A literary movement in Japan founded by the critic Yojuro Yasuda. Jun Eto, a scholar with an interest in the Nippon Roman-Ha described the movement to Mishma biographer Henry Scott Stokes as follows:
"They believed in the value of destruction and self-destruction. They valued the 'purity of sentiment,' though they never defined this;and they called for the 'preservation of the nation' by purging selfish party politicians and zaibatsu[business] leaders. They believed that self destruction would be followed by reincarnation, linked mysteriously with the benevolence of the Emperor. The Japanese, they considered,were superior to all other peoples."
From The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima by Henry Scott Stokes page 71.
The Japanese military leaders during the Second World War encouraged the movement because of its strong nationalistic ideology and its support of its aggressive foreign policy.The Nippon Roman-Ha believed in the holiness of Japan's war with the Allied powers and there was a strong feeling among many of its members that to die in the service of Japan during the war was the highest ideal that a person could aspire to in their lifetime.