Evidences of Antimilitarism in Prewar and Wartime Japan

Abstract

A NUMBER OF SCHOLARS have studied the ideological underpinnings of pacifism in Japan, mainly in terms of individuals-religious figures, humanists, socialists, or intellectuals. The present article* focuses not so much on opposition to war itself as on opposition to the military and to service in the Japanese Army in particular. While a differentiation is made between theoretical pacifism and practical antimilitarism, the chronological emphasis is limited primarily to the Taish6 and Showa eras, however tempting it might be to allude to the blood tax riots of the early Meiji period or to delve into the poignant literature of war protests by Japanese writers at the beginning of the 20th century.' Researches in Japanese military history bring one into contact with fragmentary evidence of antimilitarism. Particularly arresting is a photograph found in the Shizuoka infantry regiment's commemorative album published in the Ig6o's.2 It shows a uniformed young soldier, beardless and neat, lying on his back in the bushes. Deep into the center of his throat is embedded a bayonet. One might expect that the grisly photo depicts some kind of wartime atrocity, committed this time by an enemy of the Japanese. Instead, the astonishing caption states that the dead man was an army probationary officer who had committed suicide because he had been forced to issue a cruel order to his subordinates, and could not go through with it. The editor of the album adds that, as the Pacific war grew worse for Japan, such