Click the arrow below to listen to the podcast. HOWARD BLOOM--“What compelled soldiers run into machine-gun fire during the First World War? How did kamikaze pilots come to believe their actions were warranted? Blood, sacrifice and so much more are discussed with special guest Richard A. Koenigsberg.”   Richard A. Koenigsberg is Director of the FOUNDATION FOR THE STUDY OF POLITICAL PSYCHOSIS and author of:   Nations Have the Right to Kill  Hitler's Ideology Howard Bloom is founder of THE HOWARD BLOOM INSTITUTE He is the author of: The Muhammad Code   Click the links above for information on how to purchase either of the books. For information on purchasing The Muhammad Code, click the link above.

Responding to Bloom’s suggestion that violence is a bonding mechanism because killing is exhilarating, Koenigsberg suggested that the essence of warfare, rather, is the desire to sacrifice one's life for an object conceived as greater than the self. Warfare motivated by will to self-destruction. 

Koenigsberg reminded listeners that soldiers involved in killing during The First World War did not often see their victims. They launched artillery shells and shot machine guns, rarely seeing the enemies that died as a result of the actions they had taken. Soldiers were not motivated by enjoyment of bloodshed.

Koenigsberg discussed the ideology of sacrificial death at the core of civilization. 

For Hitler it was Germany; for the Aztecs it was the Sun God; for martyrs in the Middle East, it is Allah.

Koenigsberg and Bloom explained how Japan’s 1905 victory in the Russo-Japanese War influenced European military leaders and strategies that guided the First World War, which may be summed up as "the offensive at all costs." Europeans admired the Japanese willingness to give their lives. Japanese leaders explained to their soldiers that the goal of entering battle was not necessarily to "win," but to have the honor of dying for the Emperor.

The willingness to die for Japan was an absolute, not "victory," 

Harry Truman fulfilled this Japanese wish.