3. RECENT CHANGES IN THE CONSCRIPTION SYSTEM

a. Age limit.
The military age has been lowered to 19, and the liability for service extended to 31 March of the year in which the subject becomes 45.

b. Deferment.
Deferment has been cancelled for all students except those in specified types of study, mainly technical or scientific; and for Japanese in the southern regions occupied by the Japanese army, where, as formerly for Japanese in Manchuria and China, examinations are conducted at nearby military headquarters or consulates.

c. Conscrioption of Koreans.
Military conscription od Koreans has been decreed, to begin in 1944, and of Formosans, to begin in 1945. Koreans and Formosans have been recruited in increasing numbers during the past few years as civilian laborers under the direct supervision of the Army and the Navy. These laborers, who receive no military training are used in construction corps.

d. Exemption of specialists and technicians.
It is reported that exemption from military service now is granted to specialists and skilled technicians, especially in airpane industries, arsenals, and munition factories.

e. Term of service.
The nominal term of service is now 3 years (as of 1944).

SECTION III - PROCUREMENT OF OFFICERS

.

1. COMMISSIONED OFFICERS

a. General.
(1) There are two general classifications of officer personnel in the Japanese Army: Regular Army officers and reserve officers. There are three distinct types of officers, depending upon their background and education.

(a) Those who have graduated through the full course at the Japanese Military Academy.

(b) Those who have obtained commissions either through the reserve officer candidate courses after serving in teh ranks or direct from technical institutions.

(c) Former warrant and noncommissioned officers who have risen from the ranks.

(2) All candicates for commission served as probational officers with their assigned units for a period of 2 to 6 months after completion of training.

b. Regular Army officers. These may be further classified according to their training as follows:
(1) Graduates of teh Military Academy and the Air Academy as officers of teh line branch.
(2) Graduates of technical and scientific institutions and of intendence school as officers of the services. Most of these are selected while still in school and re educated at government expense in specified universities and colleges which offer stipulated currucula. University graduates receive their commissions as first lieutnant.
(3) Selected warrant and noncommissioned officers in the active service under 38 years of age who became candidates for commission ( Shoi Koshosha ) and received 1 tear courses at the Military Academy, the Air Academy, the Military Police school, or other Army schools. In peacetime theydo not usually advance beyond the grade of captain becauseof retirement age.



c. Reserve officers.
(1) These are made up chiefly of Class A reserve officer candidates ( Koshu Kambu Kohosei ) who have passed the necessary course. They are drawn from regular conscripts who have certain educational qualifications (formerly the equivalent of 2 years at high school, now lower). After 3 months of training inm their unit, they become candidates, and after a further 3 months they are classified by examiniation into "A" candidates, those suitable for officers, and "B" candidates, those suitable for noncommissioned officers. The "A" candidates then are sent to one of the regular courses for reserve officer candidates. (Section IV, paragraph 3). Upon receiving a commission, in time of peace, they usually pass into the reserve from which they may be called to active duty in time of war. These reserve officers recalled to active duty ( Shoshu Shoko ) comprise a large proportion of Japanese officers in WWII.

(2) There are recent announcements of a new system for training special reserve officers candidates by which boys between 15 and 20 years of age, with educations equivalent to the third year of middle school, may become noncommissioned officers at the end of 1 1/2 years' training. Then they become eligible for selection for training to become reserve officers or, by special examination, Regular Army Officers. The brnaches open to the candidates are air, shipping troops, signal troops, technicians, and air technicians.

d. Special volunteer officers ( Yokubetsu Shigan Shoko). Until recentlythese were taken from field and company officers in the reserve who were allowed to volunteer for active service for a period of 2 years, and for additional periods of 1 year until they attained specified age limits. According to recent information, this designation appears noe to be given regularly to young reserve officer candidates after they have served a probationary period with troops. Special volunteer officers may qualify by examination for a 1 year course at the Military Academy, after which they become special volunteer regular officers and may rise to be majors.



2. WARRANT AND NONCOMMISSIONED OFFICERS.
Warrant officers ( Jubshikan ) are usually selected by the promotion of noncommissioned officers and are treated as officers. There are only three ranks of noncommissioned officer ( Kashikan ) : Sergeant major; sergeant; and corporal. In addition to those obtained by regular promotion and those who are recalled to duty from the reserve, noncommissioned officers are recruited mainly from the following sources:

a. Noncommissioned officer schools.
Conscripts who after about 3 months' active service in the Army volunteer to become noncommissioned officers and after 9 additional months in special training with troops are selected to become noncommissioned officer candidates ( Kashikan Kosha ). They are ten given a period of training, formerly 1 year but now shortened, at one of the noncommissioned officer schools ( Kyodo Gakko ) or at one of the Army branch schools or service schools.

b. Class "B" reserve officer candidates.

c. Apprentices. Apprentices in the various units open to Army Youth Soldiers ( Rikugun Shonenhei ) - See section IV, paragraph 1.

SECTION IV - TRAINING

.

1. PRECONSCRIPTIONAL TRAINING.

a. In schools.
In Japan military indoctrination begins from infancy. Formal regimaentation and training begin at about the ager of 8 years, when, beginning with the third year of primary school, all boys are given semi-military training by their teachers. Those going on to middle school, higher school, college or university receive military training under regular Army officers. In peacetime this amounts to 2 hours per week with 4 to 6 days of annual maneuvers, but recently the amount of time devoted to military subjects has been greatly increased. Those who take up employment after finishing primary school receive significant military training at youth schools ( Seinen Gakko ) set up for their particular benefit by the government. Aviation training is cchools, particularly in the use of gliders, has recently received much emphasis. Numerous courses of purely military nature are being added to curriculum in order to turn the middle schools into a training camp for cadets, and the universities and higher schools into military academies for reserves.

b. In Army apprentice units.
An Army apprentice system to procure trained noncommissioned officers in the technical fields at ages below the conscription minimum has grown rapidly in recent years, specially in aviation. The Japanese Navy and Merchant Marines have also developed extensive training of a similar nature. The Army apprentices, called Army Youth Soldiers ( Rikugun Shonenhei ), are primary school graduates who begin their apprentice training at the age of 14 or 15 years (lowered from 15 to 16 years in 1943). At some point in their training they are inducted into the Army as youth soldiers with the rank of superior private, serve as lance corporals (leading private) for a probationary period of 6 months after graduation, and then become corporals. These apprentices take one of the following courses:

(1) Aviation ( Shonen Hikohei ). The usual courses last 3 years, After the first year at a general aviation school at Tokyo or Otsu, all students are divided into three groups. Pilots go to Utsunomiya or Kumagai , signalmen to Air Signal School, and mechanics to Tokorozawa or Gifu . They spend 2 years at one of these special schools, the last year as youth soldiers in the Army. Those with special qualifications may omit the first year and go directly to flying school at Tachiarai or maintenance school at Gifu .

(2) Signal ( Shonen Tsushinhei). Two years at the Army Youth Signal School.

(3) Tank ( Shonen Senshahei ). Two years at the Army Youth Tank School near Mount Fuji.

(4) Artillery ( Shonen Hohei ). Two years at the Army Field Artillery School, the Army Heavy Artillery School, or the Army Air Defense School.

(5) Ordnance. There is a 2 year course at the Army Ordnance School similar to the apprentice courses described above.

2. CONSCRIPT TRAINING. (see Section II).
a. In peacetime the training of men assigned to active service (Class A and B-1) covers a period of 2 years. The first year for the infantry is usually divided into four periods as follows:

January to May.	Recrut training. This includes general instruction, squad (section) training, bayonet training, and target practice. In february a march of 5 days with bivouacking at night, is held to train men in endurance of cold.
June and July.	Target practice, field works, platoon and company training and bayonet training. Marching 20 miles a day.
August.	Company and battalion training, field work, combat firing, swiming, and bayonet fighting. Marching 25 miles a day.
October and November.	Battalion and regimental training. Combat firing. Autumn maneuvers.

b. It will be noted from the above program how the infantry training progress from the smallest unit, the squad (section), to platoon, company, battalion, and regimental training, and culminates in combined maneuvers at the end of the year. In the second year, the periods of training are similar, but more time is alloted to specialist training in the respective branches.

c. Throughout the course of training, special attention is given to the inculcation of "morale" or spiritaul instruction. The "Imperial Rescript to Soldiers" issued by the Emperor Meiji on 4 January 1882, is frequently read to the men, and the five principles of military ethics contained therein - loyalty, courtesy, courage, truthfulness, and frugality - are much emphasized.

d. First and second conscript reserves have to undergo a 6 months' period of training. The training is not so intensive as that given to active servicemen, but nevertheless endeavors to cover, in a comparatively shorter time, all thatthe active service men have learned in their 2-year course.

e. In peacetime, men who have served the compulsory 2 years of active service with the Army and subsequently been relegated to the First Reserve must undergo further military training from time to time during their period of liability (see Section II). It is known that under stress of wartime conditions, the minimum periods of training prescribed in peacetime have not been continued.

f. Conscripts may often receive the bulk of their training in operational areas. The Japanese are known to have used the Chinese theater for training purposes, where men performed garrison duties and sometimes get actual combat experience during their period of training.

g. japanese infantry training is gradual toughening-up process that grows in intensity, until finally, long marches with full equipment and stiff endurance tests are used to produce ability to withstand hunger and fatigue for long periods.




3. TRAINING OF OFFICERS AND NONCOMMISSIONED OFFICERS.
a. General. The thorough training of Japanese troops is attributable in turn to the thorough training of the officers and noncommissioned officers, who are largely the products of the Army schools. The school training, though somewhat narrow, arbitrary, and inflexible in its system of indoctrination, is progressive, thorough abd modern. However, its rigidity often has inhibited originality of though abd action.

b. General training of regular line officers. Most regular line officers who reach field grade are graduates of the Military Academy ( Rikugun Shikan gakko ). Candidates are rigidly selected from graduates of 3 year courses at one of the the military preparatory schools ( Rikugun Yonen gakko ) at Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Sendai, and Kumamoto, and from other applicants who posses the proper physical and educational qualifications.

These applicants may be enlisted men in the active service - noncommissioned officers under 25 years of age and privates under 22, or applicants-at-large between 16 and 18 years of age. In peacetime, cadet training consisted of 2 years at the Junior Militay Academy ( Rikugun Yoka Shikan gakko ) at Asaka in Saitama-Ken; 8 months duty with troops in a designated branch of servcie; and 1 year 8 months at the MIlitarty Academy at Zama in Kanagawa-Ken, or, in the case of air officers, at the Air Academy in Tokyo. After graduation candidates spend 4 months on probation in the grade of sergeant major before receiving a commission.

Instruction at the Military Academy is confined almost entirely to general military subjects and practical work in the branch to which the cadet is assigned. There are also 1 year courses for special volunteer officers and for enlisted candidates for commissions ( Shoi Kohosha ).

c. Staff training of regular line officers. Courses atthe General Staff College ( Rikugun Daigakko ) in Tokyo are open ordinarily to company officers who have had not more than 8 years of commissioned service and at least 1 year with troops, but in wartime they have been opened to officers of units in fighting zones, irrespective of age or grade. In peacetime , a regular 3 year course in command and staff work , a 1 year version of the regular course, and a 4 month speacial course for aviation general staff work are offered.

d. Training reserve officers. (section III, paragraph 1c). Class A reserve officer candidates, after completing at least 6 months of training with units, take various courses specially design for them. They are trained at reserve officer school at Morioka, Toyohashi, Kurume, Maebashi, Kumamoto, Sendai, amd Mukden for infantry; at Toyohashi for artilkery; at Kurume for transport; and at a special reserve officer candidate courses in schools for cavalry, engineers, signal, medical, veterinary, intendance, and certain phases of artillery. The instruction, normally lasting 11 months but reduced in some instances to 6, covers, principally, training regulaions and tactical textbooks, accompanied by practical training which, although somewhat elementrary, is carried out realistically and thoroughly. Upon graduation, the candidates serve with units on probation for about 4 months before receiving their commissions.

e. Training of noncommissioned officers. Except for apprentices (section IV, Paragraph 1b) and Class B reserve officer candidates (Section III, paragraph 1c), noncommissioned officer candidates are trained at one of the noncommissioned officer schools at Sendai, Kumamoto, Toyohashi, and Kungchuling (Manchuria). These schools are devoted almost entirely to infantry, except for some artillery and cavalry training at Toyohashi. Candidates in artillery, cavalry, engineers, signal, veterinary, intendance, and ordnance are trained st the respective Army branch and services schools. Special courses, usually yechnical, for noncommissioned officers are also given in these schools as weall as in the tank school, the Military Police School, the various air schools, the Medical School, and the Mechanized Equipment Maintenance School.



f. Training in Army branch schools. The following schools offer special courses for officers and conduct research in the technical aspects of the branch concerned:

SCHOOL LOCATION Infantry school. Near Chiba city. Field Artillery School. Near Chiba city. Heavy Artillery School. Uraga. Kanagawa-Ken. Air Defense School. Chiba City. Cavalry School (horse and mechanized). Chiba-Ken. Engineer School. Matsudo. Chiba-Ken Tank Schools. Chiba (Japan). Kungchuling (Manchuria) Ssuping (KAi) - (Manchuria) Signal School Onomura. Kanagawa-Ken. Transport School. Tokyo. Military Police School. Tokyo. Air Schools (See paragraph 10 h). Not listed.

g. Training in Army services schools. The Army obtains its officers for the service by grantinch commissions to graduates of higher institutions after they have served 2 months with troops as probational officers. Most of them have been chosen beforehand and had their technical education paid for by the Army. The Army services schools are designed to supplement the technical training obtained in civilian institutions and to adapt that knowledge to military purposes. The Intendance School has also a cadet course for intendence officers similar to that for line officers at a Military Academy. Recent changes point to an effort to keep pace with increased mechanizarion and the use of highly technical equipment in the Army. The following may be classed as Army services schools:

SCHOOL	LOCATION
Medical school.	Tokyo.
Veterinary school.	Tokyo.
Intendance school.	Tokyo.
Science school (formerly artillery and engineer school).	Tokyo.
Ordnance school (formerly Artillery school)	Onomura, Kanagawa-Ken
Narashino school in Chiba-ken (chemical warfare).	Not listed.
Toyama school (physical training, military music).	Tokyo.
Mechanized Equipment Maintenance School.	Tokyo.

h. Air training.

(1) In addition to "spiritual training" and inculcation o fthe martial spirit, increasing efforts have been directed toward making Japanese youth air minded. As far as information is available, pilots are drawn from the following sources:

1. Youth air schools.

2. Universities, higer, and middle schools.

3. Civilian training centers.

In order to encourage volunteers for the air branch of the Army, elementary instruction in air mechanics is given from primaryschool upward. Construction of model airplanes is taught, and some have gliders for training purposes. By means of such encouragement, more pupils are drawn into the youth air schools, after finishing the primary school course at the age of 14 years. (See section IV, paragraph 1b).



(2) Prospective pilots for the Army Air Service are sent to special training schools, where initial army air training is given. Six such schools in Japan, and one each in Korea and Manchuria, have been reported. The course at these schools formerly lasted 10 months but now has been reduced to 3 months. MOre time is given to theoretical training than to actual flying. After this initial training, candidates are separated into bomber, fighter and reconnaissance pilots; gunners; and technicians. Those found unfit for flight duties are relegated to ground assignments.

(3) Those selected for advanced training are sent to Army training schools, which are reported as follows:

Fighter pilots 3 in Japan. 1 in Formosa. Bomber pilots 4 in Japan. 1 in Manchuria. Reconnaissance pilots 2 in Japan. Gunners 5 in Japan. Technicians 5 in Japan. 1 in Manchuria.

WWII Japanese pilot.

(4) Operaional training is the function of the regular establishment; 1 training division, 4 independent training brigades, 10 training regiments and 13 training units have been identified and appear to be charged with this responsibility.





SECTION V - PROMOTION, PAY AND AWARDS
1. PROMOTION.

a. A recruit entering the Army is given the rank of 2nd-Class private and, as a rule, is automatically promoted to 1st-class private after 6 months. According to regulations, the minimum time in which promotion may be made from 1st-class to private superior is one year, and from superior private to lance coporal 6 months; nevertheless, qualified 1st-class privates have been promoted to the superior grade within 6 months.

b. Enlisted men can be promoted to the various ranks of noncommisioned and warrant officers without taking the course at a noncommissioned officers' school, provided they have the necessary qualifications. Minimum time limits within which promotion can be made to a higher rank, after assumption of the preceding lower rank, have been laid down, by Imperial Ordinance as follows:

To corporal after 1 year as lance corporal (leading private).
To sergeant, after 1 year as corporal.
To sergeant major, after 2 years as sergeant.
To warrant officer, after 4 eyars as sergeant major.

c. All noncommissioned officer promotions are subject to recommendationand selection, and in time of war the process of promotion is considerably accelerated in accordance witht he demands of the situation. Men who have taken courses at noncommisioned officers' schools may gain promotion more rapidly than those who have not done so.

d. Minimum periods of service in any one rank before promotion can be attained have also been laid down for officers. However, according to Imperial Ordinance promulgated in March 1941, both officers and enlisted men can be advanced by as much as two grades at one time for particularly meritoriious service in the field, distinguished service in military affairs, retirement from service because of wounds or illness, or, posthumously, if killed in battle.

As a rule comnpany officers must serve for three years with troops before promotion to field officers, and field officers 2 years before promotion to general officers, but in wartime exceptions to this rule are made. Geberal officers are appointed by the Emperor from lists of eligeble officers submitted by the Ministry of War.

Other officers are appointed by the Ministry of War with teh Emperor's approval. Commanders of independant units, in appropriate cases, may be specially entrusted with the power to determine promotion.

2. PAY

a. The basic rates of pay of Japanese officers and men would be considered low, judged by American and European standards. Japanese standards of living are lower, but in recognition of rising living costs in Japan and the resultant need to safeguard the livelyhood of the soldeier's dependants additional pay is now allowed to all ranks. These payments range from 80 percent to a little over 100 percent of basic pay, according to the country or area where the soldier is called upon to serve. Overseas pay was also formerly given for service in Formosa, Manchuria, and Korea, but rates of pay listed below are believed to represent those now in force.

b. Extra pay is also granted to technicians and bandsmen; Warrant and noncommissioned officers in the military police; and personnel employed as interpreters. Pay to both officers and enlisted personnel varies according to length of service within each grade. Officers are usually paid in the last 10 days of each month, and other ranks every 10 days. Before going into the field 10 days pay or more may be advanced. Japanese Army pay books, which have thin Khaki covers, are usually carried on the person; in them the owner's name and the name or code number of the unit will normally be found.

c. The following table shows the basic rate of pay in the Japanese army. The conversion to American dollars are based on values prior to 7 December 1941. One Yen was approximately 23 cents (U.S.).

NUM	RANK GRADE	INSIGNIA	PAY IN YEN	PAY IN DOLLARS	NOTES
1	General		550.00	$126.50
2	Lieutenant General		483.33	$111.17
3	Major General		416.66	$95.83
4	Colonel		310.00 - 370.00	$71.30 - $85.10	Three pay classes
5	Lieutenant Colonel		220.00 - 310.00	$50.60 - $71.30	Four pay classes
6	Major		170.00 - 220.00	$39.10 - $50.60	Four pay classes
7	Captain		122.00 - 155.00	$28.06 - $35.65	Three pay classes
8	First Lieutenat		85.00 - 94.16	$19.55 - $21.66	Two pay classes
9	Second Lieutenant		70.83	$16.29
18	Probation Officer	N/A	25.00 - 40.00	$5.75 - $9.20
10	Warrant Officer		80.00 - 110.00	$18.40 - $25.30	Four pay classes
11	Sergeant Major		32.00 - 75.00	$7.36 - $17.25	Four pay classes
12	Sergeant		23.00 - 30.00	$5.29 - $6.90	Three pay classes
13	Corporal		20.00	$4.60
14	Lance Corporal (Leading Private)		13.50	$3.11
15	Superior Private		10.50	$2.42
16	First Class Private		9.00	$2.07
17	Second Class Private		6.00 - 9.00	$1.38 - $2.07	For grades B and A respectively
		This is a WWII Japanese paybook. All salary related matters are recorded in this book. Every soldier carried a paybook.

3. DECORATIONS AND AWARDS.
The granting of medals, decorations and citations for valor, distinguished and meritorious service, good conduct, and long service figures prominantly in the Japanese military system. In peace, decorations are awarded by boards assambled at the War Mionistry or important military stations, on the recommendation of individual commanders. In the field, Army commanders may award up to and including the fifth class of the order of the Golden Kite. All awards are finally approved by the War Ministry noards, and decorations are issued, with a certificate from the Emperor, to the commanders of the units concerned.

They are distributed to officers by the divisional commander and to enlisted men by the unit commander. Decorations are returned to the War Ministry on the death of the recipient. All soldiers who have served with good conduct in a campaign receive a decoration or medal of some kind. A list of the principal decorations awarded in the Japanese Army will be found under Chapter XI.

SECTION VI - MORALE, DISCIPLINE AND EFFICIENCY.

1. MORALE.

a. The individual Japanese soldier's whole outlook and attitude to life are naturally influenced by his home life, his schooling, his partuicular social environment with its innumerable repressing conventions, and his military training.

b. In the Japanese social system, individualism has no place. Children are taught that as members of the family, they must obey their parents implicitly and, forgetting their own selfish desires, help each and every one of the family at all times. This system of obedience and loyalty is extended to the community and Japanese life as a whole; it permeates upward from the family unit through neighborhood associations, schools, factories, and other larger organizations, till finally the whole Japanese nations is imbued with the spirit of self sacrifice, obidience, and loyalty to the Emperor himself.

c. Superimposed in this community structure is the indoctrination of ancestor worship and of the divine originof the Emperor and the Japanese race. Since the restoration of the imperial rule in 1868 the Japanese government has laid much stress on the divine origin of the race and its titular head, and has amplified this teaching by describing Japan's warlike ventures as "divine missions". Famous examples of heroism and military feats in japan's history are extolled on stage and screen, in literature, and on the radio; hero worship is encouraged. Regimentation of the Japanese national life by government authorities, with their numerous and all embracing regulations, has been feature for many centuries.

d. Throughout his military training the Japanese soldier is not alloed to forget all he has been taught in the home, school, or factory. It is drummed into him again and again while his military training proceeds by repeated lectures from unit commanders, given under the guise of "Spiritual training" ( Sishin Kyoiku ). The object of all this concentrated spiritual training is to imbude the Japanese soldier with a spirit which can endure and even be spurred on to further endevors when the hardships of warfare are encountered. But even though gus officers appear to have an ardor which might be called fanaticism, the private soldier is characterized more by blind and unquestioning subservient to authority.

The determination of the Japanese soldier to fight to the last or commit suicide rather than be taken prisoner, displayed in the early stages of he war, may be prompted parlty by fear of the treatment he may receive at the hands of his captors. More likely it is motivated by the disgrace which he realizes woulkd be brought on his family should he fall into enemy's hands.



2. DISCIPLINE.
a. Becasue of his training and background the Japanese soldier is generally well discipline and very amenable to law and order. With firm leadership, the discipline to which he has been accostumed in Japan, can be and usually is, maintained in the field and territories occuppied by Japan.

b. Elated with successes in the war and imbued with the idea of Japanese racial superiority, the Japanese soldier is apt to adopt a superior attitude towards conquered people and to forget the strict instructions given him during military training. Numerous instances of breeches of the military law have occurred, and evidence of crimes of rape, plundering, drunkenness and robbery have been committed. cases of soldiers deserting their post, or mutilating themselves in order to avoid taking part in combat are not unknown, and a few cases of insubordination and desertion also have been reported.

3. EFFICIENCY.
It already has been shown (par 1.) that the Japanese soldier in civilian life is a subservient unit in the Japanese family system. and that individalism is discouraged. In the Army his position is similar. Army training and the Japanese social system place emphasis on teamwork rather than individual enterprise. As a member of the squad (section), platoon or company, the Japanese soldier meticulously performs duties alloted to him; he is an efficient cog in the machine and will carry out instructions to the letter.