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I had always thought that the Japanese didn't have a word for surrender before
WWII. It seemed to be plausible given their culture. However, I can't seem to
find any solid evidence of this. Is it just a myth?
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2013-01-31T14:29:22.723
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2014-05-26T12:20:24.767
2014-05-26T12:20:24.767
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words culture history language-change
Did the Japanese have a word for surrender before WWII?
降伏 （こうふく） is borrowed from Classical Chinese and probably has many centuries
of history. After all, in the Sengoku period there were probably many, many
surrenders of lords to other lords.
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2013-01-31T15:22:37.190
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2013-01-31T15:22:37.190
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I think this question is relevant: [What do you mean, "In Japanese there are
no words for "I’m
suffering""?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/5573/)

Also a little googling leads to a
[quote](http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/npswapa/Guam/Texts/lastmission.htm)
where this is clearly being used metaphorically by the speaker (presuming this
is even an accurate quote/translation and not made up):

> Captain Sasaki of the Yokahama Guards: "There is no such word as surrender
> in the Japanese vocabulary. Japan must fight! why should it surrender? There
> is still a huge Japanese army on the Chinese mainland, and Japan still holds
> 350,000 Allied prisoners of war."

[This](http://www.psywarrior.com/ICeaseJap.html) link talks about leaflets
scattered during the second world war to encourage Japanese soldiers to
surrender. Initial leaflets said "I surrender" but later ones said "I cease
resistance", and were more successful. Whether or not this was really down to
the implications of 降伏 versus more euphemistic terms is hard to say, but this
is probably the original source of 'no word for surrender'.
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2013-02-01T09:07:51.643
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2013-02-01T09:07:51.643
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