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.
The mainline
schools I know have responded fairly well to the issues
thrust upon them: the issues of race, gender, liberation — the new diversity and complexity of the student body.