Loyalty

“There are some who would say it is people like myself who are responsible for the terrible things that happened to this nation of ours. As far as I am concerned, I freely admit I made many mistakes. I accept that much of what I did was ultimately harmful to our nation, that mine was part of an influence that resulted in untold suffering for our own people. I admit this. You see, Dr Saito, I admit this quite readily.” In this quote, Masuji Ono admits that he took part in leading Japan into World War II by being patriotic. He was loyal to his country as his pupils are loyal to him. Loyalty is a major theme throughout this book. It is loyalty that led Ono to paint patriotic paintings that liberated the people to support this movement towards war. It is also through this loyalty that split the generations, whether it was unintentional or not. The younger generation despises the elders for destroying the reputation and prosperity of their country.

It seems to me that this book questions the nature of loyalty. How loyal must one be? According to this book, the extent of loyalty has caused incidents. The first is the influence of war, even though Japan shouldn’t have gotten involved. Many people from the young generation believe a war was pointless and that Japan shouldn’t have been involved. The second is the split between the generations. The younger generation resent the older generation for influencing the war. If it weren’t for the many paintings of misleading patriotism, Japan would have never joined the war. Thus, Japan would not have lost its prestige and honor. The third is that Ono has lost the respect of Mr. Kuroda due to the fact that Mr. Kuroda blames Ono for causing the war.