Its not that surprising if you think about it, the concepts that ultimately formed Bushido had centuries to reinforce that a warrior does not surrender and those that do are little more than honourless animals . By the 1930's the one of the most famous and the primary text used in the teaching of the samurai code was the Hagakure, written by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, which was printed around 1715 if memory serves. The core principle of what was written in the book was that being resolved to die would give rise to a higher state of being.
“Bushido is realized in the presence of death. This means choosing death whenever there is a choice between life and death. There is no other reasoning.”
This means that obedience without question and not surrendering was hammered into their pre war armed forces from the start of their training and also explains why kamikaze attacks were so common and in the case of this officer why his superior had to come and order him to stand down.
