Japan Press Weekly

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2015 October 21 - 27 TOP3 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

University students 72 years ago mobilized for war

Seventy-two years ago, when Japan was facing defeat in war, many university students were sent to battle fronts without receiving adequate training. They were treated as probable casualties of war and ended up dying on battlefields. These mobilized students accounted for 71% and 85% of the war dead among “Kamikaze” (suicide attack units) crew officers in the Army and in the Navy, respectively.

The Pacific War started in December 1941. After being severely beaten back in the Battle of Midway Island in mid-1942, Japan rapidly lost its momentum. Nevertheless, the Japanese Empire sought to expand its territory even to the Asia Pacific region while maintaining the Chinese front. This aggravated soldier shortages. In addition, reckless operations associated with the worsened war situation further accelerated the decline in the number of junior officers and pilots. Imperial Japan at that time conscripted men at the age of 20 years and older but granted university students a postponement until they turn 24. However, the Government of the Empire of Japan abolished this system in October 1943, and mobilized about 100,000 university students for military service.

Matsuoka Kinpei was forced to enter the Army soon after he enrolled in the Imperial University of Tokyo (current: the Univ. of Tokyo). Before enlisting in the service, he criticized the war in his diary, “Does a war have ethics? If this is a war for a cause, I don’t know what the cause is”. Matsuoka was forced to enter army life. Then, he noted in the diary, “I must reject the student way of thinking objectively and the use of critical thinking. Instead, I need to learn to believe without question.” He was killed in Burma (current: Myanmar) at the age of 21 in April 1945. It was only one month after he was assigned to the 33rd Division of the Imperial Japanese Army there.

Universities investigating mobilization of their students

Today, universities which sent their students to the front lines have been making efforts to reveal the whole picture.

Saint Paul’s University found that it had abandoned its principles of “Christianity” and fully supported Japanese imperialism in 1942. Accordingly, it shut down its chapel. The following year, the university held a farewell ceremony to send off to war 658 out of its total of 881 students all at once.

Unlike Saint Paul’s University, however, most universities still do not know how many students from their schools were forced to go into the military.

Many universities now oppose war legislation

More than 70 years have passed since the student mobilization order was issued by the then government. The present administration led by PM Abe Shinzo is now intending to take the teeth out of the war-renouncing principles of Japan’s postwar Constitution which reflects deep remorse over the Asia Pacific War. The Abe government in the last ordinary session of the Diet bulldozed through legislation in order to turn Japan into a country capable of fighting wars abroad again.

To oppose the “security” legislation, groups of students and academics were established one after another at many universities. As of September 2015, the number of scholars and researchers who expressed their opposition to the war laws has reached 14,120, and more than 140 universities and colleges have anti-war legislation groups. The aforementioned Saint Paul’s University is one such academic institution. The association at this university published a statement in protest against the forcible enactment of the security legislation. Their statement includes the following phrase: Based on the awareness of the sin our university committed during the Pacific War, for 70 years since the war’s end, we have sincerely pursued our studies and education rooted in peace as taught by Jesus.

Serious soul-searching of past student mobilizations at each university appears to have led to the ongoing academic movements against the current regime intent on going on the road to destroy peace and democracy.

Past related articles:
> Universities pressured students from Japan’s colonies to volunteer for Japanese military in WWII [October 7, 2015]
> Many researchers resolve to fight to have war legislation repealed [September 20, 2015]
> Keio Univ. students conduct research on wartime mobilization of students [October 20, 2013]