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Fighting Techniques of a Japanese Infantryman 1941-1945

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If you think al Qaeda is bad news, let me introduce you to Imperial Japan, a xenophobic society of death-worshipping nationalist religious fanatics. Leo Daugherty describes the Japanese soldier in 95 pages divided into six chapters:

--martial tradition

--induction and training

--military organization

--tactics

--individual weapons and equipment

--Japanese infantry division support weapons

Want to know what motivated the Imperial Japanese soldier to hunker down in a spider hole clutching an unexploded American aircraft bomb and a hammer? That soldier was going to blow up an American tank-and himself. The Kamikaze came about when military defeat and lack of war material meshed with the duty of the Japanese soldier to die in battle-if necessary, by killing himself. Daugherty wrote that the state religion of Shinto and the code of Bushido incorporated in 1867. Emperor Hirohito was considered a god, and anything done in service to that god was good. The national goal was unifying the world-under Japanese leadership. The soldier's code, Senjinkun, was pounded into already-prepared recruits. A military junta ruled Japan and this junta prepared the Japanese people for total war. On page 21 a table lists the year-long conscript training cycle-but this wasn't the beginning of military training. School children were indoctrinated early. "By 1934, more than one-third, or 915,000, of Japan's young men in the appropriate age bracket studied and drilled at these youth training centers."

No wonder part of the Japanese Imperial Guards rebelled when Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's capitulation!

Japan had no jungles to train in, yet the Japanese soldier was an excellent jungle fighter. This was the result of long, thorough training. The Japanese soldier was trained to fight at night as a means of overcoming enemy forces superior in numbers and firepower. The bayonet and hand grenade were preferred over the rifle-especially for close combat in the dark.

I found the descriptions of weapons and equipment brief but useful. Many criticize the Japanese for having poor small arms, for lacking a submachine gun, for "over reliance" on the bayonet. Actually, Japanese rifles and light machine guns were quite effective. Japanese pistols weren't, and the Type 100 submachine gun was a failure. The United States didn't really have a good submachine gun either, and its Browning Automatic Rifle was no match for a light machine gun. The famed knee mortar provided close-in 50mm shellfire on enemy positions. Oh, perhaps a semiautomatic rifle like America's M-1 Garand would have been nice-provided Japan's industry could keep her soldiers supplied with ammunition. Unrestricted air and submarine warfare by the United States went a long way towards insuring that there was never enough ammunition for the Japanese defenders.

At the division level (roughly 20,000 men-on paper), Japan shortchanged its soldiers on heavy weapons. No matter-there was a decided lack of motor transport in the Japanese armed forces. Couldn't haul artillery pieces and ammunition even if they had the hardware-a severe lack of petroleum was one reason Japan attacked the Western nations. Against lightly-equipped Chinese formations, Japanese units had ample firepower. When confronted by Soviet armored formations, Japan lost a chunk of Manchuria during 1939 in the Khalkyn Gol Incident. Initially, Japan crushed more-heavily armed British Commonwealth and American troops, but by 1943 the shoe was on the other foot. Eventually, islands such as Iwo Jima would bear the full brunt of American air power and naval gunfire unaided-it would just be the Japanese infantryman and a handful of artillery pieces buying time. Like the Vietnamese Communists of 40 years ago and al Qaeda today, the Japanese soldier believed it was just a matter of time before the soft Americans gave up and crawled back home. Given the disparity in divisional artillery and in tanks, this was quite the leap of faith!

Japan declared war on the whole world and her infantrymen did more than humanly possible. "Fighting Techniques of a Japanese Infantryman" describes in general terms how the Japanese infantry achieved this, and the tools that Japan gave its soldiers.

A tremendous amount of information for such a small book...and consequently small price. Quite good on tactics. Organization and weapons are not so well done as are some other sources, but the other sources are commonly available and easily found. I'm glad I bought this book and hope that MBI will continue to expand this excellent series.

Left me with more questions than answers. Too few images for me to conceptualise what was being described in the book. A lot of text (In fact whole paragraphs) are repeated throughout. This book - in my opinion - is not a good introduction to the topic. Some sections were excellent - such as as that on hygiene.