"[9], Japanese ambassador to Pakistan Sadaaki Numata said the book was a "must reading for many students of Japanese studies."[11]. To do this, she focused, in my mind, appropriately on gender, class and childhood rearing. Throughout Chrysanthemum, Benedict cites Japanese literature and stories, often including passages to which she offers her own commentary to tie the work in with her conclusions. Grade: A+. What data did she discard, ignore, or find to not useful in her research? She presented her conclusions in The Chrysanthemum and the Sword in a narrative well-suited for popular audiences and drew both criticisms and praises for her efforts, which seems, ironically, to parallel her characterization of “but also’s” mentioned on the book’s very first page. If you have never read the unique works of Ruth Benedict, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword is a great place to start. Accordingly, what is the difference between Japan and western nations? The techniques were necessitated by anthropologists' inability to visit Nazi Germany or wartime Japan. Furthermore we ask ourselves, what are Benedict’s main points in the book and how does she support them adequately? I'm also a 12-year veteran of the U.S. Army and spent another 10 years doing adventure programming with at-risk teens before earning my master's degree at the University of Texas at Arlington. According to her research results and analysis, Benedict explains Japanese people’s assumptions about the conduct of life and the conditionality of their outlook on life. Again, such an economic or political discourse would seem outside the scope of what Benedict seemed interested in accomplishing. There’s plenty I could go one to say about Benedict, but I wanted to share my reflections of her book, Chrysanthemum, as well as an article written by anthropologist Sonia Ryang, Chrysanthemum’s Strange Life: Ruth Benedict in Postwar Japan, which is critical of Benedict. – Disclosing One Of Japan’s Biggest Social Issues, 10 Surprising Facts about Japanese Schools. "[9] Lummis, who went to the Vassar College archives to review Benedict’s notes, wrote that he found some of her more important points were developed from interviews with Robert Hashima, a Japanese-American native of the United States who was taken to Japan as a child, educated there, then returned to the US before World War II began. What’s tissue-pack marketing? [citation needed], More than two million copies of the book have been sold in Japan since it first appeared in translation there. ISBN: 978-0618619597. Genuine information about Japan by the Japanese. Since the Japanese were the most alien enemy they have ever fought throughout their war history, they had to take into account different habits of acting and thinking like never before especially in the field of handling their prisoners of war. ‘The Chrysanthemum and the Sword’ holds up supremely well and reads as a veritable textbook of cultural research. In my opinion, since this book was published in 1946, we notice that it is slightly outdated. Some important terms that Benedict provides us with are: Ko on which is an on received from the Emperor; Oya on:On received from the parents; Gimu: the fullest repayment of these obligations; Chu: Duty to the Emperor, the law, Japan; ko: duty to parents and ancestors; Giri: these debts are regarded as to be repaired with mathematical evidence to the favor received and there are time limits. Additionally, Benedict provides us with the habits that are expected and taken for granted in Japan. Why Is Homii The Way To Go For Those Who Want To Stay Or Live In Japan? 1(1): 87-116. This low line continues many years during the prime of life, but the arc gradually ascends again until after the age of sixty men and women are almost as unhampered by shame as little children are. Perhaps a passage like the one above can be viewed in much the same way as the illusion of the vase which can also appear as two people facing one-another depending on the mental perspective of the observer. What Are These Glowing Creatures in Toyama Bay. How Has Japanese Anime Influenced the World? Print. The prime of life is with us the high point of freedom and initiative. If the Japanese government borrowed this from China, when and why was it done? Sections of the book were mentioned in Takeo Doi's book, The Anatomy of Dependence, but he is highly critical of her analysis of Japan and the West as respectively shame and guilt cultures. Furthermore, how does Japan view her involvement in the war? It is apparent that despite many wars occurring after WWII, due to the demilitarization of Japan and article 9 of the constitution, Japan has remained peaceful until now. Due to the inability to have a field trip to Japan, Benedict had to practice Anthropology at a Distance in which she based all her work on academic books, Japanese novels in translation, movies and interviews with Japanese Americans. In due time, the master passed away. She was prominent in the US and her teacher and mentor was Franz Boas, who was known as the father of anthropology. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Chrysanthemum’s Strange Life: Ruth Benedict in Postwar Japan. Discover great restaurants, amazing places and unique culture! What do you think of spreading information related to Japan in your mother-tongue? As soon as he was born he was taken away by a stranger and was loved like a child of the house. However, Japanese prisoners of war apparently gave information freely and did not try to contact their families. Benedict studied anthropology under Franz Boas and was the friend (and lover, I believe) of Margaret Mead. ※当サイトは権利侵害を行わないよう万全を期しておりますが、万が一当サイトの記事や画像に関し被害申告等をなさりたい場合は、以下のメールアドレスからご連絡いただければ幸いです。 Benedict uses this story to document both the nature of on, which she refers to as a type of debt or obligation and to also point out that from the time they are children, Japanese are taught their places in the hierarchies of family and society. What Ruth discovered is that the main difference in behavior between western soldiers and the Japanese was the cooperation the latter gave to the Allied forces as prisoners of war. “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” is notable for giving us a Don Draper totally on his game for most of the hour after the awkwardness of the past four weeks. The book became a bestseller in China in 2005, when relations with the Japanese government were strained. According to Margaret Mead, the author's former student and a fellow anthropologist, other Japanese who have read it found it on the whole accurate but somewhat "moralistic." More than two million copies of the book have been sold in Japan since it first appeared in translation there. "[7] Anthropologists were attempting to understand the cultural patterns that might be driving the aggression of once-friendly nations, and they hoped to find possible weaknesses or means of persuasion that had been missed. Restrictions are slowly increased after babyhood till having one’s own way reaches a low just before and after marriage. This was due mainly to the understanding of how she came to be an anthropologist studying under Franz Boas. Undoubtedly, Ruth Benedict’s cultural and ethnographical theories are accurate however; many of her predictions weren’t equitable. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, short review. As an archaeologist, I tend to take a very empirical and positivist approach to data. Since there was anarchy in the world as long as every nation had absolute sovereignty; it was necessary for Japan to fight to establish a hierarchy. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Reviewing an Ethnography. Firm disciplines are directed toward the infant and these are gradually relaxed as the child grows in strength until a man runs his own life when he gets a self-supporting job and when he sets up a household of his own. If you’ve been to Japan, you may have witnessed the concept of tissue-pack marketing whenever you walk out a cetnral station or are in the crowded areas. Instead of the propagandizing member of a victorious nation, Babcock describes a Benedict that accepted Franz Boas’s emphasis on empiricism and scientific method in anthropology but also willing to apply a certain measure of abstraction to her data in order to make her ethnographies more palatable to the reader. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword. Ruth Benedict tackles the book by focusing on several main points. Thusly, the government commissioned Ruth Benedict to write a cultural analysis about them in order to predict their future behavior. Here’s What the Japanese Say it Means! One year passed, two years passed, three years passed, even when ten years had passed, the aged Hachi’s figure can be seen every day in front of the station, still looking for his master. Babcock presents to the reader, through her work “Not in the Absolute Singular: Rereading Ruth Benedict” (written several years prior to Ryang’s), quite a different picture from Ryang of Benedict. What were their backgrounds and qualifications as informants? Furthermore, we ask ourselves, how is Japanese culture shaped? This book which resulted from Benedict's wartime research, like several other United States Office of War Information wartime studies of Japan and Germany,[6] is an instance of "culture at a distance," the study of a culture through its literature, newspaper clippings, films, and recordings, as well as extensive interviews with German-Americans or Japanese-Americans. Professional archaeologist that currently works for the United States Forest Service at the Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area in Kentucky and Tennessee. [8] Benedict played a major role in grasping the place of the Emperor of Japan in Japanese popular culture, and formulating the recommendation to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that permitting continuation of the Emperor's reign had to be part of the eventual surrender offer.