I recently noticed that many people in North America think that the Japanese expression banzai is a war cry. Even respected English dictionaries such as Webster say that banzai is a Japanese war cry.
This is very strange, since in the Japanese language banzai is not a war cry at all.
Literally, banzai means ten thousand years (of life). People cry out banzai in happy occasions to express their happiness. Or they shout banzai wishing long life of the people who are being congratulated. The following are a couple examples of how people banzai in Japan:
But I understand why non-Japanese people in the Western world think it's a war cry. During the WW2, Japanese soldiers shouted banzai when they were dying. In that context, what they meant was `long live (the Emperor or the homeland)', and usually these were their last words.
So, in my opinion, saying banzai is a war cry is like saying that the phrase `God bless America' is a war cry.
In the early December of 2001, a large number of Japanese people banzaied to celebrate the birth of a new princess of Japan. If banzai is a war cry, why would they do it in such a positive occasion?