Word: kigensetsu
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...days, Japanese jingoism centered around the strident, state-supported cult of Shinto. The big holiday for nationalist noisemaking was Feb. 11, known as kigensetsu (Foundation Day), solemnly determined by later scholars as the day in 660 B.C. when Japan's founder, Emperor Jimmu, great-great-great-grandson of the Sun Goddess, ascended the throne with the divinely sanctioned mission of making Japan "the center of the world...
...Provincial Conceit." But Japan's Socialists, along with many others who genuinely fear a revival of Shinto, were flatly opposed to the government's bill. "Foundation Day," snapped one young business executive, "should be the day Japan surrendered." The government, modifying its bill, dropped the controversial word kigensetsu, added rather apologetically that Japan has been admitted to the U.N., and that it was "appropriate" for the country to have a holiday celebrating national foundation. Japanese politicians for the most part were doubtful that they could push the bill through-or at least the Feb. 11 date. "We cannot...
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