Banzai
Banzai ( Japanese 万歳 , outdated 萬歲 , dt literally. " Ten thousand years," mutatis mutandis "countless years, very long time" - life) is in Japan to bring a cheer, joy and happiness for "10000" years.
Originally the word was taken from the Chinese "wànsuì" - literally for ten thousand (life) years and used to honor the emperor.
history
The exclamation "Banzai" originated during the German Empire . When the constitution of the Japanese Empire was promulgated in 1889, the call of politicians was made public. Article 1 of the Constitution of the Japanese Empire declared "a dynasty lasts ten thousand years".
In post-war Japan , the call was also used to express general joy and enthusiasm .
The call is often repeated three times and is accompanied by the raising of the arms.
use
Otoya Yamaguchi , who had killed the socialist politician Inejiro Asanuma with a traditional short sword in 1960 because he had understood his political ideas as an affront to the emperor, used the phrase in his last words. Before hanging himself in his cell, he wrote the following words on the wall with toothpaste:
“ Seven lives for my country. Ten thousand years for His Imperial Majesty the Tennō. "
Banzai attack
Banzai attack ( English Banzai charge ) was the name used by American soldiers during the Pacific War for one of the often fanatical assault attacks by the Japanese, in which they shouted Banzai as they advanced .
history
The tradition of banzai calls to emperor (Tennō heika banzai!) ( 天皇 陛下 万 歳 ) or land ( Nippon Banzai!) To initiate a storm attack goes back to the battles of the Middle Ages, in which aggressively carried out frontal attacks had a chance of success. While Europeans and Americans had the experience in World War I that assaults by infantry against a defender with automatic firearms are pointless and only lead to heavy losses for the attacker, the Japanese lacked this experience. In World War II, such attacks could only have a certain chance of success at night or in poor visibility, and only when the enemy had not yet built up a defense. As a rule, however, they ended with heavy losses among the attacking soldiers or the complete annihilation of the attacking unit, without these having caused serious damage to the enemy.
Gyokusai
In American coverage, no distinction was made between ordinary attacks, which were risky but had clear tactical objectives, and those whose sole purpose was to kill the attacker. The term banzai charge appears in numerous English-language publications on the battles for Guadalcanal that took place in 1942 and thus before the first suicide attack on Attu , officially called Gyokusai ( 玉 砕 ) by the Japanese , in May 1943 .
Japanese publications during the Pacific War, on the other hand, made a distinction between normal attacks and Gyokusai attacks. The latter had the sole aim of guaranteeing the combatants an honorable death on the battlefield instead of falling into dishonorable captivity.
Trivia
The Hamburg-based Carlsen Verlag published a manga magazine with the title Banzai ( original spelling : BANZAI! ) From 2001 to 2005 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ "JAPAN: Assassin's Apologies," Retrieved November 17, 2014.
- ↑ Masayo Umezawa Duus, Peter Duus: Unlikely Liberators. The Men of the 100th and 442nd. University of Hawaii Press, 2007, ISBN 0-8248-3140-3 , p. 103.
- ^ Robert S. Burrell: The ghosts of Iwo Jima. Texas A&M University Press, 2006, ISBN 1-58544-483-9 , p. 44.
- ↑ for example in Graeme Kent: Guadalcanal. Island ordeal Pan Macmillan, 1971, ISBN 0-345-09718-1 , p. 61.