Japan by the Japanese/Chapter 9.2

The Emperor, being the Generalissimo of the Army and Navy, has the supreme command of the whole force. The Emperor appoints the Minister for War, the Chief of the General Staff, and the Director-General of Military Education, as the members of the Military Council, to be consulted upon special military affairs.

The Minister for War administers all military transactions, has authority over the officers and men and military employés, and controls the undermentioned offices:

The Ordnance Council; the Military Engineers Council; the Military Sanitary Council; the Military Sanitary Council for Horses; the Army Horse Depot; the Armament Department; the Arsenal; the Ordnance Depot; the Fortification Department; the Formosa Supply Park; the Central Granary Depot; the Military Clothing Department; the ‘Senju’ Woollen Cloth Factory; the Army Medical Materials Depot; the Army Medical School; the Military Commissariat School; the Military Veterinary School.

The Chief of the General Staff prepares the scheme for the defence of the country and the commands for the movements of the army, and after receiving the Emperor’s approval, sanctions the same, and transfers them to the Minister for War. The Chief of the General Staff commands all the Staff ​officers, and has the direct control over the Staff College and Land-Surveying Department.

The Director-General of Military Education commands the Inspectors-General for the Cavalry, the Field Artillery, the Garrison Artillery, the Engineers, and the Army Service Corps respectively, and arranges for the uniformity and improvement of the whole military education.

The Inspectors-General are responsible for the education in their own branches.

The Director-General of Military Education has charge over the following schools:

The Artillery and Engineers School; the ‘Toyama’ School (including the Army Music School); the Military School; the Central Cadet School; the Local Cadet School; the Military Riding School; the Field Artillery School for Shooting; the Garrison Artillery Shooting School.

The whole country of Japan is divided into three Army Corps Presidencies, and each Presidency is divided into four Divisional Districts, and each Divisional District is divided into four to eight Regimental Districts, making twelve Divisional Districts and fifty-two Regimental Districts in all.

Some of the Divisional Districts have Special Military Districts, which are called ‘Kei-bi-Taiku,’ to the number of one to five, besides the Regimental Districts. The whole of the Special Military Districts in Japan number seven.

Until before the Chino-Japanese War the army was composed as follows:

1 division of Guards; 6 divisions of the Line; 2 regiments of Garrison Artillery.

After the war they were increased by the following additions:

6 divisions of the Line; 2 brigades of Cavalry; 2 brigades of Field Artillery; 3 regiments and 4 battalions of Garrison Artillery; 1 Railway Battalion; Gendarmes, etc.

Consequently, the present establishment of the army is as follows:

Guards, 1 division; Line, 12 divisions; Cavalry, 2 brigades; Field Artillery, 2 brigades; Garrison Artillery, 5 regiments and 4 battalions; Railway Battalion, 1; Infantry (Special Military District), 1 battalion; Formosan Garrisons, 3 brigades (combined); Gendarmes, 15 districts.

The peace establishment of one division consists of:

Infantry, 2 brigades; Cavalry, 1 regiment; Field Artillery, 1 regiment; Engineers, 1 battalion; Army Service Corps, 1 battalion.

Infantry, Garrison Artillery, and Engineers carry the 6 millimetre infantry rifle of the ‘30th year’ pattern, which superseded the Murata rifle, and the Cavalry and Army Service Corps bear ​carbine rifles of the same pattern; the Army Service Corps also carry sabres.

Field Artillery use both field and mountain batteries of quick-firing guns and carry bayonets.

The Emperor, in time of war, mobilizes a part, or whole, of the army, and draws up the order of battle of the forces.

Generally, the forces composing an army are as follows:

Several Infantry divisions; Cavalry brigades; Field Artillery brigades; Field Telegraph; several troops of Landwehr; the Army Staff.

If necessary the following forces are added:

Foot Artillery; Railway Corps.

The war establishment of a division is usually formed with:

Infantry, 2 brigades; Cavalry, 1 regiment; Field Artillery, 1 regiment; Engineers, 1 battalion; Bridging (or Pontoon), 1 column; Ammunition, 1 battalion; Army Service Corps, 1 battalion; Field Army Medical Corps.

The transport of men and horses and their supplies, whether by railways or steamers, is performed entirely under military management, furnishing effective organs for its execution; only special services, such as arranging the movements of trains or steamers, being done by the railway officials and the inspecting officer (navy) in the troopships, and also by sailors.

The regimental transport (horses) attached to troops are divided into two parts:

(1) First section for fighting		Personal reserve horses.
		Ammunition.
		Medical materials.
(2) Second section for camp		Baggage.
		Supply.

Besides the above, there are divisional supply columns constituted as follows:

Ammunition Battalion; Army Service Corps; Bearer Corps; Field Hospital; Pontoon Column.

The supplies for the men and horses of the field force are divided as follows:

For the fighting troops and the Bearer Corps, 7 days—that is:

Emergency rations for men, 2 days; the second section of supply, 1 day; divisional supply column, 4 days.

The men of the divisional supply column have three days’ rations—that is:

Emergency rations, 2 days; the second section of supply, 1 day.

All Japanese subjects from seventeen to forty years of age are liable to military or naval service, which is divided into four terms of service:

​Standing army (active and reserve); Landwehr; Depot; Landsturm.

The Active and Depot forces are conscripted yearly to the required numbers by lot.

Active service soldiers are drawn from the men who have attained the age of twenty; a man can also be conscripted, if he wishes, from the age of seventeen.

The conscription affairs are managed by the Headquarters Staff of the regimental district, and the Commanding Officer of the Headquarters Staff is under the General Officer commanding the Division in that district.

The length of service is changed according to the kind of duty.

Colours, 3 years; Reserve, 4 years and 4 months; Landwehr, 5 years; Depot, 1 year and 4 months; Landsturm, of age seventeen to forty (excluding those for the above), 7 years 4 months.

The pay for soldiers is in the following three grades:

1st class, 18 yen per year; 2nd class, 14 yen 40 sen per year; 3rd class, 10 yen 80 sen per year.

The pensions for soldiers are of five kinds:

The expense for one soldier for a year on an average is 106 yen.

There is no special plan for the future of the army.

The operations by Japanese troops among the Allied Army during the North China expeditions have already been commented upon publicly, and so it is not necessary for me to deal with them here.

At the time of the foundation of the Japanese Empire the political institutions of the country were so simple that civil and military affairs were one. All adult males in the realm ​were liable to be called upon for service in the army, with the Emperor as Commander-in-Chief. Early in the Middle Ages, however, we begin to find traces of a line of demarcation between civil and military affairs, and soon this line becomes distinct, the army having regular generals and captains serving under the direction of a central office. This office next established the ‘Left and Right Horse’ Departments, which had the custody of horses contributed as tribute from the various provinces. For each province was organized a military corps, in which was enrolled every third male adult of the district, all of whom were liable to be called upon for service.

Still later, when the military power passed into the hands of the Genji and the Heike clans, a class of professional soldiers made its appearance. The leaders and their retainers both trained their sons in their own profession, which thereby became hereditary, thus evolving the feudal system, which retained its strength until modern times.

Powerful barons, entrenched in strongholds throughout the various districts of the country, gradually encroached upon the territory round about them, until at last they had brought these districts under their arbitrary sway, detaching them from direct control of the Imperial Court. The professional soldiers enjoyed hereditary pensions, were bound to their masters by the relationship of liege lords and retainers, and were largely instrumental in bringing the system of feudalism to the high state of organization which it attained during the Tokugawa Regency.

With the Restoration and the reinstatement of the Imperial régime the system ceased to exist, being superseded by modern local administrative institutions, which swept away the evils engendered by the old and arbitrary rule of feudalism. The hereditary pensions of the professional warrior class were commuted by recourse to public loans, and the warriors were left to find other occupations. The ranks of the army thus left vacant were filled by male adults of every class, drawn by conscription.

The most noticeable feature of this splendid revolutionary achievement lay in the fact that it was accomplished without heavy cost in bloodshed, or in the other national disasters usually incidental to such sweeping changes, and reflects great credit upon the patriotism of the whole people as well as upon the tremendous influence and statesmanlike qualities of the Imperial Court.

At the beginning of the new era administrative affairs were divided into seven departments, one of which took entire charge of military and naval affairs. This division was later designated the National Defence Office, to be superseded in ​turn by a system of military and naval Commissioners, who took charge of the Military and Naval Office, Fortification Office, Warship Office, Arms and Weapon Office, and Home Office. The Military College and Military Hospital were also attached to this Board of Commissioners. In the second year of the Restoration the post of Commissioner was abolished and the Military and Naval Department established, with jurisdiction over military and naval education, finance and discipline. An arsenal was attached to this department one year later, and during the following year two military garrisons were organized, as was also the Army Medical Corps. During this fourth year the department was subjected to thorough readjustment, and the line of demarcation between military and naval administration distinctly drawn. According to this arrangement the department was subdivided into the Army and Navy sections, the former to include the Education Office, Army Medical Office, Courts-Martial, Arsenal and Magazine, Staff Offices, ‘Three Services’ headquarters, and the three garrisons of Tokyo, Osaka, and Chinsei. This principle of the separation of the two branches of the service was completed in the following year, when the War and the Navy offices were formally separated and the former divided into the offices of Personnel, Education and Surgeon, Arsenal and Magazine, Imperial Household Guards, and Courts-Martial. The Non-commissioned School established that year was attached to the Education Office. In the sixth year the number of garrisons was increased to six—those of Tokyo, Sendai, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, and Kumamoto. In the seventh year the Remount Section and the Staff Board were created, while in the following year the offices of Arsenal and Magazines were superseded by the Central Arsenal and the Branch Arsenal, the latter located in Osaka. In the ninth year the Ordnance Council was organized, and in the eleventh year the Staff Board was superseded by the Central Staff Board and the Inspection Headquarters.

These changes and progressions of organization are given in detail to show the exceptional spirit of elasticity which prevailed, making it possible to adopt from year to year such reforms, however drastic, as seemed called for by the logic of events, without the interference of bureaucratic red-tape or prejudice against change.

During the next twenty years the Tokyo Gendarmerie was created, the Staff College was established, the Colonial Board was attached to the War Office, which had succeeded the Board, the Engineering Council was formed, the various schools enlarged and their scope increased, and the Military Paymasters’ School and the Military Supply Office brought into ​being. In the twenty-eighth year of the Restoration (1895), under the Governor-General of Formosa, several military offices, as well as a Telegraph Construction Office and Lighthouse Office, were adopted for that country, as was also the Wei-hai-wei Office of Occupation. In 1898 the Supreme Council of War to the Emperor was established, and in the following year the Non-commissioned School ceased to exist.

At the beginning of the present era the complement of officers and non-combatants of equivalent rank was made up largely from those who had held corresponding posts in the feudal régime.

At present officers of the various corps are selected as follows:

1. Those who have graduated from the Central Military Preparatory School.

2. Those who have graduated from the Government or ordinary public schools, or from schools recognised by the Minister of Education as institutions of equal standing, or those whose scholarship is considered equal to that of those graduates and who have passed the entrance examination.

Paymasters are appointed from among those Lieutenants or Sub-lieutenants on active service who, having been admitted on examination to the Paymasters’ School, have gone through the regular course there, or those who come under any of the following heads, and who, in addition, have gone through the required training at the Paymasters’ School:

1. Students of the College of Laws, of the Imperial Universities, or of the higher commercial schools, and who have been selected as paymaster-clerks on their own application.

2. Graduates of the foregoing institutions or graduates of foreign institutions of equal standing who have applied for paymasterships.

Surgeons for military purposes are selected from among the following classes:

1. Students of the Colleges of Medicine of the Imperial Universities, or of a special school of medicine, or of a legal medical school regarded by the Minister of Education as of equal standing to the ordinary middle schools, and who have graduated from these institutions.

2. Graduates of foreign institutions possessing equal scholarship with the foregoing.

3. Graduates of the Military Surgeons School.

4. One-year volunteers possessing either the license of medicine or of pharmacy.

​In all cases, of course, the appointee must have made voluntary application for the post.

The Military Veterinary Surgeons Corps is supplemented from among those coming under the following heads:

1. Students of veterinary surgery in the College of Agriculture, or of the practical veterinary course at the said college, who have gone through the prescribed course at such a college.

2. Graduates of the above-mentioned institutions, or of foreign schools regarded as of the same standing, who have applied for admission to the service.

3. One-year volunteers possessing veterinary surgeons’ licenses who apply for admission to this branch of the service.

Bandmasters are appointed from among the assistant bandmasters who have served with distinction for not less than three years of active duty.

Gendarme non-commissioned officers are appointed from among the lance-corporals of the corps who have been with the colours for not less than two years, or from non-commissioned officers of Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, Engineering, and Commissariat corps who have been with the colours for not less than six years, and who have passed the recruiting examination.

Other non-commissioned officers are chosen from those belonging to the long-term services who are not on the active or reserve service of the army or navy, and who have passed the admission examination, or from among the privates who have applied for promotion and who have received suitable education. The non-commissioned officers of the shorter-term service are appointed from among lance-corporals who have been with the colours for not less than two years from the date of enrolment, and who are qualified to undertake the duties.

Foremen of Gunnery Workshops are appointed from among those not on active service or on the reserves of the army or navy, and who have graduated from the Gunnery School, or from among the various privates who, having been selected on examination during the first year of their service, have also graduated from the same institution.

Foremen of Farriery are taken from those not on the active or reserve force of the army or navy who have graduated from the farriery course at the Veterinary Surgery School, or from among the farriers of the Cavalry, Artillery, or Commissariat who, on applying for admission, have been judged equal to non-commissioned officers who have passed the required course at the Veterinary Surgery School.

Foremen of Tailoring and Shoe Shops are appointed from among tailor and shoemaker privates attached to the different corps.

​Medical Assistants are recruited from among male nurses not on active or reserve service of the army or navy who, having been selected on examination, have received the necessary education.

Paymaster Clerks are appointed from among the non-commissioned officers who have served with the colours for at least three years, and who have received the necessary education at the Paymasters’ School.

All Japanese males between the ages of seventeen and forty years are liable to military service.

The service is divided into Active, Landwehr, Depot, and Landsturm services.

The Active service is divided into service with the colours and service with the first reserve. The former is obligatory for all who have reached full twenty years, and continues for a period of three years. The latter is obligatory for all who have finished service with the former, and continues for a period of four years and four months.

The Landwehr reserve is made up of those who have finished the first reserve term, and continues for five years.

The Depot service is divided into the first and second sections, the former lasting seven years and four months, and the latter one year and four months. The first is made up of those who have not been enlisted for active service, while the second consists of those who have not been enlisted for first Depot service.

The Landsturm is in two divisions, the first for those who have completed the term of Landwehr service and the first Depot service, and the second for all who are not on the other services.

In 1901 the males liable to conscription service throughout the empire numbered 539,282, distributed as follows:

In the army, as in every other branch of occupation throughout Japan, the matter of education is considered of paramount importance, and no effort has been spared to provide the most ​practical and most modern methods which could be found, either at home or in foreign countries. To this end no less than fourteen colleges and schools, or departments of colleges, have been established.

The Staff College is provided to enable young officers of distinguished ability to study the higher branches of military science, and such other branches of knowledge as are deemed essential to those wishing to conduct investigations relating to military affairs.

The Artillery and Engineering School answers the same purpose for Sub-lieutenants of Artillery and Engineering.

The Officers’ School is attended by cadets of various corps for preparation for the duties of subordinate officers. The term of study is one year. The annual attendance is about 450.

The Military Training School is devoted principally to students sent from the Infantry Corps for training in tactics, shooting, fencing, and gymnastics. The term of attendance is from two to seven months, the number of pupils irregular, and determined from year to year according to the demands of the time.

The Central Military Preparatory School is attended by graduates of the Local Military Preparatory Schools, and gives a general education as well as the preliminary instruction necessary for military cadets. The term is for two years, with an average enrolment of about 300 students.

The Local Military Preparatory Schools provide a general education and military primary work to youths wishing to become officers. They are six in number, and are regularly connected with the central institution of the same name. Each admits about fifty students each year for a term of three years.

The Military Riding School collects from the different Cavalry corps such students as wish to take a course in riding and tactics. The term extends over about eleven months, with an attendance which has not been definitely fixed.

The Military Field Artillery Shooting School is maintained for the benefit of students from the Field Artillery Corps, the term being from two to three months, with an attendance to be decided from time to time as circumstances direct.

The Military Paymasters’ School trains men for the post of paymaster, the applicants being admitted from among Lieutenants and Sub-lieutenants who have passed the examination, and also from the colleges of law of the Imperial Universities and from the higher commercial schools. The courses are divided into one of two years and one of six months, with an attendance varying from year to year as the authorities deem expedient.

​The Military Surgery School includes surgeons of the Army Medical Corps, and licensed medical practitioners and pharmacists who wish to become military surgeons on active service. First-class students are taught for four months, second class for one year.

The Military Veterinary Surgeon School includes veterinary surgeons of the Military Veterinary Surgeons Corps who require training, and also the farrier foremen of the various corps, the latter being instructed in the science of farriery. The course extends from three to nine months.

The Military Gunnery and Mechanics’ Work School trains those who wish to become foreman smiths, foreman saddlers, foreman gunsmiths, foreman wood mechanics, and foreman of casting work. The course may be one or two years.

The Military Band School takes prospective bandsmen through a course of training lasting about one year.

Courts-martial have considerable powers, dealing both with combatants and non-combatants as long as they remain in any way connected with their respective services, and enforcing the Military Criminal Code and the ordinary criminal provisions. These courts are divided into two branches, the higher and the divisional bodies, one of the latter being established in each military division, where it has jurisdiction over criminal matters within the limits of its own particular division. The higher court, established at Tokyo, deals with matters affecting the conduct of officers of the rank of General, and also with appeals from the decisions of divisional courts.

The judgment of a court-martial must have the approval of the Emperor or of the supervising chief, according to rank, before being carried into effect.

Military or garrison gaols are located in centres possessing garrisons and divisional courts-martial, and come under jurisdiction of the garrison commander.

Each military garrison is provided with a military hospital, to which are taken all cases of illness among the troops, and which keep supplies of medical stores and surgical instruments. All expense of treatment is supplied gratis to the army, except for one-year volunteers and for those of or above the rank of special sergeants. Special provision is made for the effective isolation of contagious or infectious cases and for patients requiring change of air.

The ‘Sick Horse Stable,’ as it was called, has been abolished, all matters pertaining to the care of this department being now vested in the Cavalry Office of the War Department. Great attention, however, is given to the subject of equine hygiene.

For some years colts were purchased from stock-farmers, and ​after having been declared fit for service by the army veterinary surgeons, were distributed where required. Not finding this satisfactory, the Horse Supply Office was established, under control of the Minister of War. This department attends to the purchase and rearing of colts, their distribution, and their accumulation for military uses. For this purpose there is a general office at Tokyo, with seven scattered branch offices, and supplied with nearly 150,000 acres of pasture and farm land for grazing and for growing and collecting stores.

The arsenals, two in number, situated at Tokyo and Osaka, come under control of the Military Arms and Ammunition Office, and undertake to repair and manufacture arms and ammunition. Powder factories are maintained at Meguro, Itabash, and Iwahana.

Since 1891 the Tokyo arsenal employed 2,160,805 people, of whom 96,325 were women, while the Osaka arsenal, during the same period, employed 1,499,557 people, of whom 37,641 were women.

During 1902 the woollen works at Senju, conducted for the manufacture of army supplies and controlled by the Minister of War, gave employment to 318,126 hands, of whom 173,745 were women.