Jim Butcher Quotes
If you go to your death rather than do everything you might to prevent what is happening, you are merely committing suicide and trying to make yourself feel better about it. That is the act of a coward. It is beneath contempt.
Butcher, Jim. Changes. Roc Books, 2010.
Sometimes paraphrased as “the coward dies a thousand deaths, but the brave man dies but once.”
His documentation of Bushido—the way of the warrior—has influenced Japanese culture and behavior even into modern times. This statement in large part explained the behavior of Japanese troops in WWII. Surrender was considered cowardice and therefore fighting to the death was required of all Japanese. This particular work was studied by American experts on Japan and the assumption that this was the Japanese cultural imperative for soldier and civilian alike, was one of the major factors leading Truman and America to use the Atomic bomb in WWII for they did not anticipate any Japanese surrender otherwise and an invasion of the Japanese mainland would have killed more Japanese and many Americans as well. Even after the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the Japanese would not surrender and it took the Emperor to finally contradict the Japanese culture as stated in Yamamoto Tsunetomo’s writing. See also {586231}.
Jim Butcher is an American author. He has written the contemporary fantasy The Dresden Files, Codex Alera and Cinder Spires book series.
