Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/227

 or debate in any form, whether religious, philosophical, or political. It cannot even be said that object lessons in the uses of a judicial spirit were furnished by the law courts, for these simply administered the edicts of rulers without attempting to set forth the reasons of their decisions. There was, in fact, nothing to educate the spirit of fair play which is the invariable companion of a love of truth. Yet the bushi unquestionably set high store by veracity, and had a keen sense of the dishonour and disgrace that ought to attach to a falsehood. This word "falsehood" is not here employed in the very extensive sense given to it by moral philosophers in the Occident. According to the view entertained by the bushi in the Military epoch and still prevalent throughout the Japanese nation, the obligation to reveal facts in their nakedness is relative. If it is evident that misfortune will be entailed or distress caused by absolute frankness of declaration, concealment, or even misrepresentation, is considered justifiable. Truth is not set upon a pedestal above the sorrows and sufferings of existence, or even above the cares and worries of daily life. If, indeed, the consequences of the spoken word will fall entirely upon the speaker, the duty of veracity becomes theoretically imperative. But if the interests or welfare of others is at stake, statements may be adapted to occasions. That is the philosophy of falsehood in Japan to-day as it was in the