Although held in theory over a long period, the belief was accentuated during the latter part of the
nineteenth century and since, and became finally a basic dogma underlying the Japanese Imperial thrust, which is often regarded as the beginning of World War II.9 The idea was taught in the schools, in the army, and resulted finally in a fanatical religious, as well as patriotic, devotion to the emperor, without which, it seems to the writer, it is impossible to explain the daring
attack of the island empire of Japan
upon the richest and most powerful nation in the world, the United States.