Description
The Emperor’s Soldier: The Photograph Album of an Imperial Japanese Army Officer (Premium Hardcover Edition) is a collection of striking and evocative images recording milestones in the career of an identified officer in the 50th Infantry Regiment (50IR) over approximately ten years up to the start of the Pacific War.
Unearthed from obscurity at a downtown Tokyo flea market and bought for under US$100 dollars, the officer’s story would have remained untold had the album’s rotting backing pages not crumbled in the author’s hand, loosening some of the photographs to reveal, on their reverses, notes of the date, location, personnel, and even some personal comments by a young lieutenant. Although the album itself was tantalizingly incomplete, the author’s knowledge of the Japanese Army has allowed a partial reconstruction of one man’s dedicated, ultimately fatal, military journey in the service of his emperor.
All the photographs have been digitally restored, breathing new life into these historical snapshots. The annotations have been faithfully translated into English, (and reproduced in the original Japanese). An introductory essay provides background on Japanese society in the 1930s, Imperial Japanese Army recruitment policy, training priorities, and an outline of an infantry officer’s typical duties and obligations. Also included is a translation of the regimental song as well as a chronology listing key dates and deployments from 50IR’s establishment in 1905 until its destruction in combat against US forces in June 1944. A selection of colorized photographs is presented in a separate section.
While formal, rather staid and typically anonymous private photographs of Japanese servicemen are found today on auction websites and in online image galleries, sequential and more candid shots are uncommon. Photographs by an officer with an interest in photography, a talent for composition, and an eye for location are even more unusual.
Notes by the author provided context to each image, so revealing not only the “what” but also the “who” and “where” behind some marvelous pictures of cadet induction, squad assignments, winter training, route marches, weapons training, graduation, family scenes, relaxation with comrades, farewell dinners, pre-deployment parades and quiet, fateful, reflection in the tense hours before combat.
The Emperor’s Soldier will be of use to military historians and social studies professors; museum, gallery, and library curators and archivists; educators; students; writers; movie or TV costume and props specialists; fans of vintage photography; Pacific War reenactment groups; as well as private collectors of Imperial Japanese Army uniforms, medals, badges and weapons.
Stephen B. Connor is the author of Mountbatten’s Samurai: Imperial Japanese Army and Navy Forces under British Control in Southeast Asia, 1945-1948. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Contemporary History, the Mainichi News (Tokyo) and the Newsletter of the Japanese Sword Society of the United States (JSSUS).
Details
Publisher - Stephen Connor
Author(s) - Stephen Connor
Hardback
Published Date - May 01 2024
ISBN - 9781838020309
Dimensions - 25.4 x 20.3 x 1.2 cm
Page Count - 128
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