Essential reading for anyone interested in Japanese culture, this unsurpassed masterwork opens an intriguing window on Japan. Benedict’s World War II–era study paints an illuminating contrast between the culture of Japan and that of the United States. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword is a revealing look at how and why our cultures differ, making it the perfect introduction to Japanese history and customs.

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In 1944, while the United States of America knew they have almost won the war and will be soon taking over the Japanese, they needed to properly acknowledge themselves about their enemy. Since the Japanese were the most alien enemy they have ever fought throughout their war history, they had to take into account different habits of acting and thinking like never before especially in the field of handling their prisoners of war.

Thusly, the government commissioned Ruth Benedict to write a cultural analysis about them in order to predict their future behavior. Ruth Benedict was an American anthropologist, born on the 5th of January 1887. She had a great influence on cultural anthropology; her main fields of expertise were culture and anthropology. She was prominent in the US and her teacher and mentor was Franz Boas, who was known as the father of anthropology.

Consequently, this research paper by Ruth Benedict had the aim of helping the Americans understand cultural patterns of the Japanese that might be driving their aggression while simultaneously hoping to find possible weaknesses or means of persuasion that have been missed. Furthermore, the US might partially know what to expect from their reaction to their defeat, to the changing role of the emperor and to democracy. In fact, this research paper was originally entitled “Japanese behavior patterns” and after the end of the war it was expanded to the current text of The Chrysanthemum and the Sword.