Word: samurais
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Descendant of a samurai (feudal military gentry) family, darling of the Army extremists, the old Baron was one of the first Japanese of high position to be labeled "Fascist." But during the last several years his views mellowed to the archconservatism of an elder statesman. He believes in friendship with the U.S. and Britain, favors a quick settlement of the four-year-old Sino-Japanese War, opposes a single totalitarian party, has balked against Axis alliances. So considerable is his influence on Prince Konoye that he has become known as the "Strong Man of the Cabinet...
...father was a samurai-one of those ferocious retainer-warriors who wore two swords sharp enough to shave with, who scorned money because their liege lords supplied them with houses, clothes, food, concubines, whatever else they needed...
Yonai's mother, also of samurai blood and, being a woman, even less prepared to earn her daily rice than her husband had been, nevertheless buckled down as a seamstress and sewing teacher. While Mitsumasa was in school, he got a job copying documents, each week gave his pay envelope to his mother, unopened. He went on to the Naval Academy, where he was a popular mediocrity. He finished at the centre of his class - 60th among 125 cadets. At 21 he wrote, in clumsy, inept calligraphy, a pathetic little self-portrait: "My strongest characteristic: gluttony-I never...
...Emperor of Japan is not a man. He is 39 years old, has six human children, weighs about 135 pounds, eats, sleeps and fans himself; but he is not a man. Hirohito, Son of the Sun Goddess, is a lot of things. He is fierce samurai battles, snowcapped volcanoes, the flowering mimosa, fat carp in mountain pools. He is exaggerated politeness, intense ambition, orchidaceous sensitivity. He is the rising sun. He is also a big navy, and a crying need for cheap rice and living space. He embraces Japan. He is Japan...
This week, like a Japanese samurai who feels himself dishonored, the Ministry committed harakiri. Its regional offices disbanded, the staff in London prepared for wholesale dismissals. A skeleton Ministry hoped to carry on as a propaganda agency; but Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was expected to announce that a new department would censor news dispatches and issue Government communiques...