The concept of not surrendering: What are the reasons?

This answer was done in a discussion on what caused the Japanese psyche on war and death to change. See my other post regarding conscription service for other references. This post will not be a Q&A but a transcirpt of discussion.

However, I think you place a little bit too much emphasis on the sort of propaganda that young children read, and in doing so you ignore some certain other aspects leading to Japanese militarization. For instance, you mention how the Great Depression was a major impetus towards causing Japanese men to join the military. If anything, Japan got off quite mildly compared to the rest of the world, and Japanese exports were booming in the early 1930s. I think you may be conflating how the poor former samurai families who were essentially given a plot of land and kicked out of the social order ended up joining the military in droves as a result of their change in economic status with the Great Depression. If anything, the 1923 Kanto Earthquake has a bigger impact on the Japanese psyche than the Depression.

Another detail worth mentioning was the growing racial animosity between the Chinese and the Japanese. Events like the Tungchow Mutiny intensified these tensions, especially as unilaterally portrayed as they were in the Japanese press at the time. The fanaticism mentioned in the original question-which I would also interpret as a "willingness to fight to the death" I think was also influenced by Japanese military propaganda that surrendering to the Allies would result in torture, mutilation, and death at their hands-a not entirely unjustified allegation given the Allied refusal to take Japanese prisoners and take "trophies"-specifically, bones and skulls-of dead Japanese soldiers.

Yes, I do put probably more than a little more emphasis on the propaganda. And I love songs more than anyone!

(On a sidenote, my first answer was gone when I mistakenly logged out... I swear it had more information!)

But one important note is that the propaganda itself started in the 1890s. If you count the kids as teaching these propaganda, and then take a guess at how old people will be when they grew up. By the 1930s you already have a population that from 1-50 that went through the propaganda.

Now, whether this had a greater effect on the change in the attitude, or lesser compared to the Kantou Earthquake. I think it can be up for debate. And I am saying this because there is no definite study nor can there be, there was no such thing as a opinion poll back then.

What I do agree with you though, is how the growing animosity between the Japanese public and the Chinese public had with each other that probably more than helped fuel the sense of urgency.

As you mentioned, events such as the Tungchow incident, Shanghai monk incident(Orchestrated by some Army officers), the Hankou Incident, and even before then the Boxer rebellion shaped the fear, and that fear was especially evident on newspapers.

On April 4th, 1927. The title of the event on Asahi Newspaper was the following

暴民襲来して掠奪暴行を恣にす

Rioters attack and pillage!

邦人五名不明、水兵一名惨殺

5 Japanese civilians missing, 1 sailor killed.

在留邦人全部汽船に避難

All Japanese civilians have taken refugee in river boats.

漢口の日本租界襲撃

Japanese leased area in Hankou (Nanking) under attack!

I'd say this incident with combination to the other instances of Chinese attacks was what severely shifted the foreign policies to China than anything else. Even though just a few years ago, Japan returned Shangdong provinces back to China.

Although, on topic I don't think the nations militarization has much to do with the populations view on the war. Japanese militarization is a processed that started in Meiji, had a hiccup in Taisei, and back into full force after the string of incidents in China.

With regards to "willingness" to fight to the death. I think that requires quite a lot more explanation than what you and I gave. The military propaganda on the Americans was in effect, but I would argue that it didn't do as much as people give it credit for. It probably reinforced the thought moreso than planting it. The principle to never surrender was a long tradition.

During the First Sino-Japanese war, the commander Yamagata said this when he was questioned about the treatment to the Qing soldiers.

"敵国側の俘虜の扱いは極めて残忍の性を有す。決して敵の生擒する所となる可からず。寧ろ潔く一死を遂げ、以て日本男児の気象を示し、日本男児の名誉を全うせよ。"

"The brutal treatment to our prisoners is acceptable. If you get captured alive by your enemy, it is better to die a clean death, that is what it means to be a Japanese men, that is the honor that shall be carried by the Japanese men."

This, was said in 1894. If a general officer had this line of though, it should be not hard to think that the soldiers under his command shared his train of thought as well.

Another glimpse into the thinking can be seen during the discussion of the Geneva convention. The Japanese government, although singed both, only approved the ground combat geneva convention. They never approved on the 1929 Geneva convention regarding the prisoners of war.

In government secret document no. 1984-3. The 2 main reason to not approving the treaty of 1929 was given as follows.

1. 帝國軍人ノ觀念ヨリスレバ俘虜タルコトハ豫期セザルニ反シ外國軍人ノ觀念ニ於 テハ必シモ然ラズ從テ本條約ハ形式ハ相互的ナルモ實質上ハ我方ノミ義務ヲ負フ片 務的ノモノナリ

"The Empire's soldier's thinking is to never become a prisoners, the foreigners and their expectation of the treatment is not compatible with our culture. The signing of the treaty, although on it's face equal will not become equal in the face of reality. Our side will have to provide protection only for the enemies, while our enemies will have none to take care for."

1. 俘虜ニ關スル優遇ノ保證ヲ與フルコトトナルヲ以テ例ヘバ敵軍將士ガ其ノ目的達 成後俘虜タルコトヲ期シテ空襲ヲ企圖スル場合ニハ航空機ノ行動半徑倍大シ帝國 トシテ被空襲ノ危險益大トナル等我海軍ノ作戰上不利ヲ招クニ至ル虞アリ

"With the guarantee of protection as a prisoner, our enemies shall be able to complete their air bombing mission and parachute in as a prisoner. Under this assumption our enemies shall have 2 times more operation range using their aircrafts. As we are a island nation, and with reliance to our navy, this will become an un-acceptable condtion for our navy to operate normally."

We only really need to concern ourselves with the first point here, but suffice to say. The culture to not surrender was already so deep into the Japanese Army by 1929 that they denied approving and following the Geneva convention based on that!

On top of all that, I think one speech by our second favorite WW2 leader Tojo needs to get a mention here. In 1941, January, Tojo made a speech that was broadcasted to all soldiers. It was basically a guideline to how to act as frontline soldiers.

Under it, one line stood out for most people in the section of "Life and Death", "生きて虜囚の辱めを受けず, translates into "To not live under the shame of being a live prisoners.". Now, that is your straight up answer on an official guidline. Remember, this speech was written pre The Great Eastern Asia War.

That is not to say everyone believed in it, or followed it. But a significant amount of people did to create peer pressure to it.

A famous example is from Admiral Nagumo during the Battle of Saipan. Under the final "Gyokusai" (Shattering Jade, to suicide) order, he write out a final order to all the garrison troops on Saipan. In there, this line is in there.

"断乎進んで米鬼に一撃を加へ、太平洋の防波堤となりてサイパン島に骨を埋めんとす。戦陣訓に曰く『生きて虜囚の辱を受けず』。勇躍全力を尽して従容として悠久の大義に生きるを悦びとすべし"

"Ignore death and give the American devils ones last hit, let the Island of Saipan become the breakwater of the Pacific that is built up by our bones. Just like what the battlefield teachings said, "Don't live with the shame as a live prisoner" We shall move with our full strength and bravery, and take it in as a joy that our legacy may live on rather than us."

American devil myth may have contributed to the fear, and the treatment of them as prisoners, but death? Death was always a part of the military. Death was worshiped by the military. (Sidenote, I am NOT talking about the Saipan civilian suicides, that has been greatly contributed to the American devil myth.)

There's a reason military personnel referred to each other as being a flower of Sakura since the 1910s. (The song of 同期の桜, Cherry blossoms of the same school year)It is a huge symbolism of the life they wish to be, to become a cherry blossom and bloom with a short and beautiful life.

I agree that this topic is incredibly complex and requires probably a lifetime of research to truly grasp. But I do think that there must have been other factors as well. You cite Yamagata in the First Sino-Japanese War, but along with generals like him there were ones like Admiral Itoh, who released all his prisoners to return home and personally made attempts to get the Qing commander to surrender peacefully after the battle of Weihaiwei. For that matter, I bring up General Honma from the Philippines, the so-called "Butcher of Bataan," who contrary to his nickname, had by most accounts spent a large amount of his time countermanding subordinates' attempts to execute Filipino authorities and US prisoners, attempted to organize camps and food for prisoners, and was finally recalled back to Japan for being too nice to the Filipinos. His subordinates didn't seem to care for what his actions despite being responsible for a relatively swift and unlikely victory.

Your points on the failure of the Japanese government to ratify the Geneva Convention, and of Tojo's quote to fight until the death (given that he never actually saw combat w) as being symptoms of the "no surrender" attitude of the Japanese high command are quite valid, though. I do disagree with Nagumo's intentions in his last suicide order though-the man had been broken by his failure to stop the war, and then his failure at Midway, and it is fairly likely that he wanted to maintain a reputation of fighting to the end, instead of being remembered as a failure, but that hardly detracts from the fact that death was indoctrinated as being a natural thing in the military.

Agreed, the main problem with trying to find an explanation is that it becomes trying to explain human psychology.

Not that there is anything wrong with that inherently, but then it becomes a giant speculation that no one can prove.

At the most what we can do is to see what the culture was at the time, and do an educated guess. Maybe read contemporary newspaper using a fresh mind and act as if you are one of soldiers reading it. (I really love Japanese wartime propagandas.)

But even then, what else can we do? I always had a little issue when I read any comments on sentiments of people or the general population. We cannot know what is going on the persons head, unless they wrote them down, which a lot of them didn't. Or that it got lost in the battle.

Maybe this is one of those questions that at most we can give out the facts, and let people to decide and speculate on what may be the real reason.

The Imperial Japanese Military Justice Organization

So a very interesting question came up in the facebook group I frequent.

Was there a difference between the Army Military police and the Kempeitai? 

Before we can go into the answer, we have to define what is the Army Military Police and the Kenpeitai. If we go to a direct translation, there really isn't any difference because the function of the Military Police and the Kenpeitai is the same between western world and the Japanese Empire.

But I'd like to use this opportunity to talk about the Justice system in the Imperial Japanese Military and a really rarely understood function of the Army Police. Called, 陸軍警守, Army police guard when they were organized under the justice division of the army, called 法務部. The justice division was a army civilian division headed by the Army head prosecutor.

Their function was to serve as assistant to Army prosecutors in apprehending, arresting, escorting suspects that are accused under the Army Martial Law. They are also assigned to assist an Army judge in his daily duties, and including to serve the Army Martial Court as bailiffs. They may also be assigned to assist Kenpeitai in their duties. Their arresting power comes from the martial court, as opposed to the Kenpeitai where it comes from the Army Command structure.

A specially appointed martial court may appoint current enlisted members of the army to act as temporary Army Police Guard with the same duties.

In Taisho 13, they renamed them from Army Police Guard to Army Police, called 陸軍警査.

How rare are they? Rare enough that I don't even have a picture lying around to show you how they looked like.

Under the regulations, they wear the same uniforms as other army enlisted men, except a few differences.

Their cap pipings are white, and their collar branch is white as well, even though they did not officially became a branch until Showa 17. Their shoulder board ranks are also white, with gold metal stars unlike other enlisted men.

They are authorized to carry swords much like other non-infantry branches as well.

However, one big difference is that they were treated as civilian employees. This brings us to discuss a little bit about the use of wordings in the original language. Even in the army you have people that are military, 武官, and people that are more government duties, 文官. The later are treated as other civilian employees of their respective ranks, and are actually translated into civilian employees a lot. This is also something that really gives me a hard time, as I don't know how to best translate the meaning as well.

Which means a lot of nuances, unfortunately, get lost in translation.

In Showa 17, the Justice division was changed to the Justice branch, as a full fledged branch. Their regulation did not change much, beside the use of chest branch colors instead.

And for the prosecutors, judges, they are collectively called Justice Officers, 法務官, they are treated as officers of their respective rank, and follow the regulation of officers, and like enlisted, the white pipings, branch colors.

Under the laws of the Japanese empire, all soldiers must be prosecuted under a martial court, which is the reason of the creation of the whole system.

And just as an aside, the Navy also has a similar system, but due to the reasons that the Navy does not have a dedicated military police branch, they assume most of the duties of the military police in the Navy as well.

The Army and Navy police also do investigations as well, depending on the severity of the case. A good comparison to the modern US military is the CID and the NCIS.

The only difference that there is no TV show about them that is, which is really a shame.

Japanese View of Americans during War Time

What are the Japanese View of Americans immediately before the start of the Greater-Eastern Asian War?

Alright, the answer will need to be expanded to involve pre-war view. Also, please keep in mind that while I will try to explain civilian view, since it is impossible to know what EVERYONE thought. I will focus on how the military command view and a couple books from the time to discuss this.

You are asking about how people viewed the americans, so I am going to focus my answer on that rather than the view on the American government. Which is completely different.

Now that's out of the way. Let's answer part of your question first. How did the Japanese military viewed the Americans WW2? One of the ways we can look at that is to look for a published book by the Japanese army immediately after the outbreak of the Pacific theater.

The book is titled "これだけ読めば戦は勝てる" (Read this and the war can be won). The book was a manual that is suppose to be read by the Japanese soldiers and in it it specifically deals with what kind of people the westerners are (Which, includes Americans.)

The title sounds super cheesy and reads like one of those "Read this and succeed!" type of scam books today, but it's actually a pretty consolidated book on how a solider is suppose to think. (Of course, effects varied on people, just like today.)

Here's an excerpt of the book dealing with Westerners.

"今度の敵は支那軍と比べると、将校は西洋人で下士官は大部分土人であるから、軍隊の上下の精神的団結は全く零だ。 "

Translation:

"The enemy this time, compared to the Chinese army, with their officers being westerners and soldiers and NCOs as natives have a distinct lack of unity."

Now, this is mainly a comment on the British army. But keep in mind, in the early days of war, all western enemy are counted as one big blob of people.

Another quote later in the book.

"戦は勝ちだ、対手は支那兵以下の弱虫で、戦車も飛行機もがたがたの寄せ集めである、勝つに決まっているが、唯如何にしてじょうずに勝つかの問題だけだ。"

"Although in battle they may win, our enemies are cowards that are more afraid than the Chinese soldiers, with the thinking that gathering as much tanks and planes will win them the war. Our victory is assured, the only problem is how to make that win better."

You might think "Wow such arrogance!". Unfortunately for the Japanese military command, they severely underestimated the ability of western allies.

Now, that leads to us to the question "why?". Here's an excerpt from a meeting that happened in March, 1942 of the Japanese military command regarding world situation.

They specifically talked about the Americans here.

"米の人的戦力は物的戦力に伴わざるべし。 "

Americans should use their man power and their material power to respond.

"物的戦力膨大なるも、米の政治経済機構は、今なお国家総力戦に必要なる臨戦態勢を整備しておらず、之が確立には今後幾多の摩擦紛糾を生ずべし。 "

"Even though their war front on the material front will expand, the current situation of American political and social administration is still not ready for total war, they should have a lot of internal conflicts to deal with."

Then the last one, where we finally can take a glimpse on how they viewed the common Americans.

"米英国民は生活程度高く、之が低下はそのすこぶる苦痛とするところにして、戦捷の希望なき戦争継続は社会不安を醸成す。一般に士気の衰退を招来すべし"

"American and British citizens live in high standard quality of life, with the war coming and their living standard dropping there will come a pain with them, once we crushed their hope to achieve victory, social collapse should be imminent and moral in the general population should come.".

As it comes, the Military command viewed the Americans as people who are used to a good life, and thus should not be able to take it when the war drags on and their standard of life goes down. Probably the biggest underestimate in the war.

Now, that should give you the basic reasons. Now, as for how the Americans were viewed. Although I cannot give you a general sense, because let's be honest, generalizing an entire population is stupid, but here are a couple quotes from books from the 1930s.

From the book "アメリカの正体" "The true America". The book was written in 1939, pre-war. Here's the excerpt on Americans.

"米國人の友情―意地惡き姑" "Friendship of Americans, the jealous aunt". In this chapter it specifically describes Americans as the jealous aunt who although befriended a young nephew (Japan), but couldn't let him become something bigger because of jealously.

Here's another book on Americans from the period "アメリカを観て何を教へられたか" "What did I learned from America". The book was written in 1938,

In the book there is a chapter that deals with Americans, specifically an attempt at American psychology.
"America is not a poor country, indeed, in contrary to the Japanese society where we had to work hard and sweat for each meal. They would have problems of where to spend money" The book was actually a book that praises america, but still fails to grasp the basic understanding of American society.

And then we have this book "亜細亜民族と太平洋" "The Asian race and the Pacific". This book was written in 1940, in it it also has a chapter that deals with Americans, this time with a much harsher tone.

"The American, at their very core, are materialistic animals. To them, the only measure of success is how much they can own. They do not have a spiritual culture, or any culture with regards to their nation. To them, the measure on how a country is successful is it's rich and the machines, and the entertainment.

The only thing they value, is if something provides enough entertainment for them. "This thing is useful" "This thing is not useful" is their only thought when considering. If something does not provide immediate use, they would think "Nonsense!"

America does not have culture, nor noble traditions. To them, sports, jazz, love, gambling, gaming, is all they know.

....America is shallow, it is morally corrupt. Americanism is a poison upon their society."

Some of these sentiments do reflect greatly in the civilian population, and add on top of that American racism towards the Japanese. And you get this huge hodgepodge of ridicule, hate, and sense of superiority towards the Americans.

One last quote, this is a book from 1932. "挑むアメリカ" "Challenging America". In there, a chapter deals with Americans again.

I'm going to paraphrase what they say in there.

"Americans are people we must watch. Americans have a deep rooted racism towards us Japanese, For example, in 1924 a survey was conducted on the sentiment towards the anti-japanese law. In the Eastern states it was 5%, in the middle states it was 50%, and in the southern states it was 50%, and in the Western states it was 80%. That is how the Americans truly view us. Not as a friend where they seem to look like, but an enemy."

As you can see, pre-war it was less about the savagery of the Americans, but rather their better quality of life making them weaker willed.

The Draft, an integral part of the Japanese military

How did the Japanese go from being strongly opposed to compulsory service in the military in the 1870s to having the fanatical soldiers seen in WWII?


First of all, the "Blood Tax revolt" was the main opposition over the conscription service.

A little bit of background for those who don't know what the question is asking about. In 1873, the Meiji government began a conscription service. The conscription was applicable to every healthy able bodied 20 year old male, with a 3 year duration. After 3 years you were put into the reserve. There were a lot of exemptions when it was first introduced, in order to ease the people into the concept of military service.

These exemptions were:

1. Head of the household
2. Heir to the household
3. Public Servant
4. Public school student
5. Government-set professional school student
6. Military school student
7. Adopted son of a family.



However, a lot of farmers in west Japan wasn't able to qualify for these exemptions due to several reasons. And on top of that, the unpopular land tax reform introduced a lot of burden onto them, and then the elimination of the class system, bringing a once underclassed people of the butchers and hunters to the same class as the farmers.

It's important to understand that the Blood tax revolt was not just directed against the conscription itself. It was a revolt against the new policies of the Meiji government. Most of those revolt against the conscription service were also revolting against other reform policies.

Remember, the revolts happened right before the Satsuma Rebellion. Which meant the people that were against it thought no one in the Meiji government values tradition anymore.

To quote the leader of the revolt in the province of Okayama, Hihou Moutarou.

"徴兵・地券・学校・屠牛・斬髪・穢多ノ称呼御廃止反対”

Translate in to "Against conscription! Against land reform! Against new education system! Against butchering of cows and cutting off hair! (Referring to the westernization of the Meiji government) Against elimination of the "Eta" class! (referring to butcher, hunter class)"

They weren't just being angry at the conscription, they were angry with the westernization.

The naming of "blood tax" came from the Meiji government's notice for the conscription service. In hindsight that might not be the best idea ever. Here's the original line that referred to it on the posted notices.

"凡ソ天地ノ間一事一物トシテ税アラサルハナシ以テ国用ニ充ツ然ラハ則チ人タルモノ固ヨリ心力ヲ尽シ国ニ報ヒサルヘカラス西人之ヲ称シテ血税と云フ其生血ヲ以テ国ニ報スルノ謂ナリ"

Don't worry about it looking like a pile of runes, not even modern Japanese will be able to read it. But the general gist of it is that all things are taxed by the government, and that blood tax as the westerners called it shall also be levied on the citizens, and that citizen shall serve their nation.

Now that we have that out of the way, it's important to know even though most people aren't really angry at the conscription, they still tried everything they could to avoid it.

Of course, who'd want to be in the army if they didn't had to be right?

With the aforementioned exemptions, it was actually quite easy to evade the service. There was even a guidebook that was written to teach people how to avoid it! The guide book was called 徴兵免役心得, "Guide on how to avoid conscription" published in 1879. It went through several methods on how to avoid the conscription and analysis on the law itself, and gave practical methods on how to do it.

The conscription was also only in effect on the mainland when it was implemented. Hokaido didn't had conscription until 1887, and Okinawa didn't had conscription until 1898.

The government did later removed all of the exemptions in 1889.

So what we have is all the way into the turn of 20th century people weren't too excited about the military. What caused that to change?

In 1882, in the low morale and lack of discipline of the Military in the aftermath of the Satsuma rebellion, the Emperor gave a letter to the military to raise moral. It was mostly a guideline on how to act as a soldier, called 軍人勅諭, translates into "Emperors Word to those in the Military Service".

The basic idea is to serve as a guideline for those in the military. It was divided into 5 parts, below is a translation of those 5 titles. The whole document had details on how to behave to follow those 5 main points.

---
1. 軍人は忠節を尽すを本分とすべし。

Soldiers shall be loyal to the end.

2. 軍人は礼儀を正しくすべし。

Soldiers shall be good in their manners.

3. 軍事は武勇を尚ぶべし。

Battle shall be followed by bravery.

4. 軍人は信義を重んすへし。

Soldiers shall be strong in their trust and true to their words.

5. 軍人は質素を旨とすへし。

Soldiers shall always be mindful of their ability, and to improve on them.

---

Elementary school students and Military recruits had to recite these, and memorize them. Now, the most important part of the first line is in the explanation in the document. "死は鴻毛よりも軽しと覚悟せよ。", it translates into "Have the conviction and realization that your death is lighter than feather" The saying means that in the face of your country, your death is not important and you should be willing to sacrifice it for your country.

And then, in 1890 the Emperor gave another order to the ministry of literacy and the prime minister, it was called the 教育勅語, or "The Emperor's word on Education". It was done in response to the rising realization of the conflict between western cultural values and the traditional Japanese values. It called for a return to the tradition Confucianism values. Translation is as below:

---

1. 父母ニ孝ニ

Be respectful of one's parents.

2. 兄弟ニ友ニ

Be friendly to one's siblings.

3. 夫婦相和シ

Husband and wife shall be good to each other

4. 朋友相信シ

Friends shall be trusting in each other.

5. 恭儉己レヲ持シ

Be mindful of one's action and words.

6. 博愛衆ニ及ホシ

Be loving to all those in the world.

7. 學ヲ修メ業ヲ習ヒ

Be always learning, and to learn a profession.

8. 以テ智能ヲ啓發シ

Be knowledgeable, and be willing to learn always.

9. 德器ヲ成就シ

Work in ones personality, and be willing to improve them.

10. 進テ公益ヲ廣メ世務ヲ開キ

Be contributing to the society.

11. 常ニ國憲ヲ重シ國法ニ遵ヒ

Be respectful of the constitution, and follow the laws set by the country.

12. 一旦緩急アレハ義勇公ニ奉シ以テ天壤無窮ノ皇運ヲ扶翼スヘシ

If your country is in an emergency, be willing to sacrifice yourself and serve the emperor.

---

That...is not as insane as you thought it would be right? It was a re-affirmation of the government's policy to not completely westernized as many has worried. This was also read in schools every morning when it was publicised. (As a sidenote, there was a Christian highschool teacher that refused to bow after the reading since he didn't believe that the emperor is god. That caused quite a scandal")

Now, these two helped making the concept that military service is the best way to serve the emperor. And that dying for the country is an honorable action.

However, the event that caused the rise in the popularity of the military was not any of the policies. It was the victory in the First Sino-Japanese war, and later the Russo-Japanese war.

With a military that brings in new resources, new territories. People began to see the military as an extension of their nations power, not an annoying service you try to avoid at all cost.

On top of that, with the economic depression in the 20s, and an increase in poverty. The military began to become very attractive. You get to eat white rice everyday, a hot bath, a bed to sleep in, a roof over your head, vacation time, and on top of that income to spend at PXs. What is but a little war? When you have all those benefits.

Now we come back into the question, these events made the military popular. How about what made them fanatical? This will require a whole post of it's own. But suffice to say it hinges on one concept "大和魂"(Yamato Damashi), translated into "The Spirit of Yamato". The original meaning of the phrase just means "All that which emcompasses of being a Japanese", but the phrase itself evolved.

The phrase later became to mean the spirit which shall overcome anything. Nothing is impossible in the face of Yamato Damashi. This was especially promoted by the army when the Spirituality Faction took over the army command. (And left the Army half-modernized...)

Easiest way to understand the meaning of Yamato Damashi is through period songs. From the marching song of the Imperial Japanese Army, 抜刀隊(Battoutai), sword drawing corp. There's a line of lyrics referencing this.

---

1. 刃の下に死ぬべきぞ 大和魂ある者の

We shall die under the blade, men with Yamato Damashi!

2. 死ぬべき時は今なるぞ 人に遅れて恥かくな

The time to die is now! Don't fall behind and bring shame to yourself!

3. 敵の亡ぶるそれ迄は 進めや進め諸共に

Until our enemies are destroyed, advance and advance brothers-in-arms!

4. 玉散る剣抜き連れて 死ぬる覚悟で進むべし

With out swords with us, with our dying conviction.

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Now, that should give you a good idea on what constitutes the concept of Yamato Damashi. It the undying conviction, it is the effort one should put in to overcome anything, It is the willingness to sacrifice oneself for the empire. It is the unwavering loyalty to the country and the emperor.

This is the basic concept that was instilled in all Officers and NCO, and beyond that basic education to the civilian as well.

The thinking that ones spirit can overcome anything can be characterized in this one instance. The 1st CEO of the Daiei supermarket chain (A supermarket chain based in Japan), was sent to Manchuria as a artillery man in the Kwangtung(Kantou) Army. When he complained about the performance of the artillery cannons to his superior, his captain yelled at him "貴様は敢闘精神が足らん。砲の不足は大和魂で補え!", "Your fighting spirit is not enough! The lower performance of your cannon can be fixed with your Yamato Damashi!".

As to exactly why this culture was easily implemented, that requires another whole post just on the concept of "玉砕" (Gyokusai, the shattering of jade).

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Sources on top of my head

1. 軍人勅諭, word from the emperor to the soldiers, 1886

2. 教育勅語, word from the emperor regarding education, 1890

3. 徴兵免役心得, guide on avoiding conscription, 1876


4. 徴兵制と近代日本 一八六八～一九四五, Conscription and modern Japan, Kattou Youko, 1996

Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors - PART 1

Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors

Let’s talk about the rescript a little bit before I go in the details of it.

The rescript itself was given in the year of Meiji 15, by the Meiji Emperor as a moral guideline to the men in military service of the time.

If anyone that reads this owns a pay book, you'll notice that it is in the first few pages.

It was the beginning few years of the now draft service and a modernized military, and this was to be served as the basis of how all military member is suppose to act. The start of the rescript is basically the history of how the Emperor is the leader of the military directly, and the evolution of the military organization over the past 2500 years.

THE MILITARY IS LED BY THE EMPEROR

At the start of the rescript we have the basic thesis of the whole document.

“我國の軍隊は世々天皇の統率し給ふ所にそある”

“The military of our country is led by the emperor”

The reason that this sentence is the first sentence of the whole document spells the significance of the meaning behind it.

If any of you are familiar with the Meiji constitution, article eleven clearly spells it out, “The Emperor leads the army and the navy”. While article eleven will cause controversy in the 20s and the 30s, we will not be getting into that over here. But we need to understand that the concept of a Emperor led military, instead of a government military is a very important part of the system.

The rescript continues on talking about that in the past, the Emperor either leads the military himself, or delegate those duties to either the Empress or the princes, and not to any of his subordinates.

THE HISTORY OF THE MILITARY

However, a couple hundred years later  the imitation of the Tang dynasty’s military organization had a huge effect. An actual military organization was created including many of the primitive forms of the Japanese military of the time. Drafts to out posts, imperial guards...etc

The outpost system that it talks about is something they called “Sakimori”, written out in kanji as “Defenders”, these were people that were selected under various warlords, and sent to Kyushu, Tsushima, basically places that are far away. The draft was a three year ordeal, much like the draft system that was instituted on the modernized military.

Then it talks about the evolution of the military as an organization, first to a volunteer military, then to a society of caste system where military men controlled political power. Basically, the evolution of the all too well known, samurai. Then the rescript changes its tone, and then talk about how the political power then went to the lords because of the consolidation of power, and then it continues about the sad state the country was in until the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Some reasons to why the rescript focuses this part of the history. First, to give another reminder that the military belongs to the Emperor. Second, to serve as a warning to future that no matter how powerful a lord can seem. The true power must always be with the Emperor, and the Emperor only. Third, that the national identity is with this idea and the backbone of the country. And that no matter how the powers may be, the tradition to respect the Emperor has always been there, and that as men of the military, it must never be forgotten.

More importantly, this national identity and structure is something that is unique to the world, even though it is regrettable that this holy structure was disrupted by politics in the past.

THE MEIJI RESTORATION

The rescript then changes the topic to a more current affair, the meiji restoration that happened some decade ago.

The country was humiliated in the ages of the later Tokugawa Shogunate from foreigners. This part was talking about the foreign ships that sailed in to force trade during the late 19th century. Including the famous Commodore Perry black ship. And also the lesser known Russian incursion into Nagasaki as well.

Then it goes into the details of the Meiji restoration, about the unification of Japan under the Emperor himself from the Tokugawas. That it was a return to the ancient rules.

There is one part that needs to be explained into detail though. Is the use of 大義(Tai-gi) in the sentence, translated directly it means “The larger duty”. The whole sentence was to have to reader to “Know the meaning behind the larger duty”

The duty it is talking about isn’t just the duty for following. It doesn’t just mean that over here. The duty it refers to is the duty that one must give to the Emperor, the true leader of the military. And that duty not only includes the willingness to sacrifice, but also the loyalty one must display. That to know the difference between just loyalty, duty, and loyalty, duty to the Emperor.

Following that, the rescript then talks about the detail about the creation of the modernize draft system, and how it built the modernized military. And finally, it hopes to not fall into the situation following the middle ages again.

THE ROLE OF SOLDIERS AND SAILORS

The rescript then continues on to talk about how he needs to rely on the readers, that as the commander in chief, the Emperor needs the military. And that they were together in fate, and that the Emperor needs his military to protect the country and the civilians. And to also show to glory of the Empire to the world as well.

The purpose of this paragraph is to talk about the importance of the military, and the men in them as well to the Emperor personally. That the Emperor and the military are one of the same, that the military is part of the Emperor, and that to serve the Emperor with the utmost loyalty is not only important morally, it is hugely important to not only the nations honor, and it’s survival as well.

Finally it starts to speak about the 5 moral codes. I will continue this in part 2