The Pacific War, 1931-1945: A Critical Perspective on Japan's Role in World War II Book

A ruling elite needs a modern school system to get its message across. Even after 1945, the Japanese public was only aware of the fight against the Nationalists. It wasn't the only caveat in the curriculum after the American Caesar. As an Estonian reviewer noted: "However, this book is more importantly, a tribute to its author, Japanese historian, Saburo Ienaga. Much of his professional career, [he] fought the Japanese government's attempt to block his critical writings on the history of modern Japan."*

This desire for Mea Culpa leads to some odd conclusions, for example: "the Chinese Communist Party proved that in a national crisis only democracy can inspire patriotism... and galvanize it into fighting power against aggression. While he also credits the U.S.A on this, the revamped Russian patriotism of summer '41 has escaped his attention.

Looking inward, his frank language deserves to be remembered: It is no exaggeration to call the greater Japanese Empire a Kafka state, dedicated to the abuse of human rights. . The underlying psychology is pretty universal: plenty of opportunistic little dictators, whose underlings sought release through cruelty in battle.

On the other hand, the "Banzai !" rallying cry goes the way of "For Stalin!". The final word on many a soldier's lips was "Okasan - Mother. This fits together with a young Marine's involuntary pity when he discovers upon the corpse of a bullet-ridden Jap in front of his position a studio portrait between two somber-looking parents**. As the father of a farmer draftee grumbled:
"No matter how many other countries we occupy, it doesn't add one inch to my paddy fields. There's nothing as stupid as war." The parents who evacuated their children out of the firebombed cities to the dispersed safety of the countryside would agree with him.

Nothing as stupid on imperialist war, at least. The Japanese government under oil embargo saw things differently at the time and Ienaga acknowledges that the Pacific attack was all about securing sufficient oil sources to fuel victory in Eastern China. Win fast or hold the perimeter long enough...depending on the person defeat was probable or the chances small, but an underestimate of American military potential common. These are well-established facts for the Western reader, maybe less so in '60's Japan ?

The reality was hidden..almost. The vastness of the Chinese mainland seemed to swallow the Imperial Army, as an anonymous graffiti testifies. Pacific reverses carried the whiff of defeat. Not until after the war could NCO Yoshida Kashichi publish his "Poems from the battle of Guadalcanal":

No matter how far we walk
We don't know where we're going
Trudging along under dark jungle growth.

When will this march end ?
Hide during the day
Move at night
Deep in the lush jungle

Our rice is gone
Eating roots and grass
Along the ridges and cliffs
Leaves hide the trail, we lose our way
Stumble and get up, fall and get up

Covered with mud from our falls
Blood oozes from our wounds
No cloth to bind our cuts
Flies swarm to the scabs
No strength to brush them away
Fall down and cannot move.
How many times I've thought of suicide


Either way, the chronicle of the campaign is short. The battle facts are not under scrutiny, but the atrocities in the wake are. Once again, I call occasional hyperbole "The comfort women were brought right to the front lines for fornication between combat operations and apparently many were killed in the fighting..." mixed with an interesting phrase for gender studies: " Prositution is by its very nature a violation of women's rights to a decent occupation"

More pedestrian misbehaviour caused no less hardship: Filipino sugar plantations converted to cotton, Indonesian rice fields to jute, indispensible draft buffaloes were shot for fun and their rice requisitioned in such quantities that it rotted in the warehouse. Forced labour could be farcical:
"As the war situation grew worse, the mobilization degenerated into abduction. Men travelling on the road near Nankuan were forcibly stopped and loaded onto waiting trucks. Some were taken by the hands and feet and thrown bodily up into the vehicles. These hapless victims included persons who had just come in from the country to buy something and men returning from a visit with friends. One young man was to be married the next day and had just stepped out to make a purchase. " In case you wonder where, amidst this litany in Korea & China, the infamous biochemical research program of Unit 731 is, look a chapter ahead, where it's linked to the 1948 Teikoku bank robbery.

Regarding resistance, there is little to tell. He lists some forensics into Kempei torture murders and a handful of defectors... " Only the Japanese failed to overthrow the war leadership with their own hands." Compliments to Europe, but he forgets Germany... A fact to verify: 2.3 million combat deaths since the start of the war in China. Since 1931 ? On all fronts ?

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