Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

The paper examines causes and consequences of internal violence in the Japanese Army during the Asia-Pacific War. Using a wide range of sources and a perspective of institutional history, it aims to analyse structural causes and factors that contributed to the mistreatment of Japanese soldiers.

Paper long abstract

During the Asia-Pacific War, the Japanese military exhibited a wide range of violent behaviour. In consideration of the magnitude of crimes and the implementation of coercive policies directed towards populations in the occupied territories and colonies, along with POW’s, it is unsurprising that the prevalence of quotidian forms of violence within the Imperial Japanese Army has hitherto received comparatively less scholarly attention. These encompassed instances of psychological and physical abuse by superiors and comrades, including beatings, extra drill or dangerous missions, and frequently resulted in bodily harm, desertion, suicide and murder. As the number of cases rose in absolute terms during the war – in view of the total war and mass mobilisation – and endangered both the cohesion of troops and the functioning of the army, the leadership in Tōkyō attempted on repeated occasions to combat the causes of internal violence, though without significant success.

The proposed paper will discuss the causes and consequences of internal violence within the Japanese army. To this end, a broad corpus of sources, including policy papers, official reports, court martial judgements and statistics, will be evaluated from a perspective of institutional history. Its objective is to ascertain the most significant factors within military structures that contributed to misconduct by officers and soldiers, as well as to the failure of countermeasures. The aforementioned factors encompassed structural weaknesses, including the commander-centred nature of the military justice system, the absence of effective supervision, the discrepancy between social and military hierarchies, and the deviation in patters of action and logic among the actors involved. Consequently, the paper also aims to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the violent conduct and the functioning of the Japanese Army between 1937 and 1945.