"We are the knights of Bushido, of the Order of the Rising Sun. We execute not at sunset, but at sunrise."

~ Quote from a Japanese officer used as evidence at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

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Over the decades, there has been a primary focus on the atrocities committed by the Nazis as well as their Western and Eastern European allies against the Jewish peoples and other populations deemed as undesirable when it comes to the studies of crimes against humanity perpetrated in the Second World War.

Everyone with a basic understanding of the Second World War has heard of the Nüremberg trials and knows the top Nazi criminals such as Goebbels, Himmler, and Goering. Many people even without a spark for history know the names of the Concentration Camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka, as well they should.

Moral scruples notwithstanding, we have learned to understand the prime motivations behind the Nazis and their conquests as well as the actions of German soldiers. The same can not be said for the Empire of Japan.

While many people know of the barbarity displayed by Imperial Japanese soldiers and sailors against civilian populations and Allied/Chinese prisoners of war, far fewer people understand what truly motivated the Japanese soldier to act with such inhuman cruelty.

The purpose of this work is not to justify, but to assist the reader in creating a frame of reference. To allow the individual to better understand the mentality of a Japanese soldier without the interference of modern western morality.

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Samurai legacy and One under the Emperor

Japan is a nation with a long and rich history. Their civilization can trace its roots back 2000 years when the first Emperor Jimmu, descendent of the Sun God and the Storm God, came to the land.

Over the centuries and millennia, Japan would exist as a country fragmented by civil wars against feuding clans and warlords.

One of the important cultural and societal creations that came from the centuries of conflict was the Samurai (Bushi) class. Over the centuries, these warriors would shape their own unwritten rules of self conduct and in the 12th century under Shogun Minamoto Yoritomo, the written code of Bushido, the way of the warrior, was born.

After centuries of refinement, the core beliefs of Bushido were sincerity, frugality, loyalty, martial arts mastery, and honour until death.

After the Shogunate was toppled in 1868, the Meiji era began under the young Emperor Meiji, who was just 14 at the time of his ascension to power. During this Era of 42 years, Japan formed from a country into a nation and once again became an Imperial State with the Emperor seated firmly at its head.

Economic expansion happened and more opportunities for peasants were created, one of them being allowed to join the Imperial Military as a professional soldier for the first time in the history of the nation.

With the rapid modernization of Japan and its step out of a long period of isolationism, a period of civil war on the Island of Kyushu would break out, the winning prize to shape Japan's future forever. Known as the Satsuma Rebellion, the nine years of conflict culminated in the final battle of Shiroyama.

Saigō Takamura and his heavily outnumber Samurai, true believers of the old Imperial Way, stayed true to their Bushido and died in battle, loyal to the end for their cause. Despite being the enemy of the newly formed Imperial Army, Saigō would be immortalized in the new military culture as a standard for all soldiers. Bushido had solidified its place in the new Imperial Way.

Japan would also fight two major conflicts in these years against both China and Russia, claiming victory in both wars. With her victory over Russia, it marked the first time an Asian power had militarily defeated a modern European army in the field.

With Japan rising on the world stage and becoming prominent in international relations, the rapid transition from an isolated and weak nation brought many dangers and challenges. A major force of stability in these highly turbulent times was nationalism, a sentiment the Japanese had nourished since the Tokugawa Era.

Requiring little stimulus, the nationalism within the Japanese people quickly grew into a cult surrounding their Emperor. Efforts were made to distribute some power amongst the people of the nation; the people had a stronger tendency toward believing the Sovereign should rule with unquestionable power.

As Emperor Hirohito, also referred to as Emperor Shōwa, ascended to power in 1926, the Imperial State imagined by Emperor Meiji had been made a reality. A highly nationalistic society centred around the Emperor as the spiritual leader of the people that was rapidly modernizing while maintaining their values and traditions.

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The Way of the Subject

Shinmin no michi, the way of the subject, was a booklet created by the Ministry of Education in 1941. This ideological work was designed to tell the Japanese who they were and should aspire to be, as a people, nation, and race.

"Japan is the fountain source of the Yamato race, Manchukuo its reservoir, and East Asia its paddy field."

It also offered a critical analysis of Western history and culture. In the eyes of the Japanese, it was the Western powers who were bent on world domination and had been engaged in that quest with success for centuries, the proof being that only a few thousand White Europeans ruled over 450 million Asians. It was the value system of the West, rooted in inquisitiveness and self-gratification that explained so much of their history of war and bloody repression, culminating in the current world crisis.

"the entry of Western countries in all parts of the whole world, including the Far East, has given them international domination, and also led them to believe that they themselves possess the right to commit injurious acts against others".

The booklet also accused the British and Americans of disrupting the beautiful détente and brokering of friendship between China and Japan.

America specifically was targeted by the booklet for special criticism. Primarily, the booklet covered the slavery of blacks and the special repression faced by Native-American Indians as well as other immigrants, such as Asiatics and Slavs.

In the same way that Westerners were reading and interpreting Japanese history as a chronicle of destructive values, exploitative practices, and brutal wars, the Japanese interpreted Western history in the same way.

The picture of the Anglo-American enemy that existed inside of the Shinmin no michi persisted throughout the entirety of the war.

In 1942, the Shinmin no michi was supplemented with another ideological pamphlet called the Le no michi, the way of the family. This work elaborated on the traditional Japanese family structure. How family harmony can only be achieved by each family member fulfilling their role and remaining in their proper place.

Le no michi also expanded on the idea of the "National Family" and how these family principles should expand towards the community and state.

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Gunjin Chokuyu and Senjinkun

On January 4th, 1882, Emperor Meiji issued the Gunjin Chokuyu, the Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors. A 2700 Kanji document expected to be memorized by every single soldier and sailor of the fledgling Imperial Army and Navy, formed the backbone of the Imperial Military Code.

Coming just shortly after the Satsuma Rebellion, it stressed the absolute loyalty of every single soldier and sailor to the Emperor, to give themselves entirely to the Sovereign. The rescript itself was personally presented by Emperor Meiji to Army Minister Yamagata Aritomo. This highly symbolic action showed a personal bond between the Emperor and the Imperial Military.

The Rescript itself draws from Confucian and Buddhist principles as well as many other sources. One of the most well-known precepts of the Rescript reads as follows:

"Duty is heavier than a mountain; death is lighter than a feather."

Another key feature of the Rescript is that it calls for soldiers and sailors to remain apolitical. It describes how soldiers should not be reactive to news and current opinions, but focus solely on their duty to the Emperor.

It also describes how a soldier should lead his life in a frugal and tidy manner, a reflection of their samurai tradition. A soldier should strive to keep every aspect of his life in complete order so that on the day he dies for the Emperor, he will leave behind no worries or responsibility to his family.

The day after the attack on Pearl Harbour, January 8, 1941, the then-Japanese War Minister, Hideki Tojo, issued the Senjinkun. Meaning "Instructions for the Battlefield", it was a pocket-sized booklet designed to act as a supplement to the Gunjin Chokuyu.

"The battlefield is where the Imperial Army, acting under the Imperial Command, displays its true character, conquering whenever it attacks, winning whenever it engages in combat, in order to spread the Imperial Way far and wide so that the enemy may look up in awe to the august virtues of His Majesty."

Putting extreme emphasis on military regulations, morale, combat readiness and cultural/spiritual devotion, it also specified in multiple sections that a soldier or sailor should remain at their post and prefer death over retreat or surrender which were expressly forbidden.

"Never live to experience shame as a prisoner"

This specific quote has been widely attributed, although somewhat incorrectly, to the mass suicides carried out by Japanese civilians on islands such as Saipan and Okinawa. It has been more correctly attributed to the willingness to conduct large-scale suicide offensives by the armed forces, such as the infamous Banzai charges as well as the flights of the Kamikaze pilots.

Ironically from the perspective of the enemies of the Japanese Empire, both the Gunjin Chokuyu and Senjinkun put a heavy emphasis on treating those who surrender in combat with mercy and honour. Adjoined to exemplify true valour and avoid reprehensible behaviour against the enemy so as to earn the esteem of the enemy.

"If you affect valour and act with violence, the world will, in the end, detest you and look upon you as wild beasts."

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Propaganda, Rumours and Facts about Enemy Crimes

To the majority of Japanese, as to the Anglo-Americans, atrocities committed by one's own side were episodic while the enemies' brutal acts were systematic and revealed a fundamentally perverse national character.

Certain rumours regarding allied atrocities which reached the ears of Japanese soldiers and civilians were sensational and quite imaginary.
For example, it was said that the Chinese boil their captives alive before cutting out and consuming the victim's heart. Young American men were alleged to have qualified for the Marine Corps by murdering their parents and routinely raped and killed Asian women. Unlike the Senjinkun, this rumour is more correctly believed to be what caused such mass civilian suicide on islands such as Saipan and Okinawa.

It was claimed the Western Allies killed prisoners by tying their arms and legs, then laying them on the ground in long rows to be crushed to death by jeeps, tanks and bulldozers.

In perhaps the most fanciful rumour of all, it was claimed that if the Allies should win the war against the Japanese, they would turn Japan into an international playpark and kill all but 5000 attractive young Japanese girls to act as guides.

Other reports, however, were not imaginary. Allied soldiers were well known to mutilate Japanese corpses for trophies such as ears, teeth, scalps, thigh bones and skulls. Allied sailors and airmen strafed and bombed Japanese hospital ships and gunned down helpless sailors who'd abandoned ship as well as pilots hanging from their parachutes who bailed out of their planes. Allied soldiers also tortured and executed prisoners as well as wounded on the battlefield.

A famous instance of this was reported by Marine Corporal Eugene Sledge. On the island of Peleliu, he observed a fellow marine approach a wounded Japanese soldier and begin slashing the man's cheeks open with a ka-bar to extract golden crowns from his mouth. Sledge would later write in his diary,

“Harvesting gold teeth was one facet of stripping enemy dead that I hadn’t practiced so far. But stopping beside a corpse with a particularly tempting number of shining crowns, I took out my Ka-bar and bent over to make the extractions”

Sledge also wrote about an experience on Okinawa where he saw a marine shoot a helpless and terrified old Okinawan woman, jovially expressing that, "she was just another gook who wanted to be put down."

Another marine told a story of how on Guadalcanal, a Japanese soldier responded to calls for surrender by coming out of his bunker with his hands above his head, only to be shot down by another marine for his troubles.

"Not only was this a vicious thing to do, but it was also asinine. You can bet your life the others weren't going to come out after that."

The kill-or-be-killed psychology was a violent circle and it should be kept in mind when considering one of the most potent beliefs of the war years. That Japanese fighting men did not surrender. There were occasions when large numbers of Japanese soldiers successfully surrendered, but, it is true to say in the jungles of mainland East Asia and on the island atolls of the Pacific, most Japanese fought on until they were killed or committed suicide. They did so for many reasons, primarily, due to their superiors’ orders and how they were socialized. But, many did so seeing no alternative other than to die quickly in combat, rather than being murdered by a demonic Anglo-American soldier.

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Japanese Purity & Superiority

Because the Japanese believed that they were a homogenous race that traced their origin, or at the very least, the origin of their Imperial Bloodline, back to the Gods themselves, they believed it gave them a special racial purity.

No other peoples of the world could claim to be of such divine decent, to possess such a special binding of blood and morality. The orthodox history of Japan that was pushed by the state, being that Japan was founded in 660 B.C by Emperor Jimmu, strongly encouraged this line of thinking.

"There are superior and inferior races in the world, and it is the sacred duty of the leading race to lead and enlighten the inferior ones. The reason Japan is the sole, leading race in the world is twofold. The Japanese are pureblooded and we are descended from the Gods"

~ Nakajima Chikuhei, Major Industrialist and Political Leader, 1940

Statements such as this gave the interpretation that the greater East Asian war was no ordinary conflict, but a divine mission. Many other such statements could be quoted from leading Japanese figures.

It is difficult to actually know how seriously the mytho-historical explanations of the origins of the Japanese people and the Imperial State were taken by the average Japanese citizen. It is easy to exaggerate the thesis of Divine Origins being taken as literal truth. For instance, despite the intense state indoctrination regarding Jimmu and the founding of the nation, the theory of biological evolution was never banned in Japanese education and was continually studied throughout the war.

While colour did not play the same role in Japanese perceptions of the Asian conflict and war against the Anglo-Americans, they did occasionally refer to themselves as yellow or coloured. There was no rubric of "Yellow Supremacism" or "Coloured Supremacism" comparable to the sense of "White Supremacism" found in the west.

A primary reason for this was because the Japanese themselves looked down upon the other coloured races while, intriguingly, at the same time holding "Whiteness" in high esteem since ancient times. Not only the whiteness of one's own complexion but also as a more abstract symbol of purity.

To the Japanese, white has historically been the colour of purity. The Shinto priest who performs the right of purification wears white robes. Whiteness and bright complexion are also connected with Japan's sense of personal beauty and high social status as ancient literature and art make amply clear.

From as far back as the Heian Period (794-1185) and on, pale skin has been idealized in Japan and any reader of the 11th century "Tale of Genji" is aware of how people of dark complexion are subject to scorn. In ancient society, heavy use of cosmetics was a common practice, but the class and caste connotations of a fair complexion are obvious. Dark-skinned people are the labouring class who work in the sun.

Very common was the tendency of Japanese soldiers and civilian workers to distance themselves physically from the darker peoples of Asia. One of the earliest compelling pieces of evidence for this is in the wood-block prints used to depict the first Sino-Japanese war. In these coloured graphics, Japanese combatants are portrayed nearly like White Europeans, tall and fair-skinned with long, almost rectangular faces and even wearing western clothes and uniforms. In contrast, the Chinese were often depicted as short, round-faced, yellow-skinned creatures nearly identical to the western portrayal of the Oriental.

Japanese servicemen dispatched to the Southern Theater were often reluctant to admit their skin colour was the same as the native populations of the places they would occupy, making comments such as, "Look at how sunburned I've become."

Japanese leaders would ironically look into classical Chinese literature to find a term to describe the superiority of the Japanese moral quality. What they came up with was the stunning expression "Gyokusai".

Gyokusai is a word composed of two ideographs (玉砕) that literally means "jewel smashed", an expression derived from the 6th-century Chinese history "Chronicles of Northern Qi" where it was stated that on matters of principle, the man of moral superiority would break his precious jade rather than compromise to save the roof tiles of his home. After the war, a former Japanese Army officer described how moved he had been when the government introduced this phrase to describe fallen comrades.

"No one had thought of the dead as suffering a defeat, rather it simply seemed as though their spirits had been further purified."

Gyokusai was not a widely known word when it was first introduced, but it quickly became part of the daily lexicon of war, understood to mean choosing to die in battle rather than surrender. More simply put, death over dishonour.

As the war situation became worse and the military became more desperate, more extreme symbolic equations of self-sacrifice and purity were introduced. Special attack units known by their abbreviation as Tokkotai (特攻隊) were created at the end of 1944 as dedicated suicide units and virtually every act they engaged in, one way or another, connoted purity. A falling cherry blossom became their symbol and appeared in nearly everything about them from poems, songs, farewell letters to loved ones and even in the hands of the virgin schoolgirls who would see them off to their final missions.

The first special attack force to be formed in the Philippines was formally known as "Divine Wind", Shimbu, or more popularly, Kamikaze. In addition to their white rising sun headbands and white scarfs, the pilots often also wore white Senninbari, thousand stitch belt's in which 1000 women had all sewn a stitch so as to join the pilot symbolically in his final sacrifice. They wore clean clothes for their final flights and some units even drank a ceremonial cup of water as a further act of purification.

"The purity of youth will usher in the divine wind."

~ Vice Admiral Onishi Takijiro, father of the Kamikaze tactic.

The ideographic language used by the Japanese can also be found to have affected the Japanese mentality both consciously and subconsciously through spoken and written puns. A primary example is how one would write the name of Emperor Jimmu (神武). To write his name, you must write the words God and Martial Arts which can be translated to mean Divine Military, which, on a fundamental level links the Military to the God Emperor.

The majority of Japanese never likely made these types of conscious connections, but they always existed as an ever-constant subconscious message that the Japanese race was identical to the highest ideas and charged with a holy mission.

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With this information in mind, it is hoped that the reader of this work finds themselves now in a position to better understand the mindset of the proclaimed Yamato race. As stated at the beginning of this work, this is not to justify the actions of the Japanese which caused the deaths of nearly 20 million allied and Chinese civilians and soldiers.

The Japanese Government and Military bodies used everything from legitimate international grievances, mytho-historical propaganda, and deep-set cultural values, to proclamations of national Godliness to spark a ferocious fire within their populace. 100 Million as one whole. 100 million as a special attack force. 100 million ready to die for their Emperor.