A History of Japan: From Stone Age to Superpower (101 page)

25
Hall 74, pp8–9.

26
Kawai 38, pp69–72.

27
Kawai 38, p74.

28
See, for example, the
Addresses to Young Men
given by Hashimoto Kingor
of the nationalistic
Sakurakai
(Cherry Blossom Society). Excerpts are given in Tsunoda 64, v.2, pp289–91.

29
Li 92, pp75–6, and Peattie 83, p345.

30
Li 92, pp73–6.

31
Peattie 83, pp345–6.

32
Hunter 89, p124.

33
Dower 92, p53.

34
Forster 81, p62. Forster also points out that by contrast Australia’s GDP grew by only 10 per cent over the same period.

35
Kosaka 92, p32.

36
Reischauer and Craig 79, p246.

37
Between 1929 and 1937 the proportion of GDP occupied by chemicals, metal, and machinery rose from 30 per cent to 50 per cent. See Forster 81, p62. Between 1920 and 1940 iron and steel production increased eleven-fold, machinery six-fold, and chemicals also six-fold. See Hunter 89, p124.

38
Hunter 89, p125.

39
Morishima 82, pp109–12.

40
Hunter 89, pp125–6, and Francks 92, pp63–5.

41
The Japanese further claimed one of their number had been killed, but no name was ever given for this supposed casualty. See also Gluck 92, p14. By contrast, some commentators, such as Boyle 83, believe the incident was a genuine accident. The Japanese record of engagement with a foe – once they feel such engagement is inevitable – at least suggests the strong possibility of provocation.

42
Kitaoka 92, p165.

43
Large 92, pp89–92.

44
Some footage appears to have been faked American propaganda, but some of it is authentic. See Dower 86, pp45–6.

45
See ‘Nanjing Testament’, in the
Japan Times
, weekly international edition, 22–28 August 1994. The article includes first-hand testimony from a soldier who took part in the massacre, Nagatomi Hiromichi. See also Hunter 89, p58.

46
The interview with Prince Mikasa appeared in the
Yomiuri
newspaper on 6 July 1994 and was reported in English in the
Japan Times
, weekly international edition, 18–24 July 1994.

47
For example, Chang 97, Honda 99, and Rickert 98.

48
The biggest incident was in May 1939, when Soviet troops assisted Mongolians involved in a skirmish with Japanese forces at Nomohan, on the Manchurian border. In a clear defeat, the Japanese lost almost 20,000 men.

49
Coox 88, p336. See also Dower 86, p207.

50
Coox 88, p336. For a virtually contemporary and rather bewildered British view of Japan’s relationship with Germany under such strained circumstances, see Vansittart 43.

51
Reischauer and Craig 79, p260.

52
Hane 86, p297.

53
This document was declassified in 1970 but appears to have remained undiscovered in Washington’s National Archives till 1991. However, Lauchlin Currie and some of the pilots had already confirmed the top-secret plan. It is discussed in some detail, for example, in Schultz 87, Ch. 1, and was revealed to a wider audience in the ABC News video ‘Beaten to the Punch’, aired in the United States on 22 November 1991 in the programme
20–20
. The video shows the document itself complete with the signatures of Roosevelt and top military figures, and also contains interviews with Currie and others. The authenticity of the document has been confirmed not only by Currie but by specialists such as Gaddis Smith of Yale University.

54
See, for example, Schultz 87, p5, and Rusbridger and Nave 92, p121. Winston Churchill himself referred to a comment by Roosevelt in August 1941 that Congress might prevent him
declaring
war, but this would not prevent him from
making
it. This clearly suggests Roosevelt’s readiness to act covertly if necessary. See Churchill 51, p593.

55
Hirohito made this claim in 1946, defending himself. See Large 92, p114.

56
See Large 92, pp113–14.

57
Bix 92, p354.

58
See, for example, Dower 86, esp. p36 and pp259–61, for comment on a widely held Japanese attitude that westerners were soft, lacked commitment to a cause (through their selfishness), and could not endure a long and arduous struggle.

59
Operational details of this action are given in Barber 94.

60
For details of the report, its capture, and its effects, see Rusbridger and Nave 92, Ch. 5.

61
Coox 88, p343.

62
The research was carried out by Iguchi Hideo, son of one of the unfairly blamed Washington embassy staff and himself a senior diplomat of ambassador status. Despite obvious potential criticism of his having a vested interest in his research outcome, Iguchi’s research is based on hard documentary evidence and is beyond question. See the
New York Times
, 9 December 1999, or for a fuller report the
Japan Times International,
1–15 December 1999.

63
Sakai 94, p20.

64
The literature on Pearl Harbor is extensive, and the interpretations of events are many and varied. At the risk of over-simplifying an issue that should not be treated simplistically, those of a generally revisionist view, which inclines towards a ‘conspiracy’ or ‘cover-up’ interpretation or similar and tended to be at its peak just after the war, include John Flynn (44 and 45), George Morgenstern (47), Charles Beard (48), Robert Theobald (54), and Husband Kimmel (55). For a later example of revisionism, see the video ‘Sacrifice at Pearl Harbor’, screened on BBC2’s
Timewatch
programme 5 April 1992. Those who have opposed the revisionists include Samuel Morison (53), Roberta Wohlstetter (62), Gordon Prange (86), and Henry Clausen and Bruce Lee (92).

65
See Dower 86, p109.

66
See Dower 86, p109.

67
Bartlett 78, pp19–20.

68
Dallek 79, p307.

69
Large 92, pp114–5.

70
See Coox 88, p348.

71
Dower 86, p207.

72
Benedict 47, p22, and Dower 86, esp. p36 and pp259–61.

73
Coox 88, p353.

74
Benedict 47, pp38–9.

75
Benedict 47, p38, and Trefalt 95, esp. p116.

76
Benedict 47, p39.

77
See, for example, the account by Suzuki Murio, entitled ‘As Long As I Don’t Fight, I’ll Make It Home’, in Cook and Cook 92, pp127–35.

78
One example of a ‘planned and well-disciplined’ Japanese surrender was that of 42 Japanese – more than twice the number of their Australian captors – at Womgrer in New Guinea on 3 May 1945. See Thompson 45, pp2–3. As Thompson – an interrogator/interpreter – points out, this surrender was still very much the exception.

79
See, for example, the account by Yokota Yutaka, entitled ‘Volunteer’, in Cook and Cook 92, pp306–13. Yokota was a suicide minisub pilot who was thwarted by problems such as mechanical failures. He comments (p309) that: ‘There’s an old expression, “
Bushid
is the search for a place to die.” Well, that was our fervent desire, our long-cherished dream. A place to die for my country. I was happy to have been born a man. A man of Japan.’ He is one of many who overestimated the role of death in traditional
bushid
. He also talks of envy towards those chosen for suicide missions, and of physical beatings for those such as himself who returned, even for reasons beyond their control. His anguish was to continue well after the war.

80
Dower 86, pp232–3.

81
The great majority of these fought as a special unit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team (incorporating the Hawaiian-Japanese 100th Infantry
Battalion), mostly in the European arena. It was in fact, as a body, the most decorated military unit – relative to its size and length of service – in the history of the United States, and also produced one of America’s greatest military heroes, Richard Sakakida (who himself expressed a wish to live up to samurai ideals). See Hawaii Nikkei History Editorial Board 98, esp. pp6 and 338 regarding its distinguished service, and pp165–6 regarding Sakakida’s samurai ideals.

82
Trefalt 95, esp. pp118–20. For further discussion of the attitudes of Japanese PoWs, see also Gordon 94 and Carr-Gregg 78.

83
Benedict 47, pp38–40, and Trefalt 95, esp. pp115–16.

84
Dower 86, p48, and for figures and descriptions of the treatment of Allied PoWs of the Japanese see also Daws 94.

85
Benedict 47, Ch. 2, esp. p39, and also Utsumi 96, p201. The idea of dishonour was also linked with imperfection and impurity. Concern for purity also sometimes led Japanese to treat with callousness and brutality anyone they felt to be impure, Japanese or not. This could be a criminal or even a sick or wounded soldier, as Benedict also points out.