Erick Mead

I've given a few. But the criticism is broader than merely countering associational arguments. Association is a logical fallacy of proof after all, so counter-associations merely illustrate that the proffer is not one sided -- but it also happens to be fallacious. , The point in question is the genuineness as well as the nature of his revelation of the ethical stance of aikido as budo, not his personal holiness, at whatever point in time.

Personal merit is not the standard of truth (for most of Western history) for which, if no one else, read Augustine's Confessions. Success seduces, but failure teaches. Wisdom is the fruit of experience, not theory, and most of that experience is by its nature nearly always bad. Science has proceeded by demolishing its imperfect understandings, not by polishing its contingently successful ones. Although the innuendo has been made. http://www.aikidojournal.com/forums/...ic.php?t=11543 In fact, in SCAPIN 550 occupational order, a "removal /exclusion" list was created. Only "Class A' on that list was designated as "war criminals." Ueshiba was classified on the lowest category, "Class G" -- "additional militarists and ultranationalists" most likely in the category of person who "by speech, writing or action has shown himself to be an active exponent of militant nationalism and aggression." Persons on the SCAPIN 550 list were limited in their ability to participate in or publish on public matters during the Occupation.

More to the point though -- one does not choose one's comrades in arms. One learns to love them despite all those true and highly objectionable facts. This is a non-trivial aspect of budo that I think relates to the revelation of aikido at that time and in those circumstances. This is difficult to explain to someone who has not had the benefit.

If you have seen footage of former enemies in the same battle(s) of World War II, in both the European and Pacific theaters you will find more genuine feeling toward one another than you would expect if you do not have some experience or personal account from a relative or other person to give you the flavor of it. A similar feeling connects comrades in arms who otherwise find much to dislike in one another. Those who would have killed you and those who would have saved you at the same moment in time, both find more in common with you than is generally given credit.

What Prof. Goldsbury is in my view relating is very important to understanding the meaning of aikido and its ura aspect -- but not in the way that some take it.

I suspect they did too -- or its cultural equivalents. Japanese stoicism only shallowly conceals a deep romanticism.