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View Full Version : Honor. Obligation. Debt. This Gunny's Story is More



shatto
12-28-2012, 03:43 AM
"On" is a concept for indebtedness. Repayment of "on" is never complete. Harumi Befu in Japan (p.167-8) states that the"genesis of the on relationship is found in the parent-child relationship, where parents give life to the child, provide nurturance, and socialize him. The child is then forever indebted to the parents...Insofar as parents expect the child to repay the debt in socially accepted forms, the child must behave accordingly if he is not to hurt the parents' feelings and consequently alienate himself from them. This pattern of relationships is then transferred later in life to other persons than parents. And to the extent that a similar psychological bond and mutual dependence develop between the two individuals, one feels compelled to repay the debt."

Bob Lee Swagger, USMC, Retired, must repay debt that originated inside a Jap bunker on the side of Mount Suribachi, February 21, 1945. His fathers debt.

"Just as easily, just as quickly, he got through her, driving the sword edge through the inner landscape of her body, feeling the different textures and elasticities of the blood bearing organs, the crispness of the spine as it split, the tightening of the gristle of her intestines, the final spurt through the epidermis from the inside out. Astonishingly, almost illogically, her left quarter, the whole thing, arm, shoulder, neck, and head, slid wetly off the cut and fell to earth...."

From: Stephen Hunter's "The 47th Samuari"

The book is about honor, obligations, compassion, love, respect, caring and the bond of soldiers for each other across time.