until the end" and the foreign press picked this up, taking "ignore" to mean "reject". The
NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...
Technical Journal published an article endorsing this view, that the word's meaning was ambiguous, in which readers are warned of the consequences of not making ambiguities clear when translating between languages. It concluded: To this day, the argument, or myth, that ''mokusatsu'' was misunderstood, and that the misunderstanding interrupted a negotiation for a peaceful end to the war, still resurfaces from time to time. The consensus of modern historians is that the Allies had understood the word correctly. Chalmers Johnson wrote in 1980:
Since the characters for mokusatsu mean 'silent kill,' most informed commentators believe that the Allies did not mistranslate Suzuki. If he really meant 'no comment', that is not what he said – and ''mokusatsu'' does not imply it, even obliquely. However, the fact that the Japanese and Emmerson maintain that Suzuki's nuance was misunderstood illustrates the tendency of the Japanese to take refuge in alleged mistranslations.
Likewise,
Herbert Bix Herbert P. Bix (born 1938) is an American historian. He wrote ''Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan'', an account of the Japanese Emperor and the events which shaped modern Japanese imperialism, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonficti ...
concluded:
'"No need to rush" directly contravened Article 5 of the Potsdam Declaration ("We shall brook no delay") and as a position that further strengthened the contemporary Western analysis that, as of 28 July, the Japanese, following the leadership of their emperor, had neither reversed their decision, nor loosened their will to fight to the finish, while making vague overtures for peace on a separate track. Suzuki's intention was not misunderstood.'


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