A nation cannot succeed in modern war unless most people are willing to suffer hardship and many people are willing to die. In order to produce this willingness, the rulers have to persuade their subjects that the war is about something important -so important, in fact, as to be worthy of martyrdom.
Source： Bertrand Russell: Power, 1938.
More info.：https://russell-j.com/beginner/POWER08_010.HTM
No nation goes to war knowing it will be defeated. A nation initiates war when it is confident of victory, or at least judges that there is a strong possibility of winning. Of course, it is not the nation, an abstract entity, that actually starts a war; rather, it is the leaders of the government at the time, or in some cases, a military that acts independently of civilian control.
However, even if leaders believe they can win, a weak military or a lack of fighting spirit among soldiers increases the likelihood of defeat. For this reason, many nations implement patriotic education for their youth to instill in the population a sense of duty to defend the country. Believing that it is too late to cultivate patriotism once people reach adulthood, some countries begin such education as early as elementary school.
For example, during the Abe administration, it was widely known that Moritomo Gakuen conducted patriotic education at its affiliated kindergarten, Tsukamoto Kindergarten. Akie Abe, the wife of then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, served as honorary principal of the elementary school the institution was planning to establish, drawing public attention to the relationship between her and the school. Possibly due to this connection, Mr. and Mrs. Kagoike were able to purchase the land for Moritomo Gakuen at a discount of approximately 800 million yen, on the premise that a large amount of waste was buried on the site.
Tragically, however, following Prime Minister Abe’s statement in the National Diet?“If I or my wife were involved in the land deal, I would resign as Prime Minister”?a painful incident occurred: Mr. Toshio Akagi, a Finance Ministry official, took his own life after being forced to falsify official documents related to the case.
* Amazon Gift Card
