“They Are Our Human Secret Weapons”: The Military Intelligence Service and the Role of Japanese‐Americans in the Pacific War and in the Occupation of Japan

Historian ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-74
Author(s):  
Kelli Y. Nakamura
1989 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 545-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen-Hsin Yeh

The nationalist military intelligence service has long been a controversial topic in the history of the Chinese Republic (1912–49). This organization, known as the Military Bureau of Statistics and Investigation (Junshi Weiyuanhui Tongji Diaocha Ju, or Juntong), first impinged on civilian society in the 1930s, when it carried out violent deeds against urban-based intellectuals critical of the Nationalist party's rule. Newspaper writers and editors subsequently compared Juntong to the infamous Eastern Depot and Embroidered Guards of the despotic Ming emperors, denouncing the “feudal” and “fascist” nature of Nationalist rule in political tracts and assemblies. During the Pacific War the image of Juntong's chief, General Dai Li (1897–1946), was blackened when he was compared to the Nazi Heinrich Himmler by the Western press. In the bitter and protracted civil struggles between the Chinese Communist party (CCP) and the Guomindang (GMD) after 1941, the Communists focused sharply on the atrocities committed by Juntong and portrayed Dai Li as a monstrous instrument of Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship.


1992 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 319-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saki Dockrill

The death of Hirohito on 7 January 1989 provided the Japanese with an opportunity of reappraising the Showa era, as Hirohito's reign is called in the Japanese calendar. This lasted for sixty-two years, which the press described as years of ‘turmoil and drastic changes.’ While the role of the Emperor and, to a greater degree, the role of the military in imperial Japan have been long-running themes for historians, intellectuals, and journalists, Hirohito's death certainly encouraged the publication of a large number of books, including reprints of works about the Pacific War, from semi-official histories, the memoirs of some of the leading decision makers and a series of histories of Japan from 1868 to 1945. Television programmes showed for two full days panel discussions by historians and documentary films of the Showa era—a series of bloody wars in China and eventually with the Americans, the British and the other Allied powers, leading to unconditional surrender and occupation.


Author(s):  
Steven Casey

From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a group of highly courageous correspondents covered America’s war against Japan. Based on a wealth of previously untapped primary sources, War Beat, Pacific provides the first comprehensive account of what these reporters witnessed, what they were allowed to publish, and how their reports shaped the home front’s perception of some of the most pivotal battles in American history. In a dramatic and fast-paced narrative, the book takes us from MacArthur’s doomed defense on the Philippines and the navy’s overly strict censorship policy at the time of Midway through the bloody battles on Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Tarawa, Saipan, Leyte and Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, detailing the cooperation, as well as conflict, between the media and the military as they grappled with the enduring problem of limiting a free press during a period of extreme crisis. At the heart of this book are the brave, sometimes tragic stories of reporters like Clark Lee and Vern Haugland of the Associated Press, Byron Darnton and Tillman Durdin of the New York Times, Stanley Johnston and Al Noderer of the Chicago Tribune, George Weller of the Chicago Daily News, Keith Wheeler of the Chicago Times, and Robert Sherrod of Time magazine. Twenty-three correspondents died while reporting on the Pacific War. Many more sustained serious wounds. War Beat, Pacific shows how both the casualties and the survivors deserve to be remembered as America’s golden generation of journalists.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W.M. Chapman

Sorge’s activities between 1930 and 1942 have tended to be lauded as those of a superlative human intelligence operator and the Soviet Union’s GRU (Soviet military intelligence unit) as the optimum of spy-masters. Although it was unusual for a great deal of inside knowledge to be obtained from the Japanese side, most attention has always been paid on the German side to the roles played by representatives of the German Army in Japan. This book, supported by extensive notes and a bibliography, by contrast, highlights the friendly relations between Sorge and Paul Wenneker, German naval attaché in Japan from 1932 to 1937 and 1940–45. Wenneker, from extensive and expanding contacts inside the Japanese Navy (and also concealed contacts with the Japanese Army) supplied Sorge with key information on the depth of rivalry between the Japanese armed services.


Author(s):  
Putut Widjanarko

The Japanese occupation of East Asia during World War II was accompanied by its propaganda targeted to the local population. In Indonesia, the military government, among other things, published Djawa Baroe, a fortnightly magazine published from January 1, 1943 to August 1, 1945.Compared to other magazines, this bilingual magazine (in Japanese and Bahasa Indonesia) Djawa Baroe was unique: it featured ample photographs and illustrations. Qualitative content analysis method enables this study to find the meaning of a theme in its holistic political, social, and cultural contexts beyond the number of its occurrences in the text offered by quantitative content analysis. All the issues of Djawa Baroe are examined in detail and reiteratively. Six themes can be found in Djawa Baroe, i.e., the friendship between Japanese and Indonesians, the description of Japanese military prowess, the exaltation of nationalism and the preparation for the war, the evil nature of Western power, the role of women in society, and entertainment. The study concludes that along with the development of the Pacific War that turned against the Japanese, Djawa Baroe moved its emphasis on long-range goals at the high psychological level to influence and win the hearts and minds of Indonesian people, to a more immediate result and practical guide in facing the imminent war. On the other hand, against the original intention of the Japanese propaganda, Djawa Baroe may have helped its educated readers to imagine their future nation-state, Indonesia. Keywords: Djawa Baroe; Wartime propaganda; Japanese occupation; nation-building


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Syahrur Marta Dwisusilo ◽  
Lucitra A. Yuniar

The period of Japanese occupation for 3 years in Indonesia is sort when compared to the Dutch colonial period. However, at that time it was a critical time for the formation of various ideological thoughts. One of the ideologies that emerged in the Japanese colonial era was the ideology of "Greater Asia", which is known as the ideology of unification of Asia. During the Pacific War, Japanese writers who underwent military service in Indonesia published many of his writings for the purposes of Japanese military propaganda, especially those related to prapaganda of Greater Asia ideology. One of the most active writers in spreading this ideology was Asano Akira. This research clarifies the role of Asano Akira in spreading the ideology of Greater Asia through its activities and mobility in Java with the approach of new historicism and orientalism.


Author(s):  
Matthew M. Briones

This chapter examines how the resettlement of West Coast Japanese Americans in the Midwest and Northeast after internment irrevocably transformed the population of Japanese Chicagoans. As both Allan Austin and Gary Okihiro have demonstrated, many young Nisei managed to leave the camps earlier than expected by filing education waivers. They matriculated predominantly at midwestern and East Coast schools, and some of their campmates were recruited for Japanese-language immersion at the Military Intelligence Service Language School, based at Camp Savage, Minnesota. Yet residual delinquency among Nisei bachelors and the lack of children's playgrounds still made the North Side area less than appealing to Nisei families; hence, another critical mass of Japanese Americans congregated on the South Side.


2010 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 406-423
Author(s):  
O. A. Gokov

AbstractIn the article the review of military secret service of Russia in Africa in the second half of XIX – beginning of XX centuries on the example of activity of officers of the General staff is given. It is showed that military secret service of Russia on the African continent did not carry system character. Russian officers of the General staff in the countries of Africa in the second half XIX – XX beginning of centuries collected the military and political information. They also came forward as researchers, collecting and analysing geographical information about of the probed regions, their population, fauna and flora.


1989 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
John F. Laffey

The completion in 1986 of the Documents diplomatiques français, 1932–1939 permits a review of French Far Eastern policy during that troubled time characterized by J.-B. Duroselle as ‘la décadence.’ This massive documentary collection, however, still dose not provide a full picture of the forces which shaped French East Asian policy in the years before the outbreak of the Pacific War. Understandably focused upon European developments, it begins and ends, from the Far Eastern perspective, in medias res; that is, after the outbreak of the Manchurian crisis and before the Japanese occupation of Indochina. Moreover, like other compilations of what statesmen and diplomats said to each other, this one slights economic factors and, though to a lesser extent, the role of public opinion. Even taken in their own terms, the documents perhaps reveal more about what others said and did to the French than about what they themselves accomplished. That points to a more fundamental problem, for one can question whether anything so gelatinous as the French responses or lack thereof to developments largely beyond their control can even be described as ‘policy.’ Still, although much more work in archives and private papers will be necessary before the entire story can be pieced together, these documents do shed light on what passed for French policy in East Asia during the years before the outbreak of World War II.


1995 ◽  
Vol 10 (0) ◽  
pp. 173-184
Author(s):  
Jin-Young Kim

This paper aims to falsify the Japanese Government's argument that Japan has already completed the compensation of the damage on the side of Korea during the Pacific War, by showing that the Korea-Japan agreement on the damage claims in 1965 does not conform to the international customs, and did not fully take the victims into consideration. Henceforth, this paper argues that the Korean Government must claim the newly identified damage against Japan by resuming the negotiation. Specificallyl things to be discussed in this paper include the following: First, we briefly review the present situation of the damage compensation, especially for the Sakhalin residents, the A-bomb victims, the women in 'Cengsindae,' and the Korean residents in Japan, Second, we look into the illicitness of the treaty in 1965, by showing that it did not respect the international customs. Finally, we seek for the solutions that may support the victims and their concerned families. In connection with this, we will examine the role of the Korean and Japanese Governments, and moreover the cooperation between the south Korea and the North Korea to cope with the issue of the damage claim.


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