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The Records of the Former Japanese Army Concerning the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

Midori Kawashima
Midori Kawashima
Affiliation:
University of Shizuoka
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Abstract

One field of study which still remains unexplored in connection with the Japanese occupation is to examine the Japanese army's view of events by using Japanese military records. This paper gives an outline of records relating to the occupation of the Philippines found at the Military Archives of the National Institute for Defense Studies in Tokyo, and discusses their historical significance.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 27 , Special Issue 1: The Japanese Occupation in Southeast Asia , March 1996 , pp. 124 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1996

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References

1 Apart from the Military Archives, some documents of the former Japanese Army concerning the Japanese occupation in the Philippines are also found at other Japanese institutions and private collections, although in a much smaller number. These include the Library of the Institute of Developing Economies (Ajia Keizai Kenkyujo Toshokan ), and the National Archives (Kokuritsu Kobunshokan ), both located in Tokyo.

2 In 1990, the Forum for the Survey of Records Concerning the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines was created in order to locate and collect materials and sources as well as to conduct research on the subject, sponsored by the Toyota Foundation. As a part of this project, I conducted research on the records of the former Japanese army at the Military Archives and compiled a Bibliography of Records concerning the Japanese occupation of the Philippines Found at the National Institute for Defense Studies. See ILCAA Southeast Asian Studies, No. 4 (Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 1994) (in Japanese).

3 The Fourteenth and the Thirty-fifth Annies were dispatched to the Philippines.

4 National Institute for Defense Studies, The Thirty Year History of the National Institute for Defense Studies (Tokyo: National Institute for Defense Studies, 1984) (in Japanese), p. 102Google Scholar.

5 Several former Japanese army officers I interviewed said that they had carried with them huge wooden boxes containing documents when they were withdrawing from their garrisons into the mountains towards the end of the war, and that they had burnt all the documents they had been carrying at the last moment when the American troops were approaching them.

6 National Institute for Defense Studies, “Circumstances of the Returning of the Japanese Army and Navy Records”, in A List of Records of the Japanese Army and Navy, Microfilmed by the Americans, Office of Military History, National Institute for Defense Studies (Tokyo: National Institute for Defense Studies, 1974) (in Japanese), pp. 134–35Google Scholar. The seizure of these documents, their transfer to U.S., and their return to Japan is discussed in Yoshimura, Yoshiko, “The Washington Document Center (WDC) and the WDC Collection in the Japanese Section”, in Censored Japanese Serials of the Pre-1946 Period: A Checklist of the Microfilm Collection, comp. Yoshiko Yoshimura (Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress, 1994)Google Scholar.

7 Morley, James William, “Check List of Seized Japanese Records in the National Archives”, The Far Eastern Quarterly 9, 3 (1950): 306–308CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 National Institute for Defense Studies, The Thirty Year History, p. 91.

9 Ibid., pp. 3, 23, 55, 91–93.

10 National Institute for Defense Studies, “Circumstances of the Returning of the Japanese Army and Navy Records”, pp. 135–3.

11 Young, John, Checklist of Microfilm Reproductions of Selected Archives of the Japanese Army, Navy, and Other Government Agencies, 1868–1945 (Washington, D.C: Georgetown University Press, 1959), pp. vii–viiiGoogle Scholar.

12 National Institute for Defense Studies, “Circumstances of the Returning of the Japanese Army and Navy Records”, pp. 143–44. “National Institute for Defense Studies, The Thirty Year History, pp. 94–106.

14 Ibid., p. 93.

15 Ibid., p. 23.

16 Ibid., pp. 8–9.

17 Ibid., pp. 10–11, 115–20.

18 National Institute for Defense Studies, “Circumstances of the Returning of the Japanese Army and Navy Records”, p. 153.

19 National Institute for Defense Studies, “A Guide of the Military History Collection” (pamphlet issued by the Military Archives) (in Japanese).

20 Nakano, Satoshi, “The Japanese Occupation of Southeast Asia: Comparing the Philippines and Indonesia”, Rekishigaku Kenkyu 651 (1993): 179–88Google Scholar (in Japanese).

21 Dept. of Military History, National Institute for Defense Studies (ed.) (Tokyo: Choun Shinbun Co., 1985) (in Japanese).