mokusatsu
Sign in to saveis a Japanese word meaning "ignore", "take no notice of" or "treat with silent contempt". It is composed of two kanji: (moku "silence") and (satsu "killing"). In 1945, the Japanese government used the word in its initial rejection of the Potsdam Declaration, the Allied demand that Japan surrender unconditionally in World War II. It has been argued that the word was misunderstood by the Allies and that the misunderstanding interrupted a negotiation for a peaceful end to the war. The consensus of modern historians, however, is that the Allies understood the word correctly.
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Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- Usage
- Context
- Postwar controversy
- Notes
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is a Japanese word meaning "ignore", "take no notice of" or "treat with silent contempt". It is composed of two kanji: (moku "silence") and (satsu "killing"). In 1945, the Japanese government used the word in its initial rejection of the Potsdam Declaration, the Allied demand that Japan surrender unconditionally in World War II. It has been argued that the word was misunderstood by the Allies and that the misunderstanding interrupted a negotiation for a peaceful end to the war. The consensus of modern historians, however, is that the Allies understood the word correctly.
The example of mokusatsu is frequently cited to argue that problems encountered by Japanese in the sphere of international politics arise from misunderstandings or mistranslations of their language.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “mokusatsu” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.