The Sakaguchi Ango: Decadence In Preserving Japanese Culture

Decadence has been defined as a decline in cultural values and morality by doing things that are against the acceptable cultural and moral values of the Japanese people. Based on Sakaguchi Ango’s essay it can be scrutinized that after the World War II there a decline in Japanese cultural values that put them together. During the war times, the article indicates that writers were not allowed to portray the image of women who had lost their husband during the war. The aim of forbidding writers to portray widows in their writings was aimed at preserving the Japanese culture from decadence that had already been created by the war. The case indicates that the military men had proper knowledge of corruption, but they were forbidden from portraying …show more content…
The Sakaguchi Ango essay indicates that authors were not allowed to disclose the image of widows who had lost their men in the war because it would create further animosity and consequently create malice among the people which was contrary to the Japanese values and principles. Besides, military men such as Samurai had a deeper understanding and its master mines, however, based on the Japanese culture they were not allowed to discourse such concepts because could create negativity in the minds of people that could consequently course negativity. It was a common thing among the Japanese people to find out that those who were initially enemies become the best friends ever. They believed that it was not appropriate to hold a grudge against the other person because it makes one aggressive to fight him/her. There is a need to forget about the bad things that happened and serve two masters by fighting via reconciling back with an enemy (Dorsey, James, and Douglas, p.2). The essay argues that there is no need to live in captivity of hatred and bitterness. If the society embraces the code of forgetting the bad things that happened during the war period it will become difficult to incite Japanese into another war, this will help to prevent further decadence in Japanese ethical culture and principles. However, despite having a discourse of decadence being portrayed as a negative concept, it is crystal clear that …show more content…
Sakaguchi concept of decadence focused on bringing back the lost morality and ethics in the Japanese culture that was experienced after the Second World War. There was a lot of moral decadence, and hence there was a need to lay down some basis of restoring back the good moral values and principles. For example, Sakaguchi portrayed that the empires that came into power after the end of Second World War were propagating moral decadence. For example, the emperor was seen as a god. The emperor demanded to marry several virgins to connect the entire Japanese society with his leadership. It has been quoted that “If they’re to sacrifice their virgins they could code the codes emperor systems”. Sakaguchi was against the acts of the chief and termed the acts of emperor marrying the virgins as moral decadence. He further emphasizes on the significance of starting from the bottom and raising a prosperous Japan that embraces proper cultural and moral values (Sakaguchi, p.4). The character confirms with at the thought of moral decadence because he is acting contrary to the cultural and societal moral principles. The emperor was working towards promoting decadence by marrying virgins with the argument that he was aiming at coding the Japanese society with the emperor system. Sakaguchi was the thinking of the emperor and argues that there is need to bring back humanity and restore the