Planes, Tanks and Cherry Blossoms: The Japanese Military in Japanese Animation

 

Mikhail Koulikov – mik@corneredangel.com

April 08, 2004 - DRAFT

 

1. Contradiction: no military vs. military balance

 

Among the many facts, terms and concepts associated with the word “Japan” in the popular consciousness, one that comes to mind readily has to do with the Japanese military, or the lack thereof. And indeed, Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution reads:

 

“Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a mean of settling international disputes.

 
(2) In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.” 1

 

The meaning of “land, sea, and air forces…will never be maintained” should not be ambiguous. Even a cursory glance at recent statistics tells a different story: according to one set of figures, in 2001-2002, Japan maintained a military numbering almost 290,000 troops, 840 main battle tanks, more than 300 combat aircraft, and the largest number of guided-missile destroyers (30) of any of the five countries of Northeast Asia. 2 

 

Obviously, a contradiction is present. And while in terms of sheer size, Japan’s ground and air force is the smallest in the region, the technological advantage enjoyed by the JSDF cannot be ignored.

 

2. Role of military (doctrine vs. society)

 

Many observers, both Japanese and Western, note that Japanese military policy and doctrine is undergoing a dramatic period of redefinition and revision; whereas the conventional threat was a Soviet invasion, threats identified in this new security environment include attempts by North Korea to develop nuclear weapons, abductions of Japanese citizens and naval incursions into Japanese territorial waters, as well as natural disasters. 3  Sheldon Simon notes: “Tokyo’s most recent defense policy is designed to promote a more active role in regional and global security.” 4 It is not difficult to project that at some point in the near future, Japan will become involved in armed conflict with another state, or in any case, that the JSDF will be called upon to fulfill the first and foremost mission of any military force – destruction of the enemy – regardless of what the current constitutional restrictions placed on it are.

 

The crucial question then becomes: just how much is the general public prepared for this change. In other words, what is the popular view of the JSDF’s roles, capabilities, and future, and what, if any, are the expectations present.

 

Many scholars of Japan agree that anime and manga are major forms of popular expression. Therefore, I seek to review depictions of the Japanese military in Japanese animation and comics, attempt to identify common elements, and present an argument regarding future popular perception of active military engagement based on these depictions. 

 

3. Literature Review

 

Anime and manga scholarship to date has approached depictions of the military repeatedly; however, these approaches have all been rather limited in scope. Antonia Levi argues that while anime and manga titles that portray the Japanese wartime experience certainly exist, they largely emphasize the pathos and idealism of the common soldier or civilian and present highly negative views of the military and civilian leadership. 5 Patrick Drazen devotes a full chapter of his Anime Explosion to “war and anti-war themes in anime” and establishes a useful framework by dividing such themes to depictions of “(a) real wars Japan was involved in, (b) fictional battles involving Japan (past, present or future), and (c) battles with little or no connection to Earth, except that one of the combatant species is humanoid.” 6 Finally, Susan Napier’s treatment of the theme is within the context of a discussion of anime approaches to and redefinitions of history in general. In all three cases, the depictions of war are largely depictions of civilians in wartime (Napier calls the two titles she focuses on “essentially family dramas.” 7) – that is, they are merely depictions of one aspect of war – and from the standpoint of military science or analysis, a relative minor aspect at that. Moreover, focusing on the same several titles (Grave of the Fireflies, Barefoot Gen) all three ignore the fact that for Japan, World War II was the culmination of a modern military tradition that included participation in four wars in the span of thirty years, and overwhelming victory in two of them.

 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, military historians and defense analysts have by and in large ignored depictions of the Japanese military in popular culture. Those who have not, like Stewart Lone, who argues that the modern Japanese military only appears on the periphery of popular culture and anime and manga depictions of the JSDF present it as the villain, 8  have largely based their arguments on the limited discussions presented by Levi, Drazen and Napier.

 

4. Common themes in anime/manga representations

 

Taking as a starting point the framework proposed by Drazen, I first look at titles that deal with fictional battles involving the Japanese military and are set ostensibly in the pre-World War II period. There are quite a few of these: the most notable are Sakura Taisen (Sakura Wars), Raimuiro Senkitan (Lime-Colored War Ballad) and Virgin Fleet. Two features common to these, as well as other titles that deal with depictions of the military, are a literal demonization of the enemy and, simultaneously, a “demilitarization” of the soldiers.

 

Although both Sakura Taisen and Raimuiro Senkitan take place at definite points in Japanese history (respectively, immediately after the First World War and during the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War), in both cases, the threat Japan is facing – supernatural forces whose origin and purpose is essentially left unexplained - has little to do with reality. In the case of Virgin Fleet, the threat is from a force that is vaguely identified with the World War II-era American invaders, but in no sufficient detail to make such an identification definite. The effect of this technique is obvious: Japanese military forces become identified with the heroes of myth and legend. Recognizing the fact, Napier calls this effect an indication that Japanese “national identity is no longer a fixed construction” 9 – that is, it is built retroactively, and redefined to fit the needs of the present. Ultimately, the result of this deconstruction/reconstruction is that in the absence of other evidence, the Japanese military of the pre-World War II period is presented to the public as everything but an aggressor that invaded China twice, launched an attack on Russia, and ultimately, was able to take on three colonial empires and effectively end two of them.

 

The second important theme common to depictions of the military in Japanese popular culture, and one that holds for all periods, is what I will call the “demilitarization” of the combatants. In fact, in all three of the titles referenced above, they are teenage girls. They go to school, interact with each other and their superiors, and lead seemingly “normal” lives; when they go into combat, it is almost as if they are participating in an extracurricular activity that, while not particularly out of the ordinary, is just that – something they do on the side.

 

Again here, the effect of such a representation only becomes obvious after a careful consideration of the tasks the JSDF has most often been called to perform. Excepting peacekeeping deployments and its normal duties in defense of Japanese territory, many of the missions of the JSDF over the last fifty years have been of a decidedly nonmilitary nature, with an emphasis on disaster response and civil engineering. For example, for years, the Sapporo Snow Festival has relied on military vehicles to haul the snow used in building the snow sculptures it is famous for, and on military personnel to actually work as sculptors. 10 

 

Anime representations of the contemporary JSDF largely feature these same themes. Enemies are again either absent entirely – the focus is on the military as a social institution, or presented as demonic or inhuman. The combatants are very explicitly not soldiers: Evangelion takes this to the extreme by using the term “children” to refer to the five adolescents charged with protecting the world. And when criticisms of the military exist, their target is not the JSDF but the American forces that have been stationed in Japan for years. Thus, in Blood: The Last Vampire, the American military machine is itself presented as soul-less and demonic; a series of killings of American soldiers and the Japanese who cooperate with them by a supernatural being is contrasted with the daily bombings of North Vietnam by American bombers taking off from a base in Japan.

 

When futuristic military forces are presented, the two themes certainly hold true in some cases, but in others, they are conspicuously absent. In shows like Legend of Galactic Heroes, Irresponsible Captain Tylor and Martian Successor Nadesico, the military is solidly the target of criticism: at best, it is incompetent, at worst, immoral. On the other hand, in the Space Battleship Yamato and Mobile Suit Gundam franchises (each contains a number of films and series united by thematic elements, but not necessarily storylines), the aspects that are emphasized are traditional and positive: honor, heroism, self-sacrifice.

 

Here, the crucial aspect is that representations of a futuristic military are just that: they are commentary on the military as a concept, and explicitly not commentary on the modern – or historical - Japanese military. As objective concepts not grounded in geopolitical reality, “war” and “killing” are, of course, easy targets for criticism. And when, as in Yamato and Gundam, these same concepts need to be presented in a positive light, anime screenwriters resort to drawing historical connections: in the former case, the Yamato of the title is the Imperial Japanese Navy battleship, now reborn to fight an alien invasion; in the latter, characters that are to be perceived positively are implied to be Japanese – and thus heirs to Japan’s proud military tradition.  

 

5. Summary

 

Ultimately, popular culture representations of the historical and contemporary Japanese military have been highly complimentary. I believe that whatever the original intended purpose of such representations, they have served to erase any doubts, misgivings, or apprehension the Japanese public may have had about the military following the Second World War. The Japanese military is popularly viewed as first and foremost a social institution whose goals and purpose have little if anything to do with waging war. At the same time, military planners within the JSDF and military analysts in the rest of the world have increasingly accepted the fact that within the next several decades, Japan will most likely shake off the last limitations of the Occupation-era constitution, whether by choice or as a fait accompli within the course of an armed conflict with North Korea or China or intervention abroad. In either case, I do not foresee much public discussion; the generation of politicians who grew up immediately following World War II will have faded away, whereas those asked to make the decision regarding the new status of the JSDF will have an opinion and image of the military that will largely be based on the popular culture representation.

 

Notes:

 

1: The Constitution of Japan (1947), Hanover Historical Texts Project

http://history.hanover.edu/texts/1947con.html

2: Cordesman, Anthony H., The Asian Conventional Military Balance in 2002: Northeast Asia. Washington: CSIS, 2002

3: Nakamura, Satoru, Issues of Japanese Defense Policy. In Defense Research Center Annual Report (2003). Tokyo: Defense Research Center, 2003

4: Simon, Sheldon W., Asian Armed Forces: Internal and External Tasks and Capabilities. NBR Analysis 11:1 (May 2000)

5: Levi, Antonia. Samurai From Outer Space: Understanding Japanese Animation. (Chicago: Open Court Publishing, 1996) 68

6: Drazen, Patrick. Anime Explosion!: The What? Why? And Wow! Of Japanese Animation. (Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2001) 192

7: Napier, Susan J. Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation. (New York: Palgrave, 2000) 162

8: Lone, Stewart. The Japanese Military during the Russo-Japanese War, 1904-05: A Reconsideration of Command Politics and Public Images. In Aspects of the Russo-Japanese War. London: The Suntory Centre, 1998

9: Napier, 157

10: Faiola, Anthony. Japan's Military Sculpts New Image in Iraqi Sand
Deployment Furthers Break With Pacifism. Washington Post, 02/10/2004