Mokusatsu

Mokusatsu (黙殺) is a Japanese word meaning "ignore", "take no notice of" or "treat with silent contempt".[1][2][a][3][4] It is composed of two kanji: 黙 (moku "silence") and 殺 (satsu "killing"). It is frequently cited to argue that problems encountered by Japanese in the sphere of international politics arise from misunderstandings or mistranslations of their language.[5]

In 1945, mokusatsu was used in Japan's initial rejection of the Potsdam Declaration, the Allied demand that Japan surrender unconditionally in World War II. To this day, the argument, or myth,[6] that mokusatsu was misunderstood, and that the misunderstanding interrupted a negotiation for a peaceful end to the war, still resurfaces from time to time.[7][8][9][10] The consensus of modern historians is that the Allies had understood the word correctly.[11][12]

  1. ^ Butow 1967, pp. 142–49 [145].
  2. ^ Rogers & Bartlit 2005, p. 307.
  3. ^ Ham 2012, p. 261.
  4. ^ Wheeler-Bennett & Nicholls 1974, p. 380.
  5. ^ Johnson 1980, pp. 89–90, n.2.
  6. ^ Naimushin 2021.
  7. ^ Zanettin 2016.
  8. ^ Polizzotti 2018a.
  9. ^ Polizzotti 2018b, p. 146.
  10. ^ Aslanyan 2021.
  11. ^ Johnson 1980, pp. 89–90, n. 1.
  12. ^ Bix 1995, p. 206.


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