To a warrior, life without honor is worse than death. A warrior who acts with dishonor on the battlefield will be ostracized by fellow warriors and many times bring disgrace upon his family for generations. A warrior will fight to the death because it is an honorable thing to do.

Jeremy Borda joined the Navy as an underage seaman and, through hard work, dedication, and perseverance, became an admiral and the Chief of Naval Operations (the highest position in the Navy) in the early 1990s. Throughout his career, he earned a multitude of military decorations and medals. In 1995, after hearing that a reporter was to interview him in the afternoon about one ribbon he was wearing that his critics said he was not authorized to wear, Admiral Borda went home for lunch, went to his back yard, sat on a bench, and killed himself with a firearm. Later investigation showed that the error in wearing the medal was not his fault. Even though his death served no useful purpose, it did show the spirit of a true warrior who chose death over dishonor.

Seppuku,"stomach cutting" or "belly slicing," also known in English as hara-kiri (a term regarded as vulgar by the Japanese), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. Seppuku was a key part of bushido, the code of samurai warriors. It as an act of bravery used to avoid surrender, capture, or shame. Seppuku could used to demonstrate loyalty toward one's deceased lord or husband, to show one's disagreement with their daimyo (feudal lords), performed upon the order of their daimyo, or it could be permitted as an alternative to execution. Sometimes a daimyo was called upon to perform seppuku as a part of a peace agreement to weaken the defeated clan sand cease resistance.

Seppuku meant a samurai could die with his reputation intact or even enhanced; it could free the samurai's family from any culpability from his acts. Since the main point of the act was to restore or protect one's honor as a warrior, those who did not belong to the samurai caste were never ordered or expected to commit seppuku.

Samurai women could only commit seppuku with permission. The methods of seppuku for men and women are different. Men cut open their midsections, but the women would cut their throats, in version of seppuku called jigai. The difference was probably not to make it easier for women to die, but because of a reverence for the womb where all human life begins. The woman's legs were tied together to ensure a "decent" posture in death.

The first known Samurai to commit seppuku in a ritualized manner was Minamoto Tametomo, a samurai turned outlaw after being banished from service. He eluded capture for quite some time, but in 1170 an overwhelming force was sent to capture him. When he saw he could not win or escape, Tametomo knelt to the ground and cut out his own intestines rather than surrender, perhaps as a sign of contempt for his opponents.