Staging a comeback: Rearmament planning and kyūgunjin in occupied Japan, 1945–52

Abstract

This article considers the impact of domestic forces on the development of Japanese foreign policy and the relationship with the United States during the occupation of Japan. It examines the unofficial military links between elements of the American occupation and former Imperial Army career officers, that is the kyūgunjin. Specific attention is paid to former Colonel Hattori Takushirō, a dynamic kyūgunjin, who accepted the realities of defeat and occupation, and actively manoeuvred to turn these two events to advantage Japanese national interests as he interpreted them. The conflagration of the inevitable World War III would facilitate his planned re‐creation of the Japanese continental empire. In July 1950, a covert bid was made to circumvent civilian supremacy and install Hattori as commander‐in‐chief of the newly created National Police Reserve.