Defenders of Japan: The Post-Imperial Armed Forces, 1946–2016; A History by Garren Mulloy

Abstract

Reviewed by: Defenders of Japan: The Post-Imperial Armed Forces, 1946–2016; A History by Garren Mulloy Giulio Pugliese Defenders of Japan: The Post-Imperial Armed Forces, 1946–2016; A History. By Garren Mulloy. London: Hurst, 2021. 440 pages. ISBN: 9781849048934 (hardcover; also available as e-book). The English-language academic literature on the postwar Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) is sparse, and studies typically focus on just one branch of the country's armed services. A handful of recent works, including one each on the Maritime and Ground branches, stand out for their fine-grained analyses centered on security issues, politics, and history. Garren Mulloy's encyclopedic tour de force on the evolution of Japan's military, Defenders of Japan,constitutes instead a commendable attempt at disentangling the international and domestic politics behind the entirety of contemporary Japan's "defenders": its navy, army, and air force. The author takes an eclectic, interdisciplinary approach, combining findings by scholars in area studies, history, foreign policy analysis, and international relations to trace the arc of postwar Japan's force structure, military doctrine, and identity (or self-representation) vis-àvis civilian leaders and the population at large. Mulloy's extensive use of primary sources—including archival material, official documentation, and interviews with elite military officers and security officials—provides an incredibly detailed account of the book's subject matter, one that sheds light on lesser-known events and connections. In short, the author's work constitutes an important addition to the literature to which contemporary Japan specialists will want to turn frequently. The book is divided into four thick chapters following a typical periodization. In the first chapter, which is quite fast paced, the author debates the merits of viewing Japan's military in the aftermath of World War II through the prism of the country's imperial legacy. The chapter opens with a spotlight on the continuation of hostilities after the summer of 1945 by thousands of Japanese soldiers scattered throughout Asia—some acting out of choice, some under duress, and some based on their indoctrination. This is followed by an extensive analysis of the little-known engagement by Japanese fighters in the Korean and Vietnam wars, involvement that runs counter to the official narrative of a clean break with militarism after the end of World War II: while both of those subsequent conflicts resulted in Japanese casualties, Tokyo consciously chose to conceal such events under a cloak of silence. The chapter then delves into the genesis of the National Police Reserve (NPR), which was effectively the beginning of Japan's postwar military; it was reborn in 1952 as the National Safety Forces and later as the JSDF. Offering a detailed analysis, Mulloy disputes facile takes that understand the National Police Reserve and National Safety Forces—as well as ancillary forces—as a covert military setup arranged by the US occupiers. He argues that Japanese decision-makers tended to see the merits of these [End Page 175] precursors to the nation's defenders as agents capable of policing—and potentially repressing—the populace. The second chapter is the book's largest. Here the author traces the genealogy of each branch of the JSDF, from the establishment of the unified forces in 1954 to their evolution during the Cold War. The chapter initially deals with issues concerning the constitutional and legal framing of the JSDF and then goes on to elucidate the early emphasis on tight civilian control, as well as the relationship between the JSDF and the public at large. These themes run through the analyses of the Ground, Maritime, and Air Self-Defense branches and add to our understanding of Japan's quantitative and qualitative military buildup (or lack thereof). Other important motifs that run through the chapter concern stovepiping and scant coordination among the three branches, problems that were accompanied by a relative paucity of interest and sense of direction by civilian leaders—especially those sitting in the prime minister's office, which had responsibility over the Japanese Defense Agency. Reliance on the unequal US-Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security was partly to blame for this state of affairs, but I was surprised to learn of the extent...