Japanese Forces

Sugimoto Goro

Colonel Sugimoto Goro was a japanese army officer and buddhist philosopher, he was killed in combat during the Battle of Taiyuan in sept 1937, Sugimoto was a very pure imperialist, when he was shot he moved his sword to the left hand and gave a salute to the direction of the imperial palace, after his dead his friends and family decided to publish a posthumous book called Great Duty (Taigi) and became especially popular among japanese army officers and soldiers, 1,200,000 copies were sold from 1938 to 1945, in his book he said: The reason that Zen is necessary for soldiers is that all Japanese, especially soldiers, must live in the spirit of the unity of the sovereign and subjects, eliminating their ego and getting rid of their self. It is exactly the awakening to the nothingness (mu) of Zen that is the fundamental spirit of the unity of sovereign and subjects. Through my practice of Zen I am able to get rid of my self. In facilitating the accomplishment of this, Zen becomes, as it is, the true spirit of the imperial military...