Japan's Imperial Army
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80. Tobe, Gyakusetsu, 307, quoting Hatano Sumio.
81. Ikuda, Nihon rikugunshi, 193.
82. Usui, Nitchū sensō, 129;Yoshida, Ajia Taiheiyō sensō, 12; Ōe, Sanbō honbu, 200.
83. Miller, Shōwa tennō dokuhakuroku, 69.
84. Ike, Japan’s Decision, 200; “Jūichi gatsu tsuitachi renraku kaigi jōkyō” [Circumstances of the November 1 (1941) liaison conference] in Sugiyama memo, 1: 385; Daihon’ei kimitsu nisshi, 351.
85. Ike, Japan’s Decision, 208–239; Ikuda, Nihon rikugunshi, 193; Suekuni Masao and Koike I’ichi, eds., Kaigunshi jiten [Historical dictionary of the Japanese navy] (Kokusho kankōkai, 1985), 62.
86. Kisaka, Taiheiyō sensō, 218–220.
87. Sugiyama memo, 1: 544.
Chapter 11. The Asia-Pacific War
1. I am indebted to Dr. Stanley L. Falk for these observations.
2. YoshidaYutaka, Ajia Taiheiyō sensō [The Asia-Pacific war] (Iwanami shinsho, 2007), 86.
3. Yoshida Yutaka and Mori Shigeki Sensō no Nihonshi [Warfare in Japanese history] 23, Ajia Taiheiyō sensō [The Asia-Pacific war] (Yoshikawa kūbunkan, 2007), 109; Ikuda, Nihon rikugunshi, 199. In December 1941 the Japanese army had fifty-one divisions; twenty-seven were engaged in China operations, thirteen were stationed in Manchuria to deter the USSR, and the remaining eleven were homeland strategic reserve, including those positioned in Korea. Five of the strategic reserve units were newly organized and not rated combat ready.
4. Douglas Gillison, Australia in the War of 1939–1945, series 3, vol. 1, Royal Australian Air Force 1939–1942 (Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1962), 224; Kimata Shirō, Rikugun kōkū senshi: Mare sakusen kara Okinawa tokkō made [A history of the army air force: From the Malaya operation to the Okinawa special attack corps] (Keizai ōraisha, 1982),10–11.
5. See Stanley L. Falk, March of Death (New York: W. W. Norton, 1962) for an excellent account of the Japanese treatment of prisoners of war captured in the Philippines in early 1942. I am again indebted to Dr. Falk for his comments on this section.
6. Northern Burma had also continued a formal relation of allegiance to China even after the British had colonized the country.
7. Kurogawa, Gunji senryaku, 213.
8. Ikuda, Nihon rikugunshi, 201.
9. Morimatsu, Daihon’ei, 227–229.
10. Kisaka, Taiheiyō sensō, 123.
11. I am again grateful to Dr. Falk for these insights.
12. Usui, Nitchū sensō, 144–146.
13. Hata, Taiheiyō sensō roku daikessen (jō) [Six decisive battles of the Pacific war], Sakugo no senjō [Mistaken battlegrounds] (Chūkō bunko, 1998), 93.
14. Daihon’ei seifu renraku kaigi [Imperial general headquarters and government liaison conference], “Sekai jōsei handan” [Estimate of the world situation], November 7, 1942, in Sanbō honbu, ed., Sugiyama memo, ge [General Sugiyama Hajime’s memoranda, 2] Meiji hyakunenshi sōsho [Official history of the Meiji centennial] 17, (Hara shobō, 1967), 161.
15. Kisaka, Taiheiyō sensō, 157–158; Hata, Tōsuiken, 174.
16. Hata, Sakugo, 118; Sugiyama Hajime and Nagano Osamu, “Yōhei jikō ni kanshi sōjō” [Report to the throne on operational troop matters], December 31, 1942, in Yamada Akira, Sensō shidō, 249–251; see also ibid., 121, 124.
17. Kurogawa, Gunji senryaku, 218.
18. Ibid., 216–219.
19. Ōe, Tennō no guntai, 293; Kojima Noboru, Taiheiyō sensō (ge) [The Pacific war, 2] (Chūkō shinsho, 1966), 35.
20. John W. Dower, War without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (New York: Pantheon, 1986), 231 quote;Yoshida, Ajia Taiheiyō sensō, 137;Yamamuro, Gunshin, 322.
21. Kojima, Taiheiyō sensō, 59; Rikusen gakkai, Kindai sensōshi gaisetsu, shiryō hen, 172, table 5-3-3; Ikuda, Nihon rikugunshi, 210, 213.
22. Kurogawa, Gunji senryaku, 223.
23. Ikuda, Nihon rikugunshi, 213.
24. Kurogawa, Gunji senryaku, 224.
25. Yoshida, Ajia Taiheiyō sensō, 112.
26. Kisaka, Taiheiyō sensō, 368; Tobe, Gyakusetsu, 328. As for the officer corps, 35 percent were regulars in 1939, and 19 percent were regulars in 1945. By 1945 the army was running short of officers, especially captains. It had an overall officer shortfall of around 25 percent. Kindai sensōshi gaisetsu, 38.
27. Ikuda, Nihon rikugunshi, 215, 229;Yamaguchi, Rikugun to kaigun, 118.
28. Kojima, Taiheiyō sensō, 119.
29. Joyce C. Lebra, Japanese-Trained Armies in Southeast Asia (New York: Columbia University Press, 1977), 24–36.
30. Kojima, Taiheiyō sensō, 131–132; Arthur Swinson, Four Samurai (London: Hutchinson, 1968), 121.
31. Swinson, Four Samurai, 125–126; Louis Allen, Burma: The Longest War 1941–45 (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984), 166.
32. Kojima, Taiheiyō sensō, 117.
33. Allen, Burma, 164 and n1.
34. Yamauchi died of tuberculosis two months after his relief. Yanagida was retired then recalled to command the Port Arthur fortress. A court-martial declared Satō mentally unstable and seconded him to the reserves. Mutaguchi was seconded to the reserves but during Japan’s final mobilization was recalled to command the military preparatory academy. Kawabe was transferred to Tokyo, promoted general, and made commander of the combined air forces.
35. Fujiwara Akira, Uejini shita eiyūtachi [Starving heroes] (Aoki shoten, 2001), 3, 121; Hata Ikuhiko, “Dai niji seikai taisen no Nihonjin senbotsusha zō” [An image of the Japanese war dead in the second world war] Gunji shigaku 42:2 (September 2006), 11.
36. Kojima, Taiheiyō sensō, 179–180.
37. Ibid., 182–183; Kurogawa, Gunji senryaku, 227.
38. Daihon’ei rikugunbu sensō shidō han [Imperial general headquarters, army department, war guidance section], Kimitsu sensō nisshi (ge) [Confidential war diary, 2] (Kinseisha, 1998), 552, entry for July 1, 1944.
39. Haruko Taya Cook, “The Myth of the Saipan Suicides,” MHQ 7:3 (Spring 1995), 12–19.
40. Morimatsu, Daihon’ei, 233–238.
41. Kojima, Taiheiyō sensō, 230, 233.
42. Saikō sensō shidō kaigi [Supreme council for the direction of the war], “Sekai jōsei handan,” August 19, 1944; and “Kongō toru beki sensō shidō no teikō” [Outline for the future course of war guidance], August 19, 1944: both Sanbō honbu, ed., Haisen no kiroku [Record of defeat] Meiji hyakunenshi sōsho [Official history of the Meiji centennial] 38 (Hara shobō, 1979), 49–52 and 55–57, respectively. See also Kojima, Taiheiyō sensō, 237.
43. Mori and Yoshida, Ajia Taiheiyō sensō, 73; Shirai Akio, Nihon rikugun kunren no kenkyū [A study of the Japanese army’s doctrine] (Fūyō shobō, 2003), 149–150.
44. Kobe Tatsu, “Nanpō sakusen ni okeru rikugun no kyōiku kunren” [Army education and doctrine for southern region operations], Kenkyū shiryō, 85 RO-3H mimeo, 1985, 63; Hata Ikuhiko, “Taiheiyō sensō makki ni okeru Nihon rikugun no tai Bei sempō—mizugiwa ka kikyu ka” [The Japanese army’s tactics against the Americans in the latter stages of the Pacific war—waterline defense or attrition?] Nihon hōgaku 73:2 (December 2007), 703–704.
45. TamuraYōzō, Gyokusai Biaku shima [Annihilation at Biak island] (Kōjinsha, 2004), 133, 186–187; Takahashi Fumio, Dai jūyoun shidan shi [History of the 14th division] (Utsunomiya: Shimano shimbunsha, 1990), 325–328, 350.
46. Kondō Shintsuke, “Taiheiyō sensō ni okeru Nihon rikugun taijōriku sakusen shisō,” Kenkyū shiryō, 92 RO-4H, mimeo, 1992, 131. A first draft was completed in November 1943. Shirai, Nihon rikugun ‘senkun’ no kenkyū, 215. A fifth edition of the infantry manual was issued in 1940.
47. Kondō, “Taiheiyō sensō ni okeru Nihon rikugun taijōriku,” 135.
48. For definitive accounts of the Leyte campaign see Stanley L. Falk, Decision at Leyte (New York: W. W. Norton, 1966), and Ōoka Shōhei, Reite sakusen [Military record of the Leyte operation] (Chūō kōronsha, 1966).
49. Yoshida and Mori, Ajia Taiheiyō sensō, 202; Usui, Nitchū sensō, 163.
51. Kuroha Kiyotaka, Nitchū jūgonen sensō (ge) [The fifteen-year Sino-Japanese war, 3] (Kyōikusha, 1979), 266; Hsi-sheng Ch’i, “The Military Dimension, 1942–1945,” in James C. Hsiung and Steven I. Levine, eds., China’s Bitter Victory: The War with Japan, 1937–1945 (M. E. Sharpe, 1992), 180, table 3.
52. Daihon’ei rikukaigunbu [Imperial general headquarters, army and navy departments], “Teikoku rikukaigun sakusen tairyō” [Outline of imperial army and navy operations], January 20, 1945, in Takagi Sōkichi, Taiheiyō kaisenshi [A history of the naval war in the Pacific, rev. ed.] (Iwanami shinsho, 1977), document appendix no. 24, 231–233.
53. Saikō sensō shido kaigi hōkoku, “Sekai jōsei handan” [Estimate of the world situation], February 15, 1945, in Sanbō honbu, Haisen no Kiroku, 230–232.
54. Cited in Kumiko Kakehashi, So Sad to Fall in Battle (New York: Presidio, 2007), 186.
55. Hara Takeshi, “Okinawasen ni okeru kenmin no kengai sōkai” [The wartime evacuation of Okinawans], in Gunjishi gakkai, ed., Dai ni ji sekai taisen (3), 131.
56. Ibid., 124–125.
57. Kisaka, Taiheiyō sensō, 378.
58. Kojima Noboru, Shikkan (jō) [The commanders, 1] (Bunshun būnkō, 1974), 129; Kisaka, Taiheiyō sensō, 378.
59. In August 2005 an 88-year-old former army major who commanded the garrison on one island and the 77-year-old younger brother of a deceased army captain who commanded the Tokashiki garrison filed suit, claiming that they issued no such orders and their actions had been intentionally misrepresented. A court rejected their defamation lawsuit in March 2008.
60. Tobe Ryōichi, et al., Shippai no honshitsu [The essence of defeat] (Chūkō bunko, 1991), 236, 242.
61. Maeda and Kuwada, Chizu to deta, plate 62.
62. Richard B. Frank, Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire (New York: Random House, 1999), 71 quote; Thomas M. Huber, Japan’s Battle of Okinawa, April–June 1945, Leavenworth Paper No. 18 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1990), 120.
63. Handō Kazutoshi, Shikkikan to Sanbō [Commanders and staff officers] (Bungei shūnjū, 1992), 249; Kimitsu sensō nisshi, 671, entry for February 20, 1945.
64. Kimitsu sensō nisshi (ge), 696, entry for April 4, 1945.
65. Daihon’ei rikukaigunbu, “Daihon’ei ni okeru hondo sakusen jumbi keishō” [Imperial general headquarters’ plans for preparations for homeland defense], April 8, 1945, in Takagi, Taiheiyō kaisenshi, document appendix No. 26, 236–239; Frank, Downfall, 110–113.
66. Gozen kaigi [Imperial conference], “Kongō torubeki sensō shidō no konpon tairyō” [Fundamental outline of future wartime guidance], June 8, 1945; “Seikai jōsei handan,” June 8, 1945; and “Kokuryoku no genjō” [The present state of national power], June 8, 1945; all in Sanbō honbu, Haisen no kiroku, 266–270.
67. Frank, Downfall, chapters 11, 12, and 13, has a thorough discussion of the Japanese buildup and expectations.
68. Yoshida, Ajia Taiheiyō sensō, 139; Coox, Nomonhan, 1059; Gomikawa Shumpei, Shinwa no hōkai [The collapse of a myth] (Bungei bunko, 1991), 235; Edward J. Drea, “Missing Intentions: Japanese Intelligence and the Soviet Invasion of Manchuria, 1945,” Military Affairs (April 1984), 66–70.
69. Takamae Eiji, The Allied Occupation of Japan (New York: Continuum, 2002), 111.
70. Hata Ikuhiko, Handō Kazutoshi, Hosaka Masayuki, and Sakamoto Takao, Shōwashi no ronten [Disputed points of Shōwa history] (Bunshun shinsho, 2000), 201.
71. Donald G. Gillin and Charles Etter, “Staying on: Japanese Soldiers and Civilians in China, 1945–1949,” Journal of Asian Studies 42:3 (May 1983), 497–500.
72. See Ronald H. Spector, In the Ruins of Empire: The Japanese Surrender and the Battle for Postwar Asia (New York: Random House, 2007).
Chapter 12. Epilogue
1. Ōtani Keijirō, Shōwa kempeishi [A history of the military police during the Showa era] (Tokyo: Misuzu shobō, 1966), 532. Major Ishiwara had participated in the murder of the 1st Division commander on the night of August 14–15.
2. Hata, Tōsuiken, 178.
3. I am indebted to Dr. Robert H. Berlin for this insight. My reference is to Takehiko Yoshihashi, Conspiracy at Mukden: The Rise of the Japanese Military (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1963).
4. Senjō shinri chōsa hōkoku [Report of the investigation of battlefield psychology], “Senjō shinri chōsa ni motozuku shōken” [Opinions based on the study of battlefield psychology], 1939, JDA; Kawano Hitoshi, “Gyokusai” no guntai, “senhen” no guntai [An army for annihilation; an army for returning alive] (Kōdansha sensho mechiya, 2001), 174–175.
5. Kawano Hitoshi, “Nitchū sensō ni okeru sentō no rekishishakaigakuteki kōsatsu” [A historical sociology of combat in the Sino-Japanese war: combat morale in the 37th division], Gunjishi Gakkai, ed., Nitchū sensō no shosō [Various aspects of the Sino-Japanese war] special issue of Gunjishi 33:2–3, 197–216.
6. Rikugun hohei gakkō [Army infantry school], Tai-Shinagun sentōhō no kenkyū [A study of tactical principles against the Chinese army], January 1933, JDA.
7. Tobe, Gyakusetsu, 334, table; Ōhama Tetsuya and Ozawa Ikurou, Teikoku rikukaigun jiten [A dictionary of the imperial army and navy] (Dōdaisha, 1984), 19–20, tables 8 and 9.
8. Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland (NewYork: HarperPerennial, 1993), 188–189.
9. Cited in Robert Hanyok, “Wartime COMINT Records in the National Archives about Japanese War Crimes in the Asia and Pacific Theaters, 1978–1997,” in Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group, ed., Researching JapaneseWar Crimes (Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 2006), 135.
10. War Dept. ACS, G-2, “MAGIC”—Diplomatic Summary, No. 1269, September 15, 1945, 11.
11. Edward J. Drea, “Introduction,” in Researching Japanese War Crimes, 7. Among the B and C class war criminals were 173 Taiwanese and 148 Koreans.
12. In late 1949 the Soviet Union tried several members of Unit 731 that had been captured during the Manchurian campaign in August 1945.
13. Kindai sensōshi gaisetsu, shiryō hen, 38; Ōe, Tennō no guntai, 51. Five navy admirals also committed suicide.
14. GHQ, USAFP, MIS, GS, ULTRA Intelligence Summary, No. 128, Aug 19/20, 1945.
15. Takemae, Allied Occupation of Japan, 110; Hosaka, Shōwa rikugun no kenkyū, 463; Maeda and Kuwada, Chizu to deta, plate 67.
16. Weinberg, A World at Arms, 894.
Selected Bibliography
Japanese-Language Books (all published in Tokyo, Japan)
Amemiya Shoichi. Kindai Nihon no sensō shidō [Modern Japan’s wartime leadership]. Yo-shikawa Kōbunkan, 1997.
Bōeichō, Bōeikenshūjō, senshibu, ed. Senshi sōsho [Official military history]. Vol. 8, Daihon’ei rikugunbu [Imperial general headquarters], part 1. Asagumo shimbunsha, 1967.
———.Vol. 27, Kantōgun [The Kwantung army], part 1. Asagumo shimbunsha, 1969.
———. Vol. 51, Hondo kessen jumbi [Preparations for the defense of the homeland], part 1. Asagumo shimbunsha, 1971.
———. Vol. 57, Hondo kessen jumbi [Preparations for the defense of the homeland], part 2. Asagumo shimbunsha, 1972.
———.Vol. 73, Kantōgun [The Kwantung army], part 2. Asagumo shimbunsha, 1974.
———. Vol. 86, Shina jihen rikugun sakusen [Army operations during the China incident], part 1. Asagumo shimbunsha, 1975.
———. Vol. 89, Shina jihen rikugun sakusen [Army operations during the China incident], part 2. Asagumo shimbunsha, 1976.
———. Vol. 102, Rikukaigun nenpyō [A chronology of the army and navy]. Asagumo shim-bunsha, 1980.
Dōdai kurabu kōenshu, ed. Shōwa gunji hiwa [Secret tales of the Shōwa military]. 3 vols. Dōdai keizai kōndankai, 1997.
End�
� Yoshinobu. Kindai Nihon guntai kyōikushi kenkyū [A study of modern Japan’s military education history]. Aoki shoten, 1994.
Fujimura Michio. Nisshin sensō [The Sino-Japanese war]. Iwanami shinsho, 1973.
Fujioka Kenjirō, ed. Nihon rekishi chimei jiten [Geographical dictionary of Japanese history]. Tokyotō shuppan, 1981.
Fujiwara Akira. Chūgoku sensen jūgunki [Record of wartime service on the China front]. Ōtsuki shoten, 2002.
———. Nihon gendaishi taikei [Systematized Japanese contemporary history]. Gunjishi [Military history]. Tōyō keizai shinpōsha, 1961.
———. Nihon gunjishi [A military history of Japan]. 2 vols. Nihon hyōronsha, 1987.
———. Shōwa no rekishi [A history of the Shōwa reign].Vol. 5, Nitchū zenmen sensō [Japan and China’s total war]. Shogakkan, 1982.
———. Uejini shita eiyūtachi [Starving heroes]. Aoki shoten, 2001.
Furuya Tetsuo. Nichi-Ro sensō [The Russo-Japanese war]. Chūkō shinsho, 1966.
———. Nitchū sensō [The Sino-Japanese war]. Iwanami shinsho, 1989.
Gaimusho, ed. Nihon gaikō nenpyō narabi ni shuyō bunsho [A chronology of Japan’s diplomacy, with major documents]. Meiji hyakunenshi sōsho [Official history of the Meiji centennial], vols. 1 and 2. Hara shobō, 1965.
Gomikawa Junpei. Gozen kaigi [The imperial conferences]. Bunshūn bunkō, 1984.
———. Nomonhan [Nomonhan]. 2 vols. Bunshūn bunko, 1978.
———. Shinwa no hōkai [The collapse of a myth]. Bungei bunko, 1991.
Gunjishi gakkai, ed. Kimitsu sensō nisshi [Confidential war diary of imperial general headquarters]. 2 vols. Kinseisha, 1998.
———. Nichi-Ro sensō [The Russo-Japanese war]. 2 vols. Kinseisha, 2005.
Handō Kazutoshi. Nomonhan no natsu [Nomonhan summer]. Bungei shūnjū, 1998.
———. Shikkan to sanbō [Commanders and staff officers]. Bunshūn bunko, 1992.
———. Shōwashi, 1926–1945 [A history of the Shōwa reign, 1926–1945]. Heibonsha, 2004.
Hara Kiyoshi. Boshin sensō [The Boshin war]. Hanawa shobō, 1963.
HaraTakeshi. Meijiki kokudo bōeishi [A history of homeland defense during the Meiji period]. Kinseisha, 2002.