Analysis of the Influence of Natural Religion, on the Temporal Happiness of Mankind (1822) Book

Not so well known pamphlet resenting Japan's acculturation from the late XIX century to the first half of XX, due to governmental propaganda and high-class interests.

Formerly a mostly secular country, accustomed to independent social interaction and revolts against unjust royal dynasties, Japan population became docile to vertical practices of power, the insertion of Shinto (religious syncretism) and revival of a not so historically successful practice: The Mikado. From there on, most university scholars denouncing this phenomena were ostracized and treated as treasonous liberals.

According to the author, Basil Hall Chamberlain -who was a professor at Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost British "japanologists" at that time- Japan's history was mostly rewritten on the basis of plagiarized Chinese myths, convenient poetry,outlandish stories of the people of the sun (Nihon / Nippon) and cult to the emperor (Mikado). This social engineering took place in about a single generation, and might be an accurate accounting for Japanese imperial expansionism around the same period of time.

The awkward part is this is not a work of fiction. I stumbled into it thanks to Bertrand Russell in his work "Free Thought and Official Propaganda -1922" who, at that time, resented also the fact that this book was out of print.

In my own opinion, an easy and thought provoking read that one has to stop by at some point if there is any interest in real history.

To paraphrase Adam Smith, divergent paths of history must be accounted for if one is to develop a proper intellectual life.

I bought the Kobo version, but -thanks to a free Internet that we are about to lose due to the same propaganda phenomenon- HERE