New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-07-03
ETHICS OF SUICIDE.
Continued from fourth page

officers OF the transport nad sought IeiuSe anu
rs no attempt was made by the Russians to
modest Them they reached land in safety. AS !
soon as possible they notified the military au-
thorities at Gensan Of the fate of the trans |
port and asked permission now that they had
accomplished the duty imposed upon them of
supplying Information, to follow the example
of their comrades and TO destroy themselves.
declaring that all the troops board. when
they found their ship surrounded by the Rus
sian fleet, had taken solemn pledge to XIII
themselves.
The story Of the death of the troops and of
their officers on board the Kinshiu Maru sent
Il thrill of admiration throughout the entire
japanese nation. served to give a timely in
SEPARATION to the army in the field and was con-
strued as a silent but eloquent assurance that
Japan could trust her honor to the keeping OF
her soldiers. 1t felt that they had rendered
n service to their country by the national spirit
shown in the manner of their death-the death
by harakiri. which the princes great mobiles
and Samural of Japan have for eight hundred
years and more, preferred TO dishonor. Some
years ago Il project brought forward in the
legislature of Toxic advocating the abolition
of the practice OF harakiri seppuku it is
more commonly called in Japan. In the debate
which followed it was described 1.-THE very
shrine of the national spirit and the embodi-
ment in practice of devotion to principle as "a
pillar of the constitution "a pillar of re-
lision and n spur to virtue" and lone of our
most valuable and time honOred institutions"
and the motion defeated by the over
whelming vote of 2O5 to ). ono Seigoro who
proposed the measure. was murdered not long
afterward.
No knows exactly when the practice OF
harakiri originated for the oldest annals in
existence contain reference to it a national
custom. But it was in the twelfth century Of
that it first instituted as a judicial
means of ending the lives Of those mobiles and
Samurai who were regarded meriting death,
but not dishonor. Rules of procedure were de-
vised, and the etiquette in connection with the
affair became elaborate and as strict as in
the case of dues in Europe There is this strik-
ing difference however On the field Of honor in
Western countries. the best friend of the prin-
cipal acts his second: in Japan the best
friend acts his executioner in the case OF a
judicial harakir appearing from behind a
screen, and with sweep OF his long sword.
cutting off the head of the principal at the very
moment when the latter. while squattng on the
floor, having drawn the smaller OF his two
swords across his barred stomach from the
treme left to right below the waist line. is in the
act of sinking face forward on the ground.
The last Of these judicial suicides. so far as
foreigners are aware. took place 4 little over
thirty years ago, when 4 Sanurai OF the name
of Zenzaburo atoned in this manner. by order
of the Mikado. for armed attack upon mem
bers of the British Legation. The ceremony took
place in the presence of Sir Ernest Satow. now
English Envoy at Picking. and Of Lord Redes-
dale. to whom Zenzaburo's head presented
for inspection, by his ''Karshaku." best friend
who had decapitated him.
While the judicial hara-kiri is understood TO
have ceased the unofficial seppuku remains. as
is apparent from the scenes on board the trans
custom OF the people. Indeed. according to one
of those unwrittcn laws which are so much
more binding than the that figure in the
judicial code, a man of the Samurai class who
is not prepared TO die by his own hand rather
than suffer disgrace is subjected to the same
who declines n challenge. and is barred from
the acceptance of n commission in the army
In all cases where man who finds himself face
to face with trouble omits hara-kri, any offence
of which he may have been guilty, or wrong
that he may have done. is regarded by the law
and by the public alike non-proven. since
he is longer there to defend himself In
one word, he saves by means Of suicide his own
honor and that Of his family. and as long as
these ideas prevail long will hara- kri con-
tInue feature of japanese civilization.
Eara-kiri may not be in consonance with our
Western ideas. Indeed, the survival OF this
form of self-destruction in Japan serves to re-