Relinquishing a Sense of Self – Jibun ga Nai

The kokutai discourse was intent on ensuring that only a Foucault-like ‘disciplined society’ operated, where ‘group salience’ prevailed. It was therefore expected that the citizens and soldiers of Japan would act only under their prevailing ‘social identity’, that of the kokutai, thus relinquishing any sense of a personal self. This was made clear in the rescript The Way of the Subject [Shinmin no Michi], released in 1941, which noted that ‘The Way of the Subject is to be loyal to the Emperor in disregard for the self […].’ The pervasive impression of the Japanese soldier was of a person who had indeed relinquished all claims to individual autonomy and who had in fact bowed to the will of the kokutai and taken on the compliant and acquiescent role of the ant-like termite, acting in line with society's demands. When that tendency towards ‘high group salience’ occurs, which was undoubtedly the case in kokutai-inspired Japan, compliance with the kokutai's demands risked Japanese soldiers’ behaviour becoming ‘positively alarming’. This is what has left behind the impression of the Japanese soldier that lurks in the pages of infamy.

How could the independent will of the individual become so suppressed to the bidding of the whole? During Japan's Imperial period, the individual sense of self [nikutai or bodily self] was expected to be surrendered to and supplanted by the state-sanctioned [kokutai] non-self, meaning that conscious decision-making on the part of the individual was impossible. The totalitarian nature of the regime at the time of Japan's entry into the Pacific War ensured that there were almost no dissenting voices to challenge the official line. This was particularly evidenced at the Imperial Conference of 1 December 1941.