@gerrymcgovern "In peacetime, particularly during the early 20th century that was a politically charged period for Japan as it engaged in colonial expansion, Dr Buckland says the samurai image was manipulated for the purposes of galvanising a national identity. " The word this writer is failing to use is "fascism". In a world that is rapidly accelerating back into fascism, not using it is definitely a choice! Early 20th century Japan was fascist. The re-writing of Japanese history in that time was fascist action done by fascists. I hope that in 100 years people are not lying about our fascists here in 2020s USA. Our fascists are also re-writing history, RIGHT NOW.

An accurate and also more useful way to say this would have been "the Japanese fascists wrote women out of their history to build up a warrior myth to justify imperial atrocities."