“Japanese” Warriors?

2020 ◽  
pp. 45-50
Author(s):  
Courtney A. Short
Keyword(s):  
Japanese Government ◽  
Pacific War ◽  
Japanese Empire ◽  
Older Population ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
War Effort

Since Okinawan’s integration into the Japanese nation as a prefecture in 1879, the Japanese government embarked on a program of propaganda and indoctrination to ensure loyalty in its new Okinawan subjects. As the Pacific War drew ever closer to the island of Okinawa, the Japanese government mandated that all civilians work for the war cause. The National Mobilization Act committed every resource toward supporting the war effort and every person prepared for war. Young Okinawans rallied to Japan’s cause with innocent fervor unmatched by their elders. The older population did not share the intensity of the children’s enthusiasm, but they still committed to serving the Japanese Empire as its subjects. In a practical manner, adult Okinawans prepared their families for the rough conditions that would result from a battle waged on their land. On the brink of the battle, Okinawans saw Japan as their country and felt compelled to protect it.

Recent Japanese Political and Historical Materials

1949 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 1010-1017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Delmer M. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Research Work ◽  
Far East ◽  
Japanese Government ◽  
Pacific War ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Military Tribunal ◽  
National Archives ◽  
Significant Research ◽  
Private Research ◽  
Military Teams

Historians and political scientists are frequently handicapped in analyzing the contemporary scene, or a recent period, by lack of documentary evidence. The Pacific war, however, has created a unique situation regarding Japanese political and economic documents giving authoritative evidence of Japanese affairs during the two decades prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result of military defeat, the Japanese government and people have been forced to submit to the occupation authorities thousands of documents which otherwise might never have been made available for research purposes. The total sum of this material is so great that significant research work is now possible in many fields of recent Japanese government, politics, and diplomacy.Soon after the beginning of the occupation, military teams were assigned the task of collecting documents. Their instructions were broad, and their haul was unbelievable. A large part of what they, and other agencies, have accumulated is still in the hands of the occupation forces, but two categories of materials are already available for private research: the documents assembled for the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) and the Japanese Army and Navy department files which have been deposited in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. In this paper, an attempt will be made to survey the nature and scope of the first category: the IMTFE materials.

scholarly journals The Fallacy of Contract in Sexual Slavery: A Response to Ramseyer's "Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War"

2021 ◽  
pp. 291
Author(s):  
Yong-Shik Lee ◽  
Natsu Saito ◽  
Jonathan Todres
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Japanese Government ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
Pacific War ◽  
World War ◽  
Sexual Slavery ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Second World

Over seven decades have passed since the end of the Second World War, but the trauma from the cruelest war in human history continues today, perpetuated by denial of responsibility for the war crimes committed and unjust attempts to rewrite history at the expense of dignity, life, and justice for the victims of the most serious human rights violations. The latest such attempt is a troubling recharacterization of the sexual slavery enforced by Japan during the Second World War as a legitimate contractual arrangement. A recent paper authored by J. Mark Ramseyer, entitled “Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War,” mischaracterizes forced sexual slavery as a contractual process by which the victims freely participated in prostitution in return for a substantial reward, denying the responsibility of the Japanese government and its military for the atrocious human rights violations committed. The argument of that paper is flawed and disregards a breath of evidence, including numerous testimonies of survivors, and the findings of scholars, NGOs, and intergovernmental organizations, including the United Nations Human Rights Commission, that the victims were coerced, deceived, or otherwise manipulated into sexual servitude with the direct or indirect involvement of the Japanese government or the military, as admitted by Japan in the 1993 Kono Statement. This article discusses the critical flaws in the arguments advanced by the paper, the traumatic impact of such arguments on survivors of these war crimes, and the broader implications of these (and other similar) justifications for sexual exploitation.

Unconditional Surrender and the American Case Against the Modification of a Controversial Policy (1943–1945)

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-277
Author(s):  
Joe Majerus
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
American History ◽  
Japanese Government ◽  
Truman Administration ◽  
Pacific War ◽  
Political Clout ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
American Case

The decision to employ nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 is arguably one of the most thoroughly investigated subjects in American history. Notably revisionist historians have repeatedly faulted the Truman administration for too easily discarding alternative options, arguing that a simple guarantee to retain the Japanese Emperor would have sufficed to make the Japanese government lay down arms almost immediately. In contrast to that position, the present article, however, maintains that American authorities did indeed have legitimate grounds not to expect that such concessions would in any way lead to a swift conclusion of the Pacific War, particularly since regardless of the Emperor issue there still remained the question of the appropriate moment and manner in which to exact a full surrender from the Imperial Army itself by decisively breaking its considerable military and political clout.

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