Word: kiri
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...than a thousand yards square; Fleet Admiral Nimitz announced that organized resistance had ended. There was mopping-up still to be done: a few hundred of the enemy held out with machine guns, rifles and grenades. In the final pockets many of the enemy were killed; some committed hara-kiri with grenades or by jumping off the cliffs; some surrendered...
When the division moved to Luzon, there were new terms: for every live Jap, one case of beer and a three-day pass to Manila. Sergeant Brown took a prisoner in a cave by persuading him to discard his hara-kiri grenade and come out. Then Brown picked up his beer and went to Manila...
...days after this return he copped one live prisoner with a flying tackle, turned him over to a second soldier to hold, then chased a second Jap, who promptly sat down and pulled out a hara-kiri grenade. Thoughtfully Sergeant Brown stopped, took out a cigaret and lit it. The Jap's face brightened. Brown replaced his .45 in its holster, walked up to the Jap and offered him a cigaret. The Jap put down his grenade for a moment to accept the gift . . . Brown went to Manila again...
...unconditional surrender. Apparently the militarist rulers of Japan, though they might be willing to part with most of their conquests in Asia, would not accept a surrender that meant their end. Apparently Premier Suzuki's words spelled out their determination to gird the nation for a hara-kiri resistance...
...decided to go abroad. Never before had an imperial Heir Apparent left the Land of the Gods. Shinto jingoists threatened to fling themselves in fanatic immolation under the train that bore the Crown Prince to his ship. But Hirohito was not deterred, and this 20th Century form of hara-kiri did not take place...