Could we not say that the kamikaze hero was a mere illusion, and that human history begins from the point where he takes to black-marketeering? That the widow as devoted apostle is mere illusion, and that human history begins from the moment when the image of a new face enters her breast? And perhaps the emperor too is no more than illusion, and the emperor’s true history begins from the point where he becomes an ordinary human. . . . Japan was defeated, and the samurai ethic has perished, but humanity has been born from the womb of decadence’s truth. . . . Humans don’t change. We have only
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