Word: harakiri
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...clear that the Jap command had resorted to a defense as macabre to Western minds as it was typically Japanese. There was no question that the harakiri tactic of Kamikaze (Divine Tempest) airmen had been adopted as a chief effort. There were strong indications that it had become the major hope of a defense of desperation...
...meanwhile learned a little more about Japanese mental processes. One of their cases was a Jap officer who discussed surrender at the water's edge, confident of the protection his flag of truce gave him. He asked 24 hours to make his decision: surrender or harakiri. But when he turned up 24 hours later, he had discovered another alternative. He politely informed the Americans that he had decided to stay in the jungle, politely withdrew...
...chief weaknesses is instability. Reared in Japan's feudal atmosphere, savagely repressed all his life, he is apt to blow up in tight spots, make "banzai" suicide charges, commit harakiri. Victorious, he swells with arrogance and takes his repressions out on helpless prisoners...
...made his honorable exit. Onetime hero of the Empire, Nagumo commanded the carriers in the Pearl Harbor attack, lived to see his fame dimmed when he lost four of five carriers in the Battle of Midway. After Saipan fell, U.S. soldiers found his corpse. He had, quite obviously, committed harakiri...
...second thought, the U.S. Communists discovered that they could do without themselves. The National Committee of the party last week resolved-unanimously, of course-to stage a full-dress left-handed harakiri, with mass meetings, Browder speeches...