Patriotism

            
             Yukio Mishima could not have chosen a better title for his story, "Patriotism." Mishimas characters demonstrate his idea of patriotism. In the story, Lieutenant Shinji Takeyama and his young wife, Reiko becomes martyrs. .
             The importance of the information in the first sentence of the story is indicated by the great length of the sentence as well as its placement in the story. First mentioned is the reason the Lieutenant commits suicide, his patriotism, and next that he does commit suicide. Death becomes the ultimate test of patriotism. The second sentence recounts Reikos suicide. Its placement in the story as second does not necessarily render it less important, but instead subsidiary. .
             Next the reasons they commit suicide are reiterated as the text of their "farewell" notes, drawing the comparison of love for ones country to the love in a new marriage. .
             The couple is referred to as dedicated, heroic, youthful, and beautiful. Yukio Mishima values youth, and the couple represents all that is beautiful to him. Mishima goes to great length to describe their perfection thus inferring his ideals. .
             Shinji and Reikos suicides are so venerable, according to Mishima that "the gods themselves weep." In the Lieutenants house, the god shelf is under the stairs. The gods and the leaders of Japan represented on this shelf are held on the same level to Mishima. This creates the comparison of reverence to ones gods to reverence for ones country. The suicides are performed upstairs, above the god shelf, giving the suicides superior status. Mishima also describes the relationship between the two as supernatural. They are above nature and the gods. "For Reiko had never, even to herself, thought of those soaring joys of the flesh as mere pleasure." It is more than that. "A hot moistness of the flesh which defied the snows," it is described as. Furthermore, the Lieutenant sees the consummation of their flesh and the sincerity of his patriotism as parts of the same thing.