Military salute is an important symbol of a soldier's spiritual outlook, but it is a bit of a fuss to have a major general-level officer beaten just because of a military salute, but such a ridiculous thing is truly recorded in Saito Kunio's memoir "Army Infantry Manga Story".
In people's minds, the term "Imperial Japanese Army" seems to be inherently a derogatory term, and the fact is that it tends to be the same, and in modern times the Japanese army has participated in several international wars under the title of "Imperial Army".
The term "imperial army" has the meaning of the royal army's exclusive military power, but the imperial power monopoly has done more harm than good since ancient times, and the imperial military without the restraint of power will become a powerful tool to promote the endless expansion of the royal family.
However, at the beginning of the establishment of the Japanese army, it has always been operating with the title of "**", so how did the change from "**" to "Imperial Army" come about?
In modern Japan, the term "Imperial Army" was mentioned for the first timeMasazo MatsumotoPublished in 1887"Prince Shotoku's Biography of the Picture Society"., but the "Imperial Army" in this book refers to the ancient Japanese army, not the modern Japanese army.
Sino-Japanese WarShortly after the outbreak began, Motegi wrote the book "The Gods Sense the Victory of the Imperial Army" to encourage the morale of the Japanese army, although the "imperial army" in this book still refers to the Japanese army before modern times, but it alludes to the emperor's absolute religious leadership of the army.
During the Russo-Japanese War, when the two countries were in a state of stalemate, an atmosphere of terror and defeat began to permeate Japanese society, and in order to appease the people, the term "Imperial Army" began to appear widely in military songs and articles that inspired the people.
Later, the term "Imperial Army" began to be used in various Japanese ** and writings to refer to the modern Japanese army.
However, the "Imperial Army" here is more of a symbol with strong Shinto religious overtones and touting the "Imperial Historical View", and has no substantive meaning.
At this time, the Japanese army was rarely involved in terms of form composition or specific command, and naturally it could not be called "the private armed forces of the imperial family".
What really prompted the transformation of modern Japan into the "Imperial Army" and gave the "Imperial Army" substantive content was the rise of the "Imperial Army" in the Army, although it was in"The 226 Incident".Later, the "Imperial Army" was purged by the "ruling faction", but the "Imperial Army" has since become synonymous with the Japanese army.
The essence of the change to the "Imperial Army" means that although it was arbitrary and arbitrary, the military department, which still needed to consult with the first in terms of military expansion and military budget, has since gone to the front of the scenes, dominated Japan, and carried out the plan of foreign aggression and expansion without any fear.
Although the military ** headed by the emperor planned by the "Imperial Army" was stillborn, the fascist militarist system had been established, and the cabinet had completely become a vassal and logistics department of the "Imperial Army" to wage war and preach the Imperial Way.
In the name of the "Imperial Army," the Japanese army, with the military headquarters at its core, carried out a general mobilization of the national spirit and incorporated the entire people and the national economy into the high-speed national war mechanism.
After that, the Japanese Imperial Army could not wait to launch a full-scale war of aggression against China and the Pacific War, causing misery and committing numerous crimes in the surrounding countries.
Kunio Saito became a member of the Imperial Japanese Army in 1941, and after enlisting in the army, he was sent to the brigade intelligence room to be in charge of intelligence for the Eighth Route Army.
After the end of the war, he wrote a number of books describing his experiences in the army, among which "Army Infantry Manga Story" recreated what he saw and heard during the war of aggression against China in the form of a combination of cartoons and words, and was widely disseminated in Japan.
In the "Remembrance of Comrades-in-Arms (2)" section of the book, a ridiculous incident is depicted that is both funny and pathetic.
During his time at the brigade headquarters, there was a major general named Nobuo Tanaka.
When it comes to Nobuo Tanaka, the first thing that comes to mind is his beard and the way he salutes.
Tanaka's beard is well-known in the army, he is burly, with a striking mustache on his face, and more than 10 centimeters sticking out from the left and right sides of his cheeks.
Even the emperor of Japan at the time liked it and said, "Tanaka's beard is not allowed to be shaved." ”
Of course, these words made Tanaka even more complacent, and he wanted to make it into a ribbon and hang it on himself.
As for Tanaka's second specialty, the salute method, it is not so glorious in comparison.
Tanaka always bends his elbows upwards every time he salutes, and with a flying beard, he looks like a "lucky cat", which is naturally very non-standard.
Originally, the army paid special attention to saluting, but Tanaka didn't know if it was because he didn't have a standard salute himself, so he wouldn't be picky about saluting others, or because he didn't care about saluting, so his salute was crooked.
Sometimes when he meets a soldier and wants to salute him, he will also feel that the soldier fights hard, so he does not have to do more.
But Tanaka's leniency with others doesn't mean that he can be so-so in front of his superiors.
According to the recollection of Kunio Saito, at one time a lieutenant general of the army visited the brigade headquartersIn the intelligence war room, he held a meeting with the officers, including Tanaka, who was in charge of serving tea and pouring water.
Just as he was about to enter the room, he heard a loud "pop, pop" sound from inside, and felt strange for a while, but he stepped into the room without thinking much about raising his feet.
After entering the room, the scene in front of him made Saito dumbfounded, only to see the tall Tanaka standing straight, his hands close to the seams of his trousers, and in front of him stood a big man who was a head shorter than TanakaThe senior officer was so angry that his eyebrows were raised, and he shouted at Tanaka: "What kind of salute is this, give me again!" ”
I think it was this Major General Tanaka's staggered salute posture that annoyed the officers, causing him to be slapped by a major general for not saluting in a standardized manner.
If it is simply because of a violation of military discipline or a disagreement during an exchange, then some fist and kick movements seem to be reasonable in terms of reason, but it is really unreasonable for this senior officer to treat the dignified major general violently because of such a trivial matter as saluting.
Saito himself said, "Bosses who demand a lot of salute are often incompetent people when they start a fight." ”
However, this slap may have been just a small episode in Major General Tanaka's military career, because soon after the Major General was promoted to lieutenant general, he was promoted to the commander of the 33rd Division, and went to work in the Indo-Burma region of Southeast Asia.
In fact, slapping was extremely common in the Japanese army at that time, but when the victim was an ordinary soldier, the cause of violence became even more outrageous, and the degree of violence was far more than just a slap.
In the "Memories of Comrades-in-Arms (1)" section of the book, Saito also wrote another version of the "Slap Incident".
He had a close comrade-in-arms: Private M, both of whom were trained as recruits in the same squad, and were placed in the same squadron when they went to the battlefield.
According to Saito's words, M is not a soldier at all: not only is his movements slow, his speech is always blurred, and his mind doesn't seem to be able to turn, which made him slap the squad leader and veteran for several days in a row when he was a recruit, and his face was almost deformed.
Later, one day in May, M suddenly asked Saito to go to the toilet together, and it turned out that M's family secretly sent him a box of Daifuku cakes on the back of the toilet.
M and Saito quickly ate the Daifuku cake secretly and then pretended to be indifferent and returned to the wing, but they didn't expect that the senior soldier in charge of training at that time happened to be in the toilet, so the incident happened to be in the east window before night.
The result, of course, was a severe beating.
At that time, the management of recruits adopted the method of joint sitting, as long as one person made a mistake, everyone would be affected, so the "special slap" that night was mercilessly greeted to each recruit.
The "stunt slap" here refers to hitting with boots, Saito and M were beaten so that the corners of their mouths were cracked, and then Private M died on the battlefield, and this incident became an unforgettable memory in Saito's heart.
In 1936, he was conscripted into the Japanese army, a senior soldier of the 11th Squadron of the 9th Infantry Company of the 16th Division of the Japanese ArmyGozaburo Mochizuki, also recorded in his memoirs all kinds of misdeeds during the Japanese invasion of China.
In November 1937, he arrived in Changshu with his troops, where he saw slogans such as "Completely Anti-Japanese War" and "Down with the Oriental Ghosts" written on the walls of houses everywhere.
The squadron leader of the mackerel squadron told them that this was a place where the anti-Japanese resistance was very active and the resistance was very strong, so from now on, men, women, and children could be executed on the spot, and all civilian houses would be burned down.
When the Mackerel squadron leader gave this cold and inhuman order, it seemed a little incoherent, but not a single person in the unit carried out the order.
Originally, they would use their money to buy the things of the locals on the way, but after arriving in Changshu, the superior governor directly issued an order to collect grain, which was essentially forcibly plundering the grain of the locals.
It didn't take long for them to snatch up a large amount of grain, meat, and vegetables, even the wine hidden in the cellar.
In his recollections, the custom of bullying the weak and fearing the hard was also rampant in the Japanese army.
Since the warrant officer in the squad hated eggs, he ordered that no boiled eggs should appear in the army, and the snatched eggs were thrown on the ground at will.
During the battle, the squadron leader always stood in the trench two hundred meters behind the line of fire and shouted, telling the second lieutenant to rush forward and not stand in place to command, which corresponded to his own behavior, which was really ridiculous.
In addition, there are not a few cases of violence between superiors and subordinates, which makes people wonder how such an army can afford the name of "modern army"?
This is actually also related to the composition of the Japanese army.
In order to prepare for the war of aggression against China, from August 9 to October 1, 1937, Japan held four conscriptions, with a total of 500,000 conscripts.
According to statistics, 80 percent of the Japanese troops invading China at that time were filled by peasants, and most of the officers were professional soldiers, the big bourgeoisie, and landlords, and a few rich peasants could serve as low-ranking officers.
So,The unhealthy relationship between the upper and lower classes of the Japanese army is in essence a condensation of the Japanese social atmosphere in which there are clear social strata, and the relationship between the upper class and the lower class is a direct relationship between ruling and being ruled, and there is no equality at all.
The political and moral conditions of the Japanese army during the war were also clearly flawed, and the tacit approval of the military commanders to the abuse of civilians not only angered the Chinese people, but also aroused the discontent of the masses at home.
As the war progressed, anti-war sentiment began to spread gradually within the Japanese military, and although the Japanese side whitewashed or avoided talking about such incidents, the reports of foreign journalists were unexpected.
According to several facts published in foreign newspapers, it can be seen that there were several incidents in Shanghai in which entire Japanese squads refused to go to the front, and there were often units that were transferred back from the front line because of "instability."
There were several occasions in both Nanking and Shanghai where groups of soldiers escaped from the fronts, some soldiers refused to continue the offensive, and there were several open disputes between the naval headquarters in Nanking and Wuhu with the infantry who refused to carry out the command.
There are also frequent incidents of evading conscription and faking illness in Japan, and the number of suicides in the military is increasing day by day.
Under the influence of the defeat of the Japanese army, Tokyo also began to recognize the seriousness of this war of aggression against China, and a well-known Japanese economist once said:
When the terrible war of this Chinese incident was transferred to Shanghai, it was clear to our people that this was a modern war, and that the last time our country entered a world war, we saw only profits, and did not feel the nature of modern warfare in the slightest. Only this time the incident in China has opened our eyes and made us understand what modern warfare is. ”
After the war, the Soviet Union took on part of the work of transporting back the Japanese army, and Saito was among them.
However, what he did not expect was that this train "back to Japan" was actually a "prisoner escort train" that the Soviet Union escorted them to Siberia for labor.
In the end, Saito was forced to spend three years in Siberia before being able to return to Japan.
After being called up for the army by a piece of red paper, Saito lived a forced life in the army as a soldier for 8 years, and in this war, he lost many comrades, friends, and loved ones.
In 1988, Saito wrote the book "Army Infantry Manga Story" to commemorate his compatriots in the war and expose the corruption and absurdity of the Japanese army, but the publication of this book did not alleviate Saito's strong feelings.
So in June 1998, he wrote a postscript for "Army Infantry Manga Story" and lamented the cruelty of war.
Born in 1912 and enlisted in the army in 1941, Saito returned to his hometown in his forties, and apart from publishing books, little is known about his life after demobilization.
Some say that he eventually returned to China and was buried there, while others say that he got married and had children and hid in the market.
However, all the things described in his book, as well as the crimes of the Japanese invasion of China behind it, have been engraved on the pillars of history and will never disappear, and the innocent people who died in the war will never be forgotten by the people.
Army Infantry Manga Story; Guangren Society; 2009.04
Nanjing ** Historical Collection: Memories of Japanese Officers and Soldiers"; Jiangsu People's Publishing House; 2007.10
Japanese Soldier Cartoon Anti-Japanese War"; "Literature and History Expo"; 2011.9