For more details see on Rukaigun.org my translation of the Japanese article "Regarding the organization of 244th Air Group" by Sakuari Takashi, which describes organization of the IJA Air Force fighter unit.
During the Pacific War Japanese bureaucrats sometimes did ridiculous things to ensure "proper morals" were maintained by Japanese, as morals were considered important factor to win the war.
Among other things this meant women should've abstain from sex even as their husbands were in the military and away from home - sometimes for years.
So Japanese military decided to produce vibrators for women whose husbands were at the front. But once a model had been chosen and a factory established, authorities were unable to market this product to married women. Why? - Because advertising vibrators was banned as "immoral" by other bureaucrats.
Those who think I've invented all this - please look at pages 63-64 of the book "The thought war - Japanese imperial propaganda" by Barak Kushner.
Land combat component of the Imperial Japanese Navy is poorly researched in modern English-language literature. The book “Rikusentai” by Austin Adachi tries to correct this.
Despite small size, book gives reader good overall picture about IJN land forces (not just SNLFs – there were many IJN land formations, either intended or forced to fight on land): their creation, evolution, organization, uniform, weapons and equipment. Also it has many quality photos, which were never published before. And printing quality is excellent – the book is pleasure to read.
The only thing missing is combat history of IJN land units. But even a short description of combat operations will require at least several volumes of the “Rikusentai” size, so I can understand, why author decided to cut his description of combat operations down to the most general words.
As a researcher I’m also pleased, that, despite small size of the book, author found some space for the sources of his knowledge, which greatly helps people who’d like to find more on the topic.
In my opinion the book “Rikusentai” is a great work on topic despite its small size.
Austin Adachi is also the head of the Japanese Naval Landing Forces Historical Preservation Association. It’s web site has a lot of interesting Japanese photos (sometimes totally unlike your average Pacific War Japanese photos): https://en.rikusentai.net/
Presentation of the Japan Self-Defense Force flags in
June 1954 (Army flag on the left, Navy flag on the right)
In 1954, Japan was allowed to re-establish a military force, called the Japanese Self-Defense Force. Among other things, a competition was announced in the country for new flags for the Army and Navy.
For the flag
of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force design was chosen with the traditional
Rising Sun, but different from the banners of the former Imperial Japanese Army
(you can see original IJA banners design in my post here: https://vijsko.blogspot.com/2023/06/imperial-japanese-army-regimental-flags.html
).
But there
was a problem with the flag competition for the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense
Force. An artist Yonai Suiho sent to the competition an old flag of
the Imperial Japanese Navy with the bold claim, that nobody will come up with a
better design anyway. And indeed, nobody was able to create anything better.
Therefore, it was necessary to formally recognize the victory of the
plagiarist – an incredible thing in Japan.
But this design was not very politically correct (World War II ended only 9 years ago), so the final decision was submitted for approval to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshida Shigeru. He said: "There is no country in the world, that does not know this flag" – and the design was approved. To this day Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force uses this "old-new" flag design.
Every army of the world likes to see equipment clean, tidy and repaired if damaged. But there was one exception: unit flags. In some armies damaged, torn flag was a symbol of veteran battle-tested regiment. That’s why damaged flags were not replaced and sometimes even not repaired of battle damage.
Flag of
the 114th French Infantry Regiment in Paris, 14 July 1917
Imperial Japanese
Army went to the extreme of this practice. They forbade any repair of the unit
flags no matter the reason. As a result, some flags turned into tatters despite
all the care of them. Sometimes only fringes remained of the banner.
You can read excellent research on Imperial Japanese Army and Navy flags here: https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/japanese-militaria/banner-golden-brocade-647336/
The best
part from this research is below: “As we have seen, the flags may have
become total rags, having seen hell but also better days, but the army
nonetheless demanded that the bearer had to have fairytale-like qualities of
purity to deserve bearing the banner or whatever remained of it. Regimental
Standard bearers were generally selected from newly commissioned 2nd
Lieutenants (rarely 1st Lt), who took turns 1 year at a time. They had to be
from the top of the class, of upright character, good-looking and tall. An unwritten rule (perhaps not to
embarrass the man selected for this honor) was that only men still without
carnal knowledge of a woman could be allowed. As such, frequent patrons of
army bordellos were absolutely out of the question as candidates.”
