Page 96 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

598 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

From Campus to Battle
Student Mobilization and Transition of japanese Imperial
military’ Draft policies

MITSUToShI hANYU

In December 1943, two years after the Pearl Harbor, the Japanese government finally de-
termined to send her students of higher education to battlefields. The deteriorating situation
of the war in Asia and the Pacific did not allow them to pursue their future goals at universi-
ties, high schools, or vocational schools. Japan had no choice but withdraw the suspension of
conscription for students for the first time since the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
After short-time intensive basic military trainings, drafted students went to the firing lines
as junior officers or noncommissioned officers. They, far from full-fledged military person-
nel, were required to full out vacant positions of dead or injured commanders. They fought
bravely and lost their precious lives in Asia and the Pacific, many of them in Special Attack
missions, widely known as Kamikaze or suicide attack.
As mentioned above, Japanese students had been exempted from the conscription before
the end of 1943. Thus, the abolition of this privilege was the tragedy for students, since they
had to abandon their will to study and join the deadly battles. Needless to say, many of them
never returned to campus again.
it should be noted that students had long been granted three privileges since the establish-
ment of modern Japanese military; (1) Exemption from conscription while in school, (2) a
student could become a reserve officer when he wished, and (3) when a student wished to be
a reserve officer, the service period was shortened.
this paper shows how these prerogatives were modified in accordance with the imperial
Military’s intention. To look into the student privileges and their changes may illustrate the
unique relations between the military and its civilians in modern Japan. Here is the story.

estabLishment of the japan’s modern miLitary: students expected
to contribute to the modernization outside the army and navy
In 1868, a modern government was founded in Japan. Its main goal was to modernize
every aspect of the nation with a slogan of “Wealthy Nation and Strong Army.” Exerted was
every effort in order to defend Japan from the foreign encroachments, and hopefully to join
the club of Western Powers.
To achieve this dual goal, establishment of modern educational system was prerequisite.
Therefore various educational institutes were founded. Those who had completed the cur-
riculum of higher education were treated as national treasures.
As for the construction of modern military, the Meiji government enacted the first con-
scription law in 1873 stipulating the military duty for males. It should be emphasized that
since the national modernization required various human resources outside the military such
as industries, sciences, and cultural arenas, the government decided not to conscript students