# How Do Flowers Kill? - The Japanese Emperor and Modern Dictators

Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, an expert on symbols of Japanese identity, compares the representations of the Meiji emperor of Japan with those of Lenin, Stalin and Hitler in a lecture titled "How Do Flowers Kill? -- The Japanese Emperor and Modern Dictators." Using examples from modern Japan, Germany and the Soviet Union, Ohnuki-Tierney explores how different traditions use symbols in creating and expressing political, religious, and symbolic power. The lecture contrasts the symbolism of cherry blossoms as used by the Japanese state during the modern period with that of roses, which were extensively deployed by all three dictators in order to illustrate how the words and symbols through which humans try to communicate do not always ensure understanding among people.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2009
- By: Library Of Congress
- Genres: Education, Religion
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2021688269/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/2021688269?play=1)