Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/226

 while pretending to promote, the plans of its master Hideyori. It may be broadly stated that moral principles received no respect whatever from framers of political plots or planners of ruses-de-guerre. Yet the Taikō, who stands conspicuous among Japan's great leaders for improbity in the choice of means to a public or a military end, desired to commit suicide rather than survive the ignominy of failure to fulfil a pledge. Nothing, indeed, could be more erroneous than to conclude that because the dictates of right and honour were ignored in dealing with an enemy, the bushi showed similar laxity in intercourse with friends and comrades. Such an error would correspond to inferring that the immorality displayed by modern nations in their relations with each other is reflected in the conduct of the individuals composing them.

The bushi entertained a high respect for the obligations of truth. "A bushi never lies" was one of his favourite mottoes; or, to put it in his own language, "A bushi has no second word" (bushi ni nigon nashi). Industrial veracity never existed in Japan. Neither commerce nor manufacturing enterprise acquired at any time sufficient importance to demonstrate the injurious effects of want of mutual confidence and the value of strict fidelity to engagements. Political veracity remained similarly undeveloped. Probably no other nation continued throughout so many centuries entirely unacquainted with public