Article about: Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors The untold part of the “Magnificent Seven” story I suppose few would believe me, if I said the real event behind the story, “the Magnificent Seven”,
I suppose few would believe me, if I said the real event behind the story, “the Magnificent Seven”, the Hollywood classic from 1960, starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, et al. (and just remade again in 2016, starring Denzel Washington Jr.) was the story of how the Imperial Japanese Army was born.
Those who already know that “the Magnificent Seven” is merely a Hollywood remake of a 1954 Kurosawa film, “the Seven Samurai” might find it plausible that the story would have Japanese roots that go much deeper than you see in either movie, but it still must sound like a long shot to connect it to the birth of the IJA.
To give you a short version of my reasoning, at the time the IJA was formed in 1871, only 7% of the population were Samurai, who were trained to fight, but there was no way that such a tiny minority could defend Japan against the kind of threat the United States and Russia, etc posed to Japan. So it became obvious that the “Magnificent 7%” had to teach the other 93% how to fight like Samurai, and that is the whole story of the birth of the IJA in a nutshell. Add to that some side stories about the need to bring the two formerly strictly segregated social classes of farmers and Samurai together to fight as comrades and that is the film the “Seven Samurai” ergo “Magnificent Seven”, which sprinkles the social classes joining hands with a bit of romance.
And the way the 7 men conducted themselves in the story, taking the job for a pittance of only $20 for 6 weeks of hire, which even wouldn’t pay for their bullets and going into that village despite knowing they were grossly outnumbered by the bandits, just because they believed the farmers deserved justice: those are character sketches directly out of the “Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors”, issued to the IJA, when they were facing a moral crisis that threatened to tear the IJA apart after the rebellion of 1877.
These conclusions I drew, however, are only a byproduct of another research project I had for myself, so how truly it reflects the origins of the script of the movie is not really the point. Of the 3 writers, who worked on the original script, at least 2 were in the army or from an army family, so they should have been very aware of how their story paralleled that of the birth of the IJA. But even if that was how the story was born, they would not have admitted such a thing in interviews, as that could have seriously affected commercial prospects back in 1954, when such topics were taboo. So take it or leave it, I just wanted to point it out as a thought that came to me while researching my main theme.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 12-19-2017 at 10:43 PM.
I actually wanted to find out why the army military passbook, which originally started out as a Japanese version of the German Militärpaß had eventually evolved into something akin to the 1966 “Little Red Book” for Chinese Communists containing the teachings of Mao Zedong, which is to say that it came to contain more pep talk and indoctrination than the soldier’s personal record and ID, which was its original purpose. None of that indoctrination was part of the army passbook as it got born in January 1871.
The Japanese name for the Army’s military pass, Guntai-Techo 軍隊手牒 (or 帳 or 帖, the last character could be written in 3 different ways) was a direct translation of the German,” Militärpaß”, how the Germans used to call the Wehrpaß before 1919. And just like the German system in which you surrendered your Wehrpass to your company upon conscription, and got issued a Soldbuch instead as personal military ID, the Japanese system also initially employed a dual book system.
But those who own a WW2 Japanese Army Military Pass will know that the Japanese booklet starts out with page after page of text printed in red ink. The tightly packed texts actually take up most of the booklet with the soldier’s personal information only claiming modest space towards the end.
This shift to more moralizing than factual information on the soldier came about because of the unique circumstances faced by the IJA in its early years as I already mentioned. In short, the Japanese army needed these constant reminders of soldierly behavior, because of the need to teach farmers, craftsmen and merchants to fight like Samurai.
Like the gunmen in the movie, Japan had its professional warriors in the form of the Samurai, who didn’t need to be taught not to fear death or the basics of fighting. But the Samurai class was a mere drop in the bucket in terms of organizing national defense, so they had to find a way to quickly make warriors out of farmers, craftsman and merchants to whom soldiering ethics was quite alien.
At the same time, the allegiance of the former Samurai class was still to their individual lords of the domains, which numbered as many as 300 and not yet to the Emperor. So switching their loyalty to the Emperor was another mind-resetting that needed to be achieved, not to mention the need to have the ex-Samurai accept the former lower classes from the old feudal society as their brothers in arms.
Thus Loyalty, Brotherhood and the Warriors’ Code all needed to be redefined and hammered into them as a new binding vision for this incongruous combination of social classes that now had to share life and death together as comrades in the Imperial Army of a modern Japan.
The Imperial Japanese Army was held together with an immense amount of such brainwashing, and that became the striking difference between the German and Japanese passbooks. It was also why the IJA went so far as demanding all soldiers to be able to recite the whole Imperial Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors by heart.
That rescript released by Emperor Meiji on 4th January 1882 actually takes up as many as the first 19 pages of the army military pass, which was the foundation for all the other moralizing texts found in the rest of the booklet.
In my past work on military pass books I had provided a simple summary of what was written in this rescript, but to my surprise, I discovered that there was no English translation of the full text anywhere on the net, so this time I will give you the whole text in both English and in Japanese.
But before we get into the text, let’s take a little more look at the circumstances that led to the rescript’s release.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 12-19-2017 at 06:50 PM.
The IJA was born on 3rd January 1871, when a Conscription Code designed by Aritomo Yamagata called for each of the roughly 300 domains to provide five Samurai soldiers for every 10 thousand Koku of rice harvest of the Domain. 1 Koku of rice was 150 kg in weight or 180 liters in volume, what fed one person for a year. So the wealth of a Samurai family and Domain were all measured and expressed in this Koku. Taxation was therefore also proportional to Koku, so it was logical to make the burden of national defense based on Koku as well.
However, those conscripted soldiers were not the Emperor’s army, but were, at this point, still loyal to the lord of those domains, many of which had actually sided with the Shogunate and against the Emperor’s Banner of Golden Brocade.
So to provide personal protection to the Emperor at the Imperial Palace, on 2nd April 1871, a personal guard unit was formed only from personnel drawn from Satsuma, Choshu and Tosa Domains, which had fought on the emperor’s side throughout the Meiji Restoration. These troops will later evolve into the elite Imperial Guards.
Shielded by this military presence, though still of somewhat questionable loyalty, on 29th August 1871, the government went ahead with abolishing all former domains, and set up “prefectures” run by governors, instead. Thus the local war lords of the domains lost their claims to the rice harvest of their own regions and this automatically meant that the entire Samurai population lost their traditional livelihood unless they could serve the new government in other capacities.
So the Imperial Japanese Army was born with a moral dilemma of having to quell any uprisings that the death throes of their own Samurai class might bring.
Up to this point, the Imperial Japanese Army was composed entirely of the former Samurai class, but demographically speaking, the Samurai class, who used to be the sole bearer of arms, accounted for only 7% of the Japanese population. Roughly 80% were farmers, and the rest were artisans and merchants. So unless the non-Samurai population could be tapped for military man power, it was obvious that Japan could never have any sizeable Army or Navy.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 12-20-2017 at 10:36 AM.
1873 January, General Conscription Begins (Farmers Enter the Army)
So on 28th December 1872 the announcement came that the government will be introducing general military conscription and the first draft took place in April 1873. 20 year old men were called up for a 3-year military service.
This general conscription met a lot of resistance from both the samurai and commoner classes. Particularly an unfortunate choice of words in the Conscription Announcement of December 1872 sent shockwaves through the population when the government said, ”Men were always meant to devote themselves to the service of one’s nation. Westerners call this a Blood Tax, because it serves the nation with live blood so-to-speak”. Many farmers actually mistook the euphemism borrowed from French (from “impôt du sang” Tax paid in blood) to mean that the government was conspiring to suck blood out of their bodies to supply to blood-hungry foreigners, and riots ensued called the Blood Tax Riots.
The Samurai class also saw it as a serious affront to their status as the only social class to bear arms. The Samurai were still unaware that they would soon even be denied the right to wear swords in an ordinance to come, 3 years later, in March 1876.
Not only was the idea of farmer warriors an infringement of the rights of the Samurai class, but farmers could hardly be seen as soldier material in the eyes of the Samurai, as a few hundred years of segregation between the social classes had made farmers and Samurai into almost different species of men.
It was a huge challenge to bridge this gap to make soldiers out of farmers, more so than you can imagine by today’s standards. You might be surprised to hear that they even had to be taught how to run helter-skelter for their own lives.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 12-20-2017 at 10:41 AM.
Historical records claim that during the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877, the Imperial Japanese Army got badly mowed down in retreat by the pursuing Samurai warriors and sustained unbelievable losses, simply because the former farmers and merchants, inducted into the new Japanese Army did not know how to run and became easy prey to the Samurai pursuers, who cut them down.
Allow me to digress for a moment to show you that, for the Japanese, the process of modernization even meant total resetting of what we today regard as second nature, the simple act of walking and running.
Wood block prints from those days, depicting people in motion, invariably capture them with the arm and leg on the same side of the body swinging forward in unison, instead of opposite sides coming forward in turns as we walk now. In other words, in feudal Japan, it is said that it was typical for a Japanese to walk like a gorilla. However, this style of gait was supposedly lost in the process of Westernization and only traces of it remain today in things like martial art moves and prints.
This rediscovered old “gorilla style” gait is called today “Nanba style walking/running” and does not involve twisting of the upper body and instead uses the natural momentum of a forward leaning posture to increase travel distance of one stride by approximately 20% compared to the current style of upright, torso-twisting walking learned from the West. This old style gait carried you longer distances quicker with less energy consumption, which meant higher mechanical efficiency.
This is regarded as the secret to how long distance running messengers could run up to 200 km in a day to deliver express mail in those days, and not having to twist one’s upper body in a walk or run suited well the wearing of the sword and also kept the kimono, worn wrapped around the body, from unraveling into a mess, they say.
Modern track and field and even basketball have successfully applied this technique to significantly improve performance, so there is definite sense and substance to those claims, but how truly prevalent this gait used to be in the days before movies got invented to record movement, can no longer be determined with any certainty.
Either way, setting up a national army based on the Prussian style required both Samurai and farmers to modify their walking style and to relearn how to run in that Western style as well. It was regarded as such an important point that Japanese kids are still taught to this day how to march in file for track and field events held at every elementary school on physical education day every October.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 12-19-2017 at 10:20 PM.
1878, “An Army like a youth still lacking spiritual maturity of manhood”
Creating an army that brought together all the different social classes continued to be a painful process for the nation.
Soon in 1876, the former Samurai were even denied the right to wear swords. And then even the Satsuma clan of Samurai, who had been one of the loyal pillars of the new imperial government administration, parted ways with the government over the issue of how to deal with Korea, which kept on refusing to acknowledge the new Empire of Japan.
More than 600 officials resigned from the government and these Satsuma clan renegades soon drew together the embittered Samurai, who felt betrayed. This finally erupted in the form of the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877, unleashing a civil war in which the newly created people’s army had to fight the Samurai.
It was in this war that former farmers within the new IJA got badly mauled, because of their inability to run in retreat, as we have seen above.
However, it did end with the professional warriors of the Satsuma clan being defeated by an army of conscripts, proving the wisdom of having sacrificed the samurai class for the sake of modernization through a more egalitarian society.
And it was for this war that the newly instituted Order of the Rising Sun was awarded. But those that won against these Samurai rebellions were not really a happy lot either, as immediately after the Satsuma Rebellion, disparity in the granting of honors between officers and other ranks coupled with cancellation of retirement benefits, caused the Imperial Guards themselves to mount an armed rebellion on 23rd August 1878. This is called the Takebashi Incident.
This hugely embarrassing mutiny supposedly of super-loyal troops was swiftly swept under the rug after punishing a total of 394 men of which 55 faced the firing squad. The full scope of this scandal was only exposed after the end of WW2, as it was a serious face-losing event, which would have otherwise made the army completely lose credibility to the Japanese public.
The direct outcome of this Takebashi Incident was the establishment of the Kempeitai Military Police to see to order within the military and setting up of the Imperial Palace Police Guards, independent from the Army Imperial Guards, as a double safety mechanism, but the fact that even the elite of the elite behaved more like greedy bounty hunters required a more basic change in the military mindset.
Actually, this incident is also reflected in the Magnificent Seven in the character, Harry Lucky, played by Brad Dexter, who joins the team always suspecting that there were huge amounts of gold to be won as a prize, though the offer was only $20 a head for 6 weeks engagement. As he lay dying and begs to know the truth about the real prize, refusing to accept he had given up his life for a pittance, Chris, the Yul Brynner character pities the man’s petty greed and lies that it was indeed for millions in gold. The army felt the same way about the pitiful behavior of the Imperial Guards, which is starkly highlighted in the movie in which justice is a greater motive than money for the others.
Appalled by the Takebashi Incident, within the same month of August 1878, Lt. General and founder of the IJA, Aritomo Yamagata issued a brochure titled 軍人訓誡, (Admonition to Soldiers) in which he claimed that the IJA was now like a young boy, healthy and strong, but still lacking in spiritual discipline and maturity to be called a man. He further explained that the three pillars of the military spirit were “Loyalty”, ”Valor” and “Obedience” and expanded on each theme for a full 23 pages.
Another legacy of the Satsuma Rebellion was to call into question the fighting spirit of the army soldiers. Though they won against the Satsuma troops, the government troops too often lost battles they should have won and suffered extremely high casualties.
The Army realized that this difference came from having such a charismatic leader as Takamori Saigo as an opponent leading the rebellion, against which the government army simply could not muster enough Esprit de Corps.
The Army’s countermeasure was to position Emperor Meiji as its charismatic Grand Marshal of the Army and the means by which they achieved this was Emperor Meiji’s famous Rescript to the Soldiers and Sailors, which was the next logical step in the attempt to infuse the young army with true military spirit.
The ghost writer of this rescript as well as the earlier “Admonition to Soldiers” was Amane Nishi. He was a scholar of Chinese and European Philosophy and served also as advisor to the last Shogun, whose government relied heavily on his knowledge of International Law, which he had translated and published. He is also known as the founder of the current Dokkyo University.
The draft he prepared of the rescript was further brushed up by Aritomo Yamagata, Genichiro Fukuchi and Kowashi Inoue, who would also later serve as the main author of the Imperial Constitution of Japan.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 12-19-2017 at 09:45 PM.
So, finally we get to the rescript itself. The original Japanese title, Gunjin Choku-yu literally means “Rescript for Military Men”. The English translation that includes “sailors”, although being a logical extension of the intended message, is not really faithful to the Japanese nuance. However, I will follow the tradition of including the word “sailors” in my translation below. The original Japanese is without punctuation and also without many conjunctions that clarify logical relationships between sentences, so I have added those in the English translation to make it easier for the reader to follow.
I will also provide a transcript of the full Japanese text as found in the military passbooks after the English translation, should you wish to look up certain words on the internet and compare them with my translation, etc. I will color code paragraphs by content, so you know how the English paragraphs relate to the Japanese text, which hardly shows such punctuation as I mentioned earlier.
The values and attributes sought by Emperor Meiji in this rescript is not anything uniquely military nor Japanese, but of a more universal nature. As Lt. General Yamagata said, they represent moral values that separate men from boys. It was written after all by a scholar well versed in both Western as well as Far East philosophies, which is probably why the fictional characters representing these values have made the “Seven Samurai” and “Magnificent Seven” such a worldwide success.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 12-20-2017 at 10:55 AM.
Military presence in our land had always been under the Emperor’s command. More than 2500 years have passed since Emperor Jinmu himself rose to lead the soldiers of the Ohtomo and Mononobe Clans to subjugate the defiant clans in the central region of our land, and proclaimed himself Emperor to rule the nation.
Since then, throughout the ages, the military had adapted in various ways to accommodate the changes occurring to society. In ancient times, it was customary that the Emperor himself led the army, occasionally being replaced in this role by his Empress or Crown Prince. But supreme military command was never relinquished to his minions.
In the middle ages (Kamakura and Muromachi eras), warriors and civil servant classes came to be organized into structures borrowed from the Chinese system, thereby establishing the six Guard Divisions, two military horse bureaus, and garrisons stationed at the frontiers of our land to solidify our national defenses.
However, through complacency born from a long reign of peace, the policies of the Imperial Court started to neglect fighting skills in preference of higher learning. And as a distinction between farmers and warriors classes arose, the ancient conscription system faded out to be replaced by a system of volunteer fighters, who formed a professional warrior class led by the Shogun, who was their leader.
The Shogun also eventually came to rule the land politically as a result of years of turbulent unrest plaguing our nation, introducing roughly 700 years of military rule.
Though the tides of time had caused such deplorable, but irreversible shifts, these developments were a violation nonetheless of the promises our nation was founded upon and against the wishes of Emperor Jinmu, the founder.
But as those conditions persisted into the Kohka and Kaehi eras (of late Edo period), the diminishing power of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the rising threat from foreign nations combined to bring imminent humiliation to our nation, which was a cause of constant heartache to my grandfather, Emperor Ninkoh and my father, Emperor Kohmyo.
Then as I took the throne still as a child, it came to be that the Shogun soon returned sovereignty of the land, and as the domain lords returned their populations of subjects and lands to me, we soon found ourselves again to be a united nation and could revert to our ancient traditions. This became possible due to loyal servants within the civil and military ranks, who had provided me great and highly commendable service.
It is true that the love that Emperors of the past had shown his people had left this to us as a permanent inheritance to be cherished, but that it could once again be reinstated to flourish in this way, is proof that the people of our land possess an infallible sense of justice and loyalty.
Supported by such developments, in the past 15 years, we have revised our military system and established an Army and Navy in the hope they will bring glory to our nation. Although various military functions naturally need to be delegated to those who serve me, the ultimate authority of supreme command will remain my prerogative.
It is my wish that both sovereignty and military command be recognized as inherited prerogatives of the Emperor and be passed down the generations, not to repeat the mistakes of the middle ages.
Soldiers and Sailors, I am your supreme Commander in Chief. The relationship between you and I will need to be a most intimate one, as if you were my limbs and I your head. Whether I am able to guard the Empire, and so prove myself worthy of Heaven’s blessings and repay the benevolence of my Ancestors, depends upon the faithful discharge of your duties as soldiers and sailors.
If the majesty and power of our Empire should be impaired, you shall share with me the humiliation. On the other hand, if our arms would win us resplendent glory, I shall be delighted to join you in that honor. If you all do your duty, and be one with me in spirit to do your utmost for the protection of the state, our people will long enjoy the blessings of peace, and might and dignity of Our Empire will shine in the world. As I thus expect much of you, Soldiers and Sailors, I confer upon you the following precepts:
I. The soldier and sailor should consider loyalty their essential duty. Those born in this land must be willing to show a spirit of grateful service to it. No soldier or sailor can be of service to our nation unless this spirit is strongly embedded within him. A soldier or a sailor lacking in this conviction, however skilled he may be in art or well learned in academics is a mere puppet; and a formation of soldiers or sailors wanting in loyalty, however well ordered and disciplined they may be, are no better than a rabble in an emergency. Remember that, as the defense of the state and the maintenance of its power depend upon the strength of its military, growth or decline of this military strength will directly affect the ebb and flow of the nation’s fortunes; therefore neither be led astray by public opinion nor meddle in politics, but single-mindedly devote yourself to the duty of loyalty, and bear in mind that duty is weightier than a mountain, while death is lighter than a feather. Never by failing in moral principle fall into disgrace and bring dishonor upon your name.
II. Military members are required to know how to show proper respect. According to rank that ranges from field marshal to private, and the various functions existing in between, the military is structured into a strict chain of command, and even among equal ranks, a clear notion of seniority in service requires one to obey another with more seniority. Orders subordinates receive from his superiors are to be interpreted as orders from me personally. Even if that superior may not be the one you are attached to, you must show respect and courtesy to all your superiors as well as seniors in service. In return, superiors must never slight his subordinates or behave arrogantly towards them. Unless a sense of dignity needs to be maintained and exhibited in public, the superior must otherwise prioritize treating subordinates with kindness, consideration and affection, so that all ranks may together jointly devote themselves body and soul to serving the endeavors of their Emperor. Military men incapable of courtesy and showing respect to his superiors or those without understanding for his juniors, causing disruption and disharmony are not only liabilities to the military forces, but are unforgivable criminals to the entire nation itself.
III. The soldier and the sailor should esteem valor. Valor has always been prized by us as a tradition. So citizens of our nation must all be familiar with this quality. Particularly those in military service have it as their occupation to face the enemy in battle, so they must never rest their sense of valor. However, there are distinctions of true valor 大勇 and petty bravado 小勇. To be incited by mere impetuosity to violent action cannot be called true valor. The soldier and the sailor should have sound discrimination of right and wrong, cultivate self-possession, and form their plans with deliberation. Never to despise an inferior enemy or fear a superior, but to do one’s duty as soldier or sailor; that is true valor. Those who thus appreciate true valor should in their daily intercourse set gentleness first and aim to win the love and esteem of others. If you affect valor and act with violence, the world will in the end detest you and look upon you as wild beasts. Of this you should take heed.
IV. The soldier and the sailor should highly value faithfulness and righteousness. That is already a universal requirement, but particularly military men without such qualities would not even last a day in the company of his peers. Faithfulness implies the keeping of one’s word, and righteousness the fulfillment of one’s duty. If then you wish to be faithful and righteous in anything, you must carefully consider at the outset whether you can really deliver. If you thoughtlessly agree to do something that is vague in its nature and bind yourself to unwise obligations, and then try to prove yourself faithful and righteous, your may find yourself in great straits from which there is no escape. It would then be too late for regrets. You must thoroughly consider beforehand whether you should take on the commitment and should you conclude that you are not in a position to deliver on such a promise, you should quickly refrain from committing. Ever since ancient times there have been repeated instances of great men and heroes who, overwhelmed by misfortune, have perished and left a tarnished name to posterity, simply because in their effort to be faithful in small matters they failed to discern right and wrong with reference to fundamental principles, or because, losing sight of the true path of public duty, they kept faith in private relations. You should, then, take serious warning by these examples.
V. The soldier and sailor should make simplicity their aim. If you do not make simplicity your aim, you will become effeminate and frivolous and acquire fondness for luxurious and extravagant ways; you will finally grow selfish and sordid and sink to the last degree of baseness, so that neither loyalty nor valor will avail to save you from the contempt of the world. The spreading of such tendency in the military can clearly undermine discipline and morale like a contagious disease. I greatly fear such a possibility, which caused me to previously introduce impeachment rules to make that point, but will repeat myself here nonetheless because such thoughts trouble me without end. You must never take this word of caution lightly.
These five articles should not be disregarded even for a moment by soldiers and sailors. Now for putting them into practice, the all important thing is sincerity. These five articles are the soul of our soldiers and sailors, and sincerity is the soul of these articles. If the heart be not sincere, words and deeds, however good, are all mere outward show and cannot accomplish anything. If only the heart be sincere, anything can be accomplished. Moreover these five articles are the “Grand Way” of Heaven and earth and the universal law of humanity, easy to observe and to practice. If you, Soldiers and Sailors, in obedience to my instruction, will observe and practice these principles and fulfill your duty of grateful service to the country, it will be a source of joy, not only to me alone, but to all the people of Japan.
Although general conscription initially saw a lot of resistance from the population, this subsided gradually as military indoctrination gained further traction through the Rescript to Soldiers and Sailors.
Other factors that helped greatly in gaining public acceptance was the fact that you could eat much better in the army than you ate as a farmer. Furthermore, farmers at the time could not afford Futons and typically slept in hay, but in the army you slept in proper futon bedding and could take baths every day.
Still on top of all that, you even got paid and there were occasional leaves granted. All in all, army life was generally much easier and better than a farmer’s hard life. So much so that farmers of the Meiji period said the army spoiled farmers into “lazy sloths”.
And the presence of a PX was a luxury to farmers and became a great allure of life in the army.
Imperial Rescript for Soldiers and Sailors
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