Asahi Shimbun: What is the meaning of `honorable death'?

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What is the meaning of `honorable death'?

When former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto visited Britain, France and Germany to explain Japan's plans to dispatch Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to Iraq, all three countries received him with courtesy. The leaders expressed their condolences for Katsuhiko Oku and Masamori Inoue, the two Japanese diplomats who were killed in Iraq. In particular, in Britain, where Oku had studied and worked, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw straightened himself up to pay his respects and offer his condolences. Hashimoto was grateful for the tribute shown to Japan.

That is all the more reason he felt uncomfortable with the indescribable ``trifling'' atmosphere of the funeral jointly organized by the Foreign Ministry and the families of the deceased.

He found something was lacking.

``I felt an absence of boiling chagrin and anger and the will to overcome such feelings in order to carry on and accomplish what those men set out to do,'' Hashimoto said.

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What is the meaning of `honorable death'?

A different perspective as to how the Japanese look at those who died.