Godless

The ancient traditional Japanese values and behaviour differ fundamentally from those raised in Christianized cultures in the most extraordinary Ways.

In 1543, a Chinese junk with several Portuguese traders was blown off course into Japan.

Here the first ever recorded encounter between Westerners and Japanese occurred on Tanegashima off the coast of Kyushu.

It was here the Japanese were first introduced to firearms, gun powder, and tobacco.

Indeed the lord of the island was so impressed with the Portuguese matchlock instrument of death, he ordered his craftsmen to set up a foundry and duplicate them.

Here is evidence of the innate Japanese trait of taking novel items from other worlds and crafting the object into something uniquely Japanese, and more often than not, superior in all aspects.

In spite of these brilliant displays of craftsmanship and understanding, in the eyes of the Westerners, the Japanese had no sense of morality or ethics.

Imagine the shock of the first puritanical foreign missionaries arriving in Japan, in what Koizumi Yakumo describes as "fairyland."

The attitude and behaviour of the Japanese in most practical matters, including those of a sexual nature, are in fundamental alignment with nature, as is indicative of an agrarian island nation.

Even today the Japanese do not regard nudity or sex as sinful or something shameful.

This was made evidently clear as one enjoyed a leisurely outdoor bath in one of the ubiquitous hot springs sprinkled throughout Japan.

The cleaning lady was chatting with stark-naked male patron in what could only be described as a surreal scene in a peculiar movie.

She was also kind enough to mention the lovely day while checking the bath temperature, as one was soaking solo in the outdoor taru buro.

No issues, as one was able to overcome the Occidental Christian shame and punishment protocol concerning nudity, which also happens to be a reflection of the beauty and divinity of our common body and soul.

These criticisms of the Japanese was to continue for the next 400 years.

Exposed here is the Occidental Christians protocol of projecting superiority over Japanese culture and way of life, where they advocates detachment from the natural ebb and flow of life, and one's own ancestors.

A more practical understanding of the difference between Western and Japanese morality only really came to light the mid-1900s

The difference between these two distinct minds is directly bound to the religious systems dominating the two cultures.

Keep in mind, the Japanese are not, and never have been "religious" in the mythological sense of Christianity.

In the West, Christianity and its dogma is based upon the absolute principles of good and bad, right and wrong.

This is the dominant philosophical and spiritual force of Christianity which embodies a detailed code of thought and behaviour that was drummed into Westerners from childhood.

Even all the more unpleasantly so, every thought and action was prescribed and judged by a single, all-powerful, all-knowing god.

Westerners were conditioned to pass judgment on every aspect of life, labeling every thought and action as good or bad, moral or immoral.

All precepts pertaining to life were expressed in these absolute terms.

These canons of Mammon were created to serve generation after generation of morally bankrupt religious parasites sucking the spirit and soul from our common humanity.

Life in the West was ruled by absolute principles, starting with the Ten Commandments.

The indoctrinated Christian Occidentals were conditioned to suffer emotional and spiritual pain if they broke any of these commandments, even when their "misbehaviour" was unknown to others.

For this omnipresent Western style god, or more realistically, what has now morphed into the "State," wants to knows if you have been naughty or nice, and will for certain exact its pound of flesh and revenge as it sees fit, jury, judge, and executioner, all in the name of the lord.

The prime directive of Western culture was that everyone should be conditioned to automatically distinguish between right and wrong as
prescribed by the Church.

However, this has never guarantee "good" or even humane behaviour, and much of the evil committed by the West is still done in the name of religion.

In Japan, on the other hand, there is no single omnipotent god whatsoever.

The Japanese have their own constitution handed down from Taishi Shōtoku in 604 CE, which takes a much more pragmatic approach to carry oneself throughout life.

There are no religious texts teaching absolute truths.

The roots of the Japanese are in the detailed guidelines concerning form order, and process.

These are matters of social status, position, gender, relationships, and the like, and has nothing to do with religious tenets whatsoever.

Among the Japanese, ultimate power is not in the hands of a god, but in the hands of their group.

What the Japanese fear the most is the opinion and judgement of the individual member of their group, and they must do their best to conform to the majority opinion and wishes of their superiors.

In cultural context, when circumstance were peaceful, what was true and moral was determined by the majority of the group.

This consensus mentality is deeply embedded in the psyche of the Japanese, and is a fundamental protocol to which the Japanese innately adhere.

In times of conflict and chaos, when the center of power changed, truth and morality also changed to conform to the new circumstances.

In other words, the virtuous Japanese were those who stayed in harmony with their fellow group members, and obeyed all etiquette rules demanded by their social system.

There is no such thing as absolute good or bad in the psychological make up of the Japanese.

There is only the immediate needs of the many.

Whatever serves the needs of the majority is good, whatever does not is bad.

By extension of this situational morality, whatever benefits group leaders in Japanese society is also good for that group's members.

Certainly, the first Westerners in Japan who were indoctrinated into the absolutist Christian principles of right or wrong were shocked when encountering the circumstantial and human-centred morality of the Japanese.

The foundation of the Japanese Way and our harmonious society is a divine blend of Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Tao.

The Japanese need not, nor want a dogmatic desert deity passing subjective eternal judgment upon the Japanese race, or the clans of Japan.

Not only are the ancestral clans watching over the decedents from the Shinto god-shelfs and Buddhist alters, the Japanese must deal with the rigours of our "tate shakai" society and must adhere to the form, order and process of their group.

Regardless, each Japanese has plenty to live up to in this strict hierarchical society, and one can plainly see the moral code of the Japanese imbedded into the DNA.

True to their nature, the Japanese have now folded the democratic principles introduced by the United States in 1945 into their ancient moral code into what can simply now be referred to as "The System."