Parents were supposed to have children not for themselves but for the state, the war effort, and ultimately the state’s head, the Emperor. Conformity was to be attained through discarding individuality and emotional interactions, and submitting one’s physical interactions to imperial subjugation.

Sometimes overlooked was how the post-war American occupation brought a sort of sexual revolution that the long repressed Japanese readily embraced. This is perhaps the chimerical ‘Mouse that Roared’ logic behind the ‘Democracy, Whiskey, Sexy‘ expectations of American power.