THE CHRYSANTHEMUM AND THE SWORD: PATTERNS OF JAPANESE CULTURE. - Softcover

Benedict, Ruth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 4805301139 ISBN 13: 9784805301135

Publisher: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1973

Synopsis

Paperback edition on the influential 1946 book by American cultural anthropologist Ruth Benedict. Commissioned by the U.S. Office of War Information during World War II, the study's purpose was to help American policymakers and military personnel understand the Japanese people and predict their behavior during the post-war occupation, as Western conventions of war and culture were starkly different from those in Japan.

(From the back cover:) The war and the peace have both made Japan important to the United States. Thousands of Americans have been here since the war and thousands more will come. The ties now being forged between the two countries will have great consequences as time goes on. We cannot afford to dismiss the Japanese. We must know their strengths and their weaknesses. In this book an anthropologist writes of their view of life and of themselves. She sketches in the main outlines of their society and then describes their curious system of practical ethics, their ideas of good and bad, and the disciplines which make them able to live according to their code. The book is of interest as a contribution to the history of human thought. It is a suggestive guide for nations of the West in their cooperation with Japan. It is also a completely fascinating, incisive and profoundly informative book on what makes the Japanese so uniquely Japanese.

Edition details

• Publisher: Charles E. Tuttle Company
• Publication date: 1973
• Language: Japanese
• ISBN 10: 4805301139
• ISBN 13: 9784805301135
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 324