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Visit modern day Japan and it is easy to be attracted to the flashing lights, and futuristic-looking cities. But stroll through a traditional Japanese garden, with its tranquil atmosphere and closeness to nature, and one can walk into the past. It is easy to imagine kimono-clad men, their heads shaven bald except for a queue on the top of their heads, two swords hanging by their sides, shuffling around in wooden sandals. This is feudal Japan, where everyone and anyone live by bushido, the way of the samurai. Merchants and traders coming back from Japan described it as an exotic and fantasy-filled land. So why was popular opinion (up until as recently as the early post-World War II period) of the Japanese so negative? The Japanese were considered so alien and so fundamentally different to the West to the point that they were deemed non-human. James Clavell, an author fascinated by Asian culture, reverses this perception of the Japanese in his novel, Shogun.

Shogun, based in part upon historical fact, is centered upon three different characters John Blackthorne, the Japanese warlord Toranaga and a Japanese woman, Mariko. Set in the 1600s, the novel depicts Japanese life during this period in such great detail that it can be used as a reference book. The main character, John Blackthorne, is an English pilot of a Dutch ship shipwrecked with the survivors of his crew in Japan. He is at first appalled at Japanese customs and behavior, but he slowly adapts and accepts his new home. Toranaga is a powerful warlord who is trying to unify Japan under his rule, and Mariko is a woman torn between two lives. The clash between East and West is the centerpiece of this novel; it has much to teach the audience about the different attitudes of 17th century Japan and Europe.

The East and West have always had and always will have differences between their cultures, but as the writer JJ Clarke puts it, the East has become the West's 'other'. The differences are essentialized, the East is everything the West is not, and vice versa. Nothing illustrates this better than the different attitudes towards death the Japanese notion of death is fundamentally different from that of the West. However, Clavell demonstrates that this is not true.

The Japanese named the great storm in 181, which destroyed the vast Mongol invasion fleet and saved Japan from obliteration, kamikaze, or 'divine wind'. The name was revived during World War II and applied to the pilots who flew their planes loaded with explosives directly into U.S. warships. These modern-day samurai sacrificed their lives in service to their Emperor. In the West's point of view, nothing characterizes the Japanese better than their fondness for death. Their suicidal behavior is deeply rooted in bushido, along with their strict sense of honor and discipline. In his novel, James Clavell makes it very apparent that an honorable death is the focus point in a samurai's life. In a particularly graphic example, he writes " '[I] know how to die how a samurai should die.' […] Then he slid the knife deep into the left side of his stomach. He ripped it full across with both hands and took it out and plunged it deep again, just above his groin, and jerked it up in silence." . As Mariko puts it, "A samurai dies with dignity. [...] It is his right and duty to die with honor." . To a samurai, death is closely intertwined with honor and glory. A samurai's life is devoted to the service of his master, loyalty being one of the fundamental aspects of bushido, he must be ready to die at any moment for his master.

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While in today's society this glorification of death is a totally unfamiliar and alien notion, Western culture too glorified death up until recently . One need only read the famous martial speech from Shakespeare's Henry V to understand the West's previous 'eagerness' to die a glorious death

Whoever does not have the stomach for this fight, let him depart. Give him money to speed his departure since we do not wish to die in this mans company. Whoever lives past today and comes home safely will rouse himself every year on this day, show his neighbor his scars, and tell embellished stories of all their great feats of battle. These stories he will teach his son and from this day until the end of the world we shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers, for whoever has shed his blood with me shall be my brother. And those men afraid to go will think themselves lesser men as they hear of how we fought and died together.

John Blackthorne, the 'hero' of the novel, has very similar attitude towards death. Clavell makes it clear that Blackthorne's attitude towards death is not at all different from the samurai, on many occasions he is prepared to die fighting with honor rather than shame himself, for example "if he (Blackthorne) had to die he preferred to die now with pride than later." . Blackthorne's attitude towards death and dying gloriously in battle agrees, if not exceeds, his samurai 'colleagues'. He views suicide as cowardly, he would much rather die in battle. Blackthorne remarks of a man who is about to commit seppuku, or ritual suicide, in the heat of battle "If he wants to die for Christ's sake, […] why doesn't he help his men? If he wants to die, why doesn't he die fighting, like a man? .

Loyalty is also a value that the West holds in very high esteem. Take for example the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, probably the best-known piece of folklore in Western literature. These tales are filled with stories of the knights' devotion to King Arthur, all swearing undying loyalty to King Arthur's crown. Speaking of knights, chivalry, the code of knighthood, closely resembles bushido, and the two social classes are quite alike. Both codes have a strict sense of honor, discipline and loyalty. The samurai are the Eastern Knights of the Round Table, and the European knights are akin to the Ch shingura (League of Loyal Hearts).

The problem with stereotyping a people is that it makes too big a generalization. It 'characterizes' an entire people, there is no room left for individuality. By stereotyping the Japanese as suicidal, one can assume that they are totally alien and foreign to the West, since the Western notion of death is to avoid at all costs. But since James Clavell demonstrates that the West once thought as the Japanese did, he is matching the Japanese with the West. By presenting the similarity in thinking between the Japanese and the West, Clavell confirms that they are not total polar opposites.

By proving that the West and the East are indeed similar in more ways than one, James Clavell is trying to make the audience realize that the Japanese are human, that they as a people and their way of thinking are not totally alien to the West. In reality, humans are all the same, the only differences between one person and another are cultural. So why do racism and discrimination exist? Can one culture be 'superior' to another?

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