Was the name for the Shōwa era a voluntary pun?


According to dictionaries, the WA 和 in 昭和 has both the meaning of peace,
harmonious and Japan, japanese (although mostly as the first kanji of a
compound, such as in 和語). So I wonder how Japanese of those times perceived
the announcement and the phrase.

Did it carry immediately a meaning of (luminous) Peace _for Japan_ , or was
the national or identity element not present for a native speaker?




Whether the emperor meant it as a "pun" (or something similar) is pretty hard
to know. But it is doubtful.

昭和 means harmony for the same reason that 和 is associated to Japan: in both
cases, 和 represents the very specifically-Japanese conception of "social
harmony" (which is different enough from the western word, for many scholars
to use "Wa", even in English texts). It is not a coincidence, but it predates
our era by a good 13 centuries.

The use of 和 in the spelling of 大和【やまと】([old name for
Japan](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E5%92%8C)) has a long and
complex history, but the gist of it is that it was picked as a replacement for
a previous kanji used by the Chinese
([倭](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%80%AD)), which the Japanese did not find
flattering. 和 did have a positive association with a philosophical concept
that the Japanese considered at the heart of their culture, hence the
entanglement and how it became to be both "harmony" and "japan".

To answer your question of whether it carried a meaning of Harmony
_specifically for Japan_ : yes, **in a way** , since "Wa" **is** the Japanese
conception of harmony, and foreigners (particularly of this era) would
definitely not be expected to grasp its meaning, let alone have it.




Whether the emperor meant it as a "pun" (or something similar) is pretty hard
to know. But it is doubtful.

昭和 means harmony for the same reason that 和 is associated to Japan: in both
cases, 和 represents the very specifically-Japanese conception of "social
harmony" (which is different enough from the western word, for many scholars
to use "Wa", even in English texts). It is not a coincidence, but it predates
our era by a good 13 centuries.

The use of 和 in the spelling of 大和【やまと】([old name for
Japan](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E5%92%8C)) has a long and
complex history, but the gist of it is that it was picked as a replacement for
a previous kanji used by the Chinese
([倭](http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%80%AD)), which the Japanese did not find
flattering. 和 did have a positive association with a philosophical concept
that the Japanese considered at the heart of their culture, hence the
entanglement and how it became to be both "harmony" and "japan".

To answer your question of whether it carried a meaning of Harmony
_specifically for Japan_ : yes, **in a way** , since "Wa" **is** the Japanese
conception of harmony, and foreigners (particularly of this era) would
definitely not be expected to grasp its meaning, let alone have it.

