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Mark Ravina's The Last Samurai: The Life and Battles of Saigo Takamori moves us away from the romantic vision of the Hollywood movie and gives us a glimpse into the legendary figure portrayed by Ken Watanabe.  The book offers greater insight into the complexity of the political reality of the Satsuma rebellion than the film.  In the film, we are shown the struggle that led to the confrontation between the government and the samurai to be one between modernization and tradition.  The book reveals a more nuanced view of a complicated political situation that eventually forces Saigo into rebellion against advisors to an imperial court that rejected his principled attempt to insight a war with Korea versus a more pragmatic approach to postponing the war until the country could strengthen its military capabilities. Strengthening the state was the objective of both the advisors to the emperor and Saigo, but Saigo believed in the value of principles or soft power as an important asset for the state.  The last samurai hoped to blend traditional principles with industrial modernization.
 
It does not require a fantastic imagination to see how the principles of tradition blended with industrialization and statism could have played a significant role in Japan's eventual choice for war with her neighbors and later with the United States.  The failure of the United States to accept a racial equality clause in the treaty of Versailles, the exclusion of Japanese in the immigration bill of 1924, the collapse of the global economy in 1929, the unequal treaties of the Washington and London Naval Conferences, the persistence of European and American imperialism and the Smoot-Hawley tariffs were all accidents on the way to Pearl Harbor.  The principles of honor and the legitimacy of violence that were embedded in Bushido, the way of the warrior,and the penetration of these ideals into the body of the Empire of Japan made the path to war inevitable.
 
I was first exposed to Bushido in a very strange book by a Japanese writer named Yukio Mishima while I was an agricultural teacher trainer in Togo. The book, Runaway Horses,was a biography of a young samurai who loathed democratic government and hated capitalism.  As I read the book I thought the protagonist was literally insane and I felt sympathy for the capitalist philanthropist who eventually fell victim to his senseless rage.  The protagonist later kills himself through the ritual of seppuku during a remarkable sunrise.  This act is only comprehensible through the twisted logic of emperor worship and the peculiar sense of martyrdom that affirm such senseless sacrifices.  Mishima, the author of this book, in 1970 berated the special defense forces in a public address and then killed himself in a dramatic act meant to revive the spirit of Japan.
 
Mishima's plea was rejected by the self-defense forces and the vast majority of Japan's population.  After World War II with the incredible costs the Japanese paid for imperialism his brand of right wing, militarist politics did not play well.  During our latest global crisis, we can hope that short sighted nationalism and the violence of the state will be rejected as we try to build solutions to our problems from human creativity, personal responsibility, and respect for the dignity of human persons.  Reflecting on an age gone by, we should recognize the plasticity of the human mind does not guarantee us a prosperous and peaceful world unless we work diligently for it.  Fortunately, classical liberalism has left us a legacy that affirms the peaceful endeavors of creators and rejects the path of force, but in every culture lay the resources to reject peace and affirm some strange fantasy of duty and honor paid for by all of us.