Uneasy Warriors: Gender, Memory, and Popular Culture in the Japanese Army

286 Pages·2007·0.877 MB·English

by  Sabine Fruhstuck

Uneasy Warriors

Uneasy Warriors
Gender, Memory, and Popular Culture
in the Japanese Army
Sabine Frühstück
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley • Los Angeles • London
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Frühstück, Sabine.
Uneasy warriors : gender, memory, and popular cul-
ture in the Japanese Army / Sabine Frühstück.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn978-0-520-24794-9 (cloth : alk. paper)—
isbn978-0-520-24795-6 (paper : alk. paper)
1. Japan—Armed Forces. 2. Sociology, Military—
Japan. 3. Popular culture—Japan. 4. Japan—
Armed Forces—Women. I. Title.
ua845.f68 2007
306.2'70952—dc22
2007011432
Manufactured in the United States of America
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on New Leaf EcoBook 60, a
100% recycled fiber of which 60% is de-inked post-
consumer waste, processed chlorine-free. EcoBook 60
is acid-free and meets the minimum requirements of
ansi/astm d5634-01 (Permanence of Paper).
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Note on Asterisked Names and Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
1. On Base 15
2. Postwar Postwarrior Heroism 50
3. Feminist Militarists 86
4. Military Manipulations of Popular Culture 116
5. Embattled Memories, Ersatz Histories 149
Epilogue 179
Notes 189
References 207
Index 261

Illustrations
1. A National Defense Academy cadet on a break during the
last maneuver of his senior year (1998) 19
2. Service members of the Ground Self-Defense Force during
mortar training (2001) 32
3. A GSDF service member being interviewed 35
4. Advertisement for the energy-enhancing drink Ripobitan
D (1998) 58
5. Salaryman Kintaroon cover of 2001 defense white
paper 63
6. Cover of Hirakawa Tadaichi’s 1946 English conversation
book, Come, Come, Everybody 77
7. Representation of General MacArthur from the brochure
“Let Us Break Out of the Mind Control of the Tokyo
Trial,” published by the right-wing Association to Honor
the Spirits of the Fallen Heroes 78
8. A female NDA cadet digging trenches during a maneuver
(1998) 93
9. Illustrated article on female service members in the weekly
Shukan Gendai(November 24, 1990) 113
10. Illustration from the book Here We Go—Women Soldiers
(Ganbare josei jieikan)captioned “Are female officers
dangerous?” 114
11. Cover of Bessatsu Takarajima on the Self-Defense Forces 120
12. Self-Defense Forces recruitment poster (2005) 124
13. Self-Defense Forces recruitment poster with slogan “Peace
People Japan—Come On!” 127
14. Cartoon character Prince Pickles and his various Self-
Defense Forces uniforms and fantasy costumes 133
15. Two gold-framed postcards sold as souvenirs at the army
parade in 1906 159
16. April 1941 issue of Japan’s Children (Nippon no Kodomo),
which playfully familiarized children with war and the
military 161
17. An oil painting of the Self-Defense Forces’ first international
disaster relief mission, displayed in the GSDF Public
Relations Center, Tokyo 168
18. An oil painting of combined exercises with the U.S.
military, displayed in the GSDF Public Relations Center,
Tokyo 169
19. A 1960s Self-Defense Forces banner featuring a dove,
exhibited at a GSDF base museum 172
20. A present-day Self-Defense Forces banner 175
Acknowledgments
Over the past nine years the research for this book has taken me from
the Japanese defense attaché’s offices in Vienna to similar places in
Tokyo, and from there, to military bases across Japan. I am indebted par-
ticularly to all those members of the Self-Defense Forces who put up with
me long term, despite the fact that to many the outcome of my research
must have remained unclear and possibly suspect. If I succeeded over the
years at building a network of Self-Defense Forces members and affili-
ates, it is mostly thanks to a handful of lieutenant colonels and colonels
who have been supportive and creative in their methods of helping me
connect with their peers across Japan. Most of them seemed impressed,
amused, and occasionally exhausted. They were most probably quietly
unnerved that I showed up year after year insisting that I needed yet more
information, wanted to carry out more interviews, and that the book
would take an unclear number of additional years to complete.
Thomas Ludwig has continued to ask me the most probing questions,
has cautioned and encouraged, and has joined me in laughing and sigh-
ing about the details of research and writing. Tak Fujitani, Laura Miller,
Glenda Roberts, and Jennifer Robertson have read the entire manuscript
for the press to come up with many important suggestions, most of
which I hope I was able to incorporate. I also wish to express my grati-
tude for invaluable exchanges and critical comments on different incar-
nations of parts of the book by friends and colleagues including Tarak
Barkawi, Jim Bartholomew, Aaron Belkin, Eyal Ben-Ari, Elise Edwards,
ix