The Pacific War (1978)
The author, Saburo Ienaga, a Japanese, starts off the first chapter by noting that there were few opponents of Japan's imperialistic war on China, and they never had the numbers or the political strength to stop the war.
One writing in 1823 called for Japan to make the entire world “provinces and districts” of Japan, so there were some that were looking towards Japanese expansionism over a hundred years before the China “incidents.”
The book says that the Japanese attempts to get its own colonies in the Asian areas wasn't really any different from what was being done by the Europeans and by America in the same area and the argument has its merits.
1869: Publishing regulations passed.
1873: Newspaper law passed, restricting freedom of speech.
1875: Libel Law, for same purpose.
1880: List of books favorable to democracy is compiled, and the books are prohibited from use as textbooks.
1890: Assembly and Political Organizations Law
1893: Publication Law
1900: Public Order Police Law
1908: Criminal code. “”A commander who allows his unit to surrender to the enemy without fighting to the last man or who concedes a strategic area to the enemy shall be punishable by death.”
1909: Another Newspaper Law.
1925: Peace Preservation Law
”The internal security laws were primarily intended to prevent discussion or factual reporting about three areas the authorities deemed sensitive: the monarchial system and public order, the dignity of the imperial family, and public morals. An additional objective was control of information about military and diplomatic affairs.”
1925: Active duty military officers are assigned to all schools from the middle school level up (minus girls' schools); military training becomes part of the school routine.
The book notes that civilians were not the only ones not being told the truth. “Everything related to Japan's military strength was classified.” Even cabinet ministers and senior advisors were denied adequate information to make decisions on.
1928: Chang Tso-lin was the warlord who controlled Manchuria. His train is blown up by the Japanese army.
1931, Spring: “Proposal regarding the Problems of Manchuria and Mongolia” is written, calling for staged incident so Mongolia and Manchuria could be occupied.1932, March 1: The new state of Manchuko is proclaimed.
The “Shanghai Incident,” in response to the Chinese boycotting Japanese goods.
In the 1930's, the author writes, the military did what they wanted to do and paid little if any attention to what the Emperor wanted.
1941: Elementary schools are renamed national schools.
1941: Field Service Code: “Do not be taken alive.”
1941: Peace Preservation Law is amended to allow “preventative detention” of political activists, and indefinite detention of political prisoners.
1941: National Defense Security Law: important government business like cabinet meetings are declared “state secrets”, with severe penalties for obtaining or revealing such classified information.
1941 (?) Provisional Law for Control of Speech, Publications, Assembly and Association: Political groups, political meetings, and publication of newspapers and magazines must get prior approval for their activities.
1941, March: Basic Concepts of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere is published by the Imperial Rule Assistance Association. It says: “Although we use the expression 'Asian co-operation,' this by no means ignores the fact that Japan was created by the Gods or posits an automatic racial equality.”
1941, April: Basic Necessities Control ordinance started a rationing system for rice, fish, vegetables, condiments and clothing.
1942: Special Law on War-time Crimes is enacted.
1943: Middle schools are required to use government textbooks, no longer having the right to choose their own textbooks from a longer list.
1943: Special Law on War-time Crimes is modified. “To disseminate information during wartime which will harm public order for the purpose of interfering with national administration or public order” becomes a crime.
1943: The Cabinet Information Bureau bans 1,000 songs, mainly American and British.
1943: Factory Law Wartime Exemption: Women and children are “permitted” to work more than eleven hours a day. The two rest days a month were rescinded.
1943: Deferments for students in universities, technical college and higher schools are ended.
1944, April: Steel guitars, banjos and ukeleles are outlawed due to their “foreign influence.”
Other terms
Guadalcanal defeat: “Transfer of forces.”
Atomic bomb: “A special bomb.”
Japanese Military
The author notes that men in the Japanese military did not get as good meals as did American troops, that their equipment they had to carry was heavier, and:
”Military education, training, and the daily routine of barracks life at the squad level was an unending stream of humiliation and rough treatment.”
He adds that physical abuse of trainees was commonplace. The side effect of training men to become “vicious fighters” was then tendency to be brutal to others, including civilians and POWs.
The “Three Human bombs of the Shanghai Fighting” story is about three men that “died heroic deaths in a valiant assault on the enemy.” The truth apparently was that the three men were engineers planting explosives and one of the fuses was too short, blowing up all three men in the process.
Problems that the military encountered in planning included under-estimating US production capabilities and under-estimating the British and Russian military abilities, and over-estimating the German military abilities. Short term, of course, both Germany and Japan were triumphant militarily, but they both lost in the long term.
The author writes about how, late in the war, the Army was drafting middle-aged men and physically unfit men and not even giving them guns.
”Rape was an accepted prerogative of the Imperial Army.”
Religion
State Shinto became a nationalistic creed. Officials of the Salvation Army, the Holiness Church and other sects were arrested.
Resistance by Civilians in General
”Every aspect of life was so regimented and controlled that no one could plan a treacherous act worthy of the death penalty.”
”The populace remained silent, unable to learn the facts or discuss politics or the war.”
Pearl Harbor
The book is another one that says that the Japanese fully intended to inform the US that they were at war before the attack on Pearl Harbor, but the embassy staff had trouble getting the rather long message decoded, and they didn't manage to finish until after the attack was actually started. So, technically, Pearl Harbor wasn't supposed to be a “sneak attack,” but even if they had informed the US in time it would have been at most a few hours or even a few minutes before the attack took place.
Atrocities
”Japanese forces committed atrocities against the Chinese everywhere in the combat zone.”
The author says that around 41,000 Chinese were taken to Japan as slave laborers. Of these, about 1,000 died en route, and another 6,000 died at work sites.
In Osaka, in June, 1945, a senior army officer said that it would be necessary to kill all infirm old people, the very young, and the sick due to the nationwide food shortage.
The author also writes about the “comfort women” who were sometimes right on the front lines.
A ship, the Awa-maru, that was sunk by the US, had been guaranteed safe passage. The author notes that the action was illegal, but the ship had also been loaded with tin and other prohibited war goods.
Unit 731 and the use of poison gas in China is also discussed.
”The atrocities committed by the Imperial Army and Navy attest to the moral degeneration of the ruling elite.”
The mass suicide of civilians on Saipan is discussed
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