Reflecting his view of Islam, in The Rising Sun, Kamil presented Shintoism simply as a means for the Japanese state to unify the Japanese people around a common loyalty to the Emperor rather than a faith in its own right.[10] Kamil wrote he did not believe that the Emperors of Japan were gods, but he felt having the Japanese people worship their emperor as a living god was very useful towards uniting the Japanese people as one, arguing that the Japanese were never divided in the way that the Egyptians were because almost all Japanese regarded their emperor as a god who could not be disobeyed.[10] Kamil did not understand the distinction between State Shintoism which gloried the Emperors of Japan as living gods vs. folk Shintoism which had existed in Japan for thousands of years, seeing all Shintoism as State Shintoism.[10] The Japanese always used the term Mikado ("high gate") to refer to the Emperor as his title and name were considered to be too sacred to be uttered by ordinary people, and Kamil did not understand the term Mikado was only a metonym for the Japanese monarchy.[10] Kamil wrote that it was terrible for Shintoism to decline as Shintoism had "glorified the Mikado's forefathers and ancestors and respected the sacred Japanese origin, was scorned by the daimyo and was replaced by Buddhism and Confucianism to kill indigenous sentiments and wipe out patriotic affection in the soul".[10] Kamil wrote with admiration how State Shintoism unified the Japanese people into one, declaring: "The spirit of change and national pride crept among all [the Japanese], after which the individual who had believed that his village was the whole country began to realise that the entire kingdom was a country for everyone; and that no matter how remote its parts or isolated its regions, any foreign intervention in the meanest of its villages would disturb its peace and likewise hurt them".[9]