Japanese Patriotism and Ethnocentrism told through the book: Requiem for Battleship Yamato

Requiem for Battleship Yamato is a paradigm of the enduring warrior spirit in Japan. Though subtle in its revelation, patriotism and ethnocentrism both played major roles in the way Yoshida thought and wrote. The heroic patriotism of Yoshida and his shipmates is best shown by the manner in which many of them choose to die. The book was more a journal of the ways in which his comrades died than a historical recount. No native …

…the honor and values of his forefathers, but he also finds something else. Beyond simply what he was taught and what Japanese people considered to be the proper way to live, he got to see just a little portion of what it means to truly live. Beyond patriotism, beyond honor, pride and valor, Yoshida managed to find something else. Something more meaningful, that he could only find awash in a sea of oil and blood.