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Concept
Mokusatsu
Summary
is a Japanese word meaning "ignore", "take no notice of" or "treat with silent contempt". It is composed of two kanji characters: 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.
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, that mokusatsu was misunderstood, and that the misunderstanding interrupted a negotiation for a peaceful end to the war, still resurfaces from time to time. The consensus of modern historians is that the Allies had understood the word correctly.
It was the adoption of this term by the government of Japan that first gave rise to the prominence of the word abroad. In 1945, mokusatsu was used in Japan's initial rejection of the Potsdam Declaration, where the Allies demanded Japan to surrender unconditionally in World War II. This was understood to mean that Japan had rejected those terms, which contributed to President Harry S. Truman's decision to carry out the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and implied that in spurning the terms, Japan had brought down on its own head the destruction of those two cities.
In 1950, an argument emerged claiming that mokusatsu had been misunderstood by the Allies due to a mistranslation that interpreted the word to signify ignore rather than withhold comment. The third edition of the authoritative Kenkyūsha Japanese-English dictionary (1954) responded by adding an innovative gloss to its former definitions by stating that it also bore the meaning of 'remain in a wise and masterly inactivity'. However, the context around the word makes the intended meaning clear, and even if the new definition added in 1954 was used, it would not change the overall meaning of the statement.
Official source
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