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Kempeitai: Japan's Dreaded Military Police
The Kempeitai, Japan's secret military police and counter-espionage service, were one of the most dreaded organizations of the Second World War. Through sheer horror tactics they degraded their victims to demonstrate their superiority over reluctant nations and break the human spirit. First-hand accounts in this book bring the atrocities to life.
182 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
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November 28, 2017
At the time of publication, 1998, this was supposedly the only English-language study of the military police of the Japanese armed forces. The author's father had been imprisoned by them, thus his interest and the emotion behind this critical study.
Sketchy, much of the text has the character of an outline punctuated by anecdotes and quotations--not a fluid read. Further, author Lamont-Brown employs a host of Japanese words, themselves serving to punctuate the text. Fortunately, he does provide a glossary.
This is no scholarly account, but should serve as an introductory text until such an effort is achieved.
Sketchy, much of the text has the character of an outline punctuated by anecdotes and quotations--not a fluid read. Further, author Lamont-Brown employs a host of Japanese words, themselves serving to punctuate the text. Fortunately, he does provide a glossary.
This is no scholarly account, but should serve as an introductory text until such an effort is achieved.
February 1, 2016
One of the things that some people wonder about is how was the Japanese civilian population able to be so supportive of the war, and even buy into the idea that they, themselves, would be sacrificing their own lives if the US landed on the Japanese home islands, attacking with bamboo spears or explosives strapped on to their body.
The Kempeitai were one of the instruments which was used to keep the populace in place and keep them from doing anything but support the war effort.
The book has a lot of interesting information about the secret police, some examples of which follow:
1. The Japanese war effort in China led to a lot of anti-Japanese feeling there, which is, of course, not exactly surprising. The Chinese were boycotting Japanese goods, and Shanghai seemed to be a center of anti-Japanese hatred.
2. In relation to how many POWs were mistreated and even killed by the Japanese (who had never actually signed the Geneva Convention documents), the book has this to say:
”The abuse of PoWs in the history of warfare has been, and remains, a universal problem. As Japan emerged from feudal purdah in the nineteenth century, the nation's proclivity to racial discrimination- that is, a subscrpiton to the view of all nations as inferior to the Kami-country of Japan- was hardened into gaijin being considered sub-human by the new military ideology suffused throughout Japan from around the annexing of Korea in 1910. From the time of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), a Japanese soldier was expected to commit suicide rather than surrender. This was the ideology known as gyokusai, which led to the implementation of the kamikaze air and sea attacks of the Second World War.”
This is what caused the Japanese military to look down on PoWs, because, if the people they fought had been true fighters, they would have died rather than surrender. Therefore, anyone who surrenders has lost face and has no honor or loyalty left. Thus, they could be treated in any way the captors wanted to.
The civilians had a duty to their Emperor and their motherland which was supposed to be higher than any other duty. All orders were theoretically tied to the Emperor and it was the people's duty to obey them.
The prisoners in the PoW camps were considered of the lowest caste status possible, even lower than the burakumin, or the Japanese version of India's “untouchable” class. Thus, again, they could be mistreated without any problem.
In addition, the Japanese military training itself was brutal, and so for the soldiers to behave in a brutal manner towards non-Japanese was nothing at all surprising.
Thus, from the Japanese viewpoint, the torture or execution of PoWs was something that was to be expected and there was nothing wrong with it at all. Remember that history is written by the victors, and if the Japanese had been victorious, then there would be no talk of how badly they treated the PoWs. It would have been the Americans who would have been tried for war crimes and not the Japanese.
3. In the thirties and on into the forties, the police in Japan also had a duty of social censorship, and of monitoring public activities. The TOKKO (Special Higher Police, or thought police) was the civilian branch whose duty it was to enforce the idea of proper thought. Citizens could get in trouble for reading foreign language books. They could also get in trouble for listening to foreign music, and for being involved in labor movements.
From 1933 through 1936, over 59,000 people were arrested for having “dangerous thoughts.” Of those, 2,500 were sent to prison.
There was also a complete difference in legal assumptions. People in Japan who were arrested were assumed to be guilty until proven innocent. Examinations could take place in secret, and torture could be used.
The Kempeitai were noted for their “racial and political fanaticism.”
There was also a Naval form of secret police that were responsible for mass murders.
The Kempeitai were the key administrators in the use of “comfort women” and prostitutes.
A Japanese radio show, Zero Hour, was used to broadcast pro-Japanese propaganda, and it was this radio show on which Tokyo Rose would appear. The book goes into the history of the one person prosecuted , Iva Toguri, was basically forced by the Kempeitai into taking up a job in the radio show. After the war she was arrested, freed, and re-arrested when the public wanted a scapegoat, tried, found guilty, and spent time in prison. The fact is, of course, that there were a number of “Tokyo Rose”s, not just one person.
The Kempeitai were also involved in getting subjects for the biological warfare experiments of Unit 731.
Japanese soldiers behaved particularly cruelly to civilians in the Philippines.
Tojo ordered that the Doolittle raiders that were captured were to be treated as war criminals and not as PoWs. He was also connected to the Kempeitai.
Hirohito's uncle Prince Yasuhiko Asaka had ordered the Japanese Army and the Kampeitai to slaughter 300,000 military prisoners at Nanking. A second uncle had ordered civilians in China bombed. Both went free and were not tried as war criminals at the end of the war.
The U.S. Occupation force had their own system of rigid censorship of papers, books, magazines, etc. (Some of this involved hiding things from the knowledge of US citizens, also.)
Groups that supported the Kempeitai continued even after the war ended, even through the 1980's.
On May 28, 1959, Emperor Hirohito “gave an order in person to the Shinto priests who administer the Yasukuni-jinja to inscribe the names of all Japan's war criminals on to the scrolls of the 2,500,000 immortal military dead commemorated at the shrine.”
(This is the shrine that has been so controversial when visited by Japanese dignitaries. The Korean and Chinese governments get upset when the visits are conducted, primarily because of the addition of those accused and convicted of war crimes.)
There is also a small memorial to the Kempeitai at the Yasaukuni-shrine area.
The Kempeitai were one of the instruments which was used to keep the populace in place and keep them from doing anything but support the war effort.
The book has a lot of interesting information about the secret police, some examples of which follow:
1. The Japanese war effort in China led to a lot of anti-Japanese feeling there, which is, of course, not exactly surprising. The Chinese were boycotting Japanese goods, and Shanghai seemed to be a center of anti-Japanese hatred.
2. In relation to how many POWs were mistreated and even killed by the Japanese (who had never actually signed the Geneva Convention documents), the book has this to say:
”The abuse of PoWs in the history of warfare has been, and remains, a universal problem. As Japan emerged from feudal purdah in the nineteenth century, the nation's proclivity to racial discrimination- that is, a subscrpiton to the view of all nations as inferior to the Kami-country of Japan- was hardened into gaijin being considered sub-human by the new military ideology suffused throughout Japan from around the annexing of Korea in 1910. From the time of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), a Japanese soldier was expected to commit suicide rather than surrender. This was the ideology known as gyokusai, which led to the implementation of the kamikaze air and sea attacks of the Second World War.”
This is what caused the Japanese military to look down on PoWs, because, if the people they fought had been true fighters, they would have died rather than surrender. Therefore, anyone who surrenders has lost face and has no honor or loyalty left. Thus, they could be treated in any way the captors wanted to.
The civilians had a duty to their Emperor and their motherland which was supposed to be higher than any other duty. All orders were theoretically tied to the Emperor and it was the people's duty to obey them.
The prisoners in the PoW camps were considered of the lowest caste status possible, even lower than the burakumin, or the Japanese version of India's “untouchable” class. Thus, again, they could be mistreated without any problem.
In addition, the Japanese military training itself was brutal, and so for the soldiers to behave in a brutal manner towards non-Japanese was nothing at all surprising.
Thus, from the Japanese viewpoint, the torture or execution of PoWs was something that was to be expected and there was nothing wrong with it at all. Remember that history is written by the victors, and if the Japanese had been victorious, then there would be no talk of how badly they treated the PoWs. It would have been the Americans who would have been tried for war crimes and not the Japanese.
3. In the thirties and on into the forties, the police in Japan also had a duty of social censorship, and of monitoring public activities. The TOKKO (Special Higher Police, or thought police) was the civilian branch whose duty it was to enforce the idea of proper thought. Citizens could get in trouble for reading foreign language books. They could also get in trouble for listening to foreign music, and for being involved in labor movements.
From 1933 through 1936, over 59,000 people were arrested for having “dangerous thoughts.” Of those, 2,500 were sent to prison.
There was also a complete difference in legal assumptions. People in Japan who were arrested were assumed to be guilty until proven innocent. Examinations could take place in secret, and torture could be used.
The Kempeitai were noted for their “racial and political fanaticism.”
There was also a Naval form of secret police that were responsible for mass murders.
The Kempeitai were the key administrators in the use of “comfort women” and prostitutes.
A Japanese radio show, Zero Hour, was used to broadcast pro-Japanese propaganda, and it was this radio show on which Tokyo Rose would appear. The book goes into the history of the one person prosecuted , Iva Toguri, was basically forced by the Kempeitai into taking up a job in the radio show. After the war she was arrested, freed, and re-arrested when the public wanted a scapegoat, tried, found guilty, and spent time in prison. The fact is, of course, that there were a number of “Tokyo Rose”s, not just one person.
The Kempeitai were also involved in getting subjects for the biological warfare experiments of Unit 731.
Japanese soldiers behaved particularly cruelly to civilians in the Philippines.
Tojo ordered that the Doolittle raiders that were captured were to be treated as war criminals and not as PoWs. He was also connected to the Kempeitai.
Hirohito's uncle Prince Yasuhiko Asaka had ordered the Japanese Army and the Kampeitai to slaughter 300,000 military prisoners at Nanking. A second uncle had ordered civilians in China bombed. Both went free and were not tried as war criminals at the end of the war.
The U.S. Occupation force had their own system of rigid censorship of papers, books, magazines, etc. (Some of this involved hiding things from the knowledge of US citizens, also.)
Groups that supported the Kempeitai continued even after the war ended, even through the 1980's.
On May 28, 1959, Emperor Hirohito “gave an order in person to the Shinto priests who administer the Yasukuni-jinja to inscribe the names of all Japan's war criminals on to the scrolls of the 2,500,000 immortal military dead commemorated at the shrine.”
(This is the shrine that has been so controversial when visited by Japanese dignitaries. The Korean and Chinese governments get upset when the visits are conducted, primarily because of the addition of those accused and convicted of war crimes.)
There is also a small memorial to the Kempeitai at the Yasaukuni-shrine area.
April 13, 2020
Informativ? Ja.
Strukturert? Nogenlunde.
Lettlest? Nei!
Tullingen Lamont-Brown skriver japanske navn med fornavn først, noe veldig få japanister ville gjort. Så da er han veldig fokusert på at det skal være lettlest for angloer? NEI! Han skriver så alle militærtitler på japansk! "Chuui Tokushirou Tsurumi led the attack" SHUT UP. Jeg kan mer enn folk flest om japansk, inkl militærtitler. Ikke mye, men mer enn mannen (og kvinnen) på gata. Men hvis jeg må sitte og slå opp i glossen fordi han har førti+ titler og navn han ikke gidder å oversette er noe galt! "Gaimusho" kan helt fint oversettes med "utenriksministeriet", så hvorfor gjør han det ikke? Makan!
Så vidt jeg kan se skrev Lamont-Brown boka bordi far hans satt i japansk fangeleir under krigen. Ellers har han for det meste skrevet om Skottland. Boka har kildeliste, også et par japanske bøker, men siden han ikke nevner noen kilder i selve brødteksten kan jeg ikke vite hvor han får spesifikk info fra. I følge en artikkel jeg fant på Oria er han japanolog. Dette er åpenbart bare tilfelle av at jeg virkelig ikke klikker med skrivemåten til forfatteren, men at jeg klikker på den er et tegn på at noe er alt, mener jeg.
Strukturert? Nogenlunde.
Lettlest? Nei!
Tullingen Lamont-Brown skriver japanske navn med fornavn først, noe veldig få japanister ville gjort. Så da er han veldig fokusert på at det skal være lettlest for angloer? NEI! Han skriver så alle militærtitler på japansk! "Chuui Tokushirou Tsurumi led the attack" SHUT UP. Jeg kan mer enn folk flest om japansk, inkl militærtitler. Ikke mye, men mer enn mannen (og kvinnen) på gata. Men hvis jeg må sitte og slå opp i glossen fordi han har førti+ titler og navn han ikke gidder å oversette er noe galt! "Gaimusho" kan helt fint oversettes med "utenriksministeriet", så hvorfor gjør han det ikke? Makan!
Så vidt jeg kan se skrev Lamont-Brown boka bordi far hans satt i japansk fangeleir under krigen. Ellers har han for det meste skrevet om Skottland. Boka har kildeliste, også et par japanske bøker, men siden han ikke nevner noen kilder i selve brødteksten kan jeg ikke vite hvor han får spesifikk info fra. I følge en artikkel jeg fant på Oria er han japanolog. Dette er åpenbart bare tilfelle av at jeg virkelig ikke klikker med skrivemåten til forfatteren, men at jeg klikker på den er et tegn på at noe er alt, mener jeg.
August 8, 2021
Książka niezwykła. Na ponad stu stronach jest opisana historia japońskiej Tajnej Policji Cesarskiej Kempeitai. Kempeitai działała dużo dłużej niż działało Gestapo, a ich zbrodnie są dużo bardziej przerażające. Ciekawostką jest to, ze zbrodni dokonywano w imieniu Cesarza. Zarówno cesarz, jak i członkowie jego dworu będący szefami Kempeitai, a także tysiące funkcjonariuszy Kempeitai mających na sumieniu zbrodnie wojenne, nigdy przenigdy nie poniosło odpowiedzialności za swoje czyny. Co więcej pod parasolem ochronnym tych, których wcześniej zwalczali wiedli spokojne życie, a niektórzy z nich zrobili zadziwiające kariery...Ku przestrodze...
November 27, 2024
The historical material is fascinating, but whenever it strays into the author's opinions it comes off as mediocre at best, orientalizing at worst.
Snippet of what I mean, this is the full argument for this point and doesn't cite other works:
"It must be said that the Kempeitai in particular corrupted what was the fine military code of Bushido with its five main tenets of righteousness, courage, humanity, propriety and sincerity. PoWs believed that because of Bushido they were harshly treated, but Bushido in its original form never condoned cruelty, the Kempeitai made it a travesty."
Snippet of what I mean, this is the full argument for this point and doesn't cite other works:
"It must be said that the Kempeitai in particular corrupted what was the fine military code of Bushido with its five main tenets of righteousness, courage, humanity, propriety and sincerity. PoWs believed that because of Bushido they were harshly treated, but Bushido in its original form never condoned cruelty, the Kempeitai made it a travesty."
May 11, 2015
I was not a fan of the Author's treatment of the general topic of Japanese history. In a lot of his wording, the sense is that the Japanese always wanted a militaristic government and were planning to conquer the entirety of the South East Asia ever since the early days after the Restoration.
Indeed, while I liked the Author's specific treatment of the Kempeitai and the organisation in the different fields, as well as his use of suitable quotes (some of which are very effective), my general impression of the book remained negative since a lot of the wording used was very negative and expressed in the harshest of possible terms. I also found it slightly unusual for a English-written book to rely so heavily on foreign terms (an excellent history of Heian Japan by Karl Friday being the absolute opposite -- Mr Friday used the Japanese terms as an introduction to the story and not as integral parts of it; after all, it does not matter whether we call someone a Taisho or General as long as we understand the context within which that person operated -- and this seemed to be something the Author here missed entirely).
Yet, even though my above statements have been generally negative, I found that the quotes provided (for both introductions into chapters and also as general comments on the times) were very interesting and quite possibly provided a greater insight to the Kempeitai than the rest of the book. Those choices have been what made my read so very enjoyable.
Indeed, while I liked the Author's specific treatment of the Kempeitai and the organisation in the different fields, as well as his use of suitable quotes (some of which are very effective), my general impression of the book remained negative since a lot of the wording used was very negative and expressed in the harshest of possible terms. I also found it slightly unusual for a English-written book to rely so heavily on foreign terms (an excellent history of Heian Japan by Karl Friday being the absolute opposite -- Mr Friday used the Japanese terms as an introduction to the story and not as integral parts of it; after all, it does not matter whether we call someone a Taisho or General as long as we understand the context within which that person operated -- and this seemed to be something the Author here missed entirely).
Yet, even though my above statements have been generally negative, I found that the quotes provided (for both introductions into chapters and also as general comments on the times) were very interesting and quite possibly provided a greater insight to the Kempeitai than the rest of the book. Those choices have been what made my read so very enjoyable.
July 8, 2016
This is a good overview of the Japanese military police and its activities. Its criminal actions in Manchuria, such as shakedowns and protection rackets, were only the beginning. They also had charge of Unit 731, with its barbaric human experiments, and were responsible for gathering the "comfort women" from Korea and other places, for their exploitation. We're also shown how so few of these men were punished after the war, and indeed were rehabilitated by the Allies into Japanese police forces in the 1950's.
August 11, 2015
Lucreara este un catalog de crime si abuzuri comise de politia secreta japoneza de-a lungul a peste 25 de ani. Tratamentele la care erau supusi cei care cadeau in mainile ofiterilor Kempeitai erau brutale si terifiante, dincolo de limita suportabilului. Desi marturiile celor care au traversat iadul japonez raman valabile, existand o intreaga arhiva in acest sens, cei mai multi dintre autorii acestor acte de barbarie au scapat basma curata la finalul razboiului.
Cum de s-a putut intampla asa ceva? Ramane sa lecturati cartea...
Cum de s-a putut intampla asa ceva? Ramane sa lecturati cartea...
July 10, 2011
Just like Knights of Bushido except endears me even less to the defeated.
August 5, 2016
A bit much, but more than I expected...huh!
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October 2, 2017Kempeitai: Japan’s Dreaded Military Police. Raymond Lamont-Brown (Author) 1998. 182 Pages.
Half-Priced Books for $4USD. Read to finish up my research project, The Ground Forces of the Imperial Japanese Army in the Second World War. http://www.1jma.dk/articles/1jmaIJAfr...
Half-Priced Books for $4USD. Read to finish up my research project, The Ground Forces of the Imperial Japanese Army in the Second World War. http://www.1jma.dk/articles/1jmaIJAfr...
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