Creating Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force, 1945-2015: A Sword Well Made

by David Hunter-Chester

Overview

Creating Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force, 1945–2015 is a timely contribution to postwar Japan security studies. It is the first comprehensive account of Japan’s post-1945 army, including a comprehensive institutional history, together with the evolution of roles and missions and the adoption of successive professional identities. The organizational history is embedded within a thorough examination of Japan’s own defense policy, as well as of America’s policy of alliance with Japan. The book examines and challenges assumptions about the drafting and adoption of the War Renunciation clause of Japan’s postwar Peace Constitution, Article 9, which uniquely not only renounces war, but the arms to wage war. Thus Japan’s army is not called an army, but the Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF). The work also examines the place of an army and soldiers in the formation of Japan’s national identity after its last devastating war, and explores the impact of constitutional, legal and policy restrictions, as well as the power of the legacy of the still-largely vilified Imperial Japanese Army on GSDF members who seek to serve because “there are people we want to protect.” The study is rounded by an examination of the place of soldiers in Japan’s popular culture, focused on movies, manga and anime, assessing the impact on the GSDF of a public imagination that most often ignores or villainizes soldiers, though ending with a note that some positive images of soldiers and of the GSDF members themselves have started to appear in the last few years. The book’s author, a retired U.S. Army soldier who spent more than twenty years working, studying and training with the GSDF, offers a broad-ranging exploration of a unique organization. This work is extensively researched, using English and Japanese sources, and will appeal to anyone interested in Japanese security studies, alliance studies, and military imagery in Japanese pop culture, as well as to students of military history, international security, international relations, and cultural identity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498537919
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	09/15/2018
Series:	New Studies in Modern Japan
Pages:	314
Product dimensions:	5.95(w) x 8.77(h) x 0.74(d)

About the Author

David Hunter-Chester has a PhD in East Asian history and has taught at the United States Army Command and General Staff College, West Point, and Webster University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction: Renouncing War, Struggling to Rearm, Creating the Ground Self-Defense Force, and Reimagining the Soldier Chapter 2: Disarmament and the Voices of Dissent Chapter 3: Hot- and Cold-Running Wars and a Changing Consensus, 1946–1950 Chapter 4: Old Iron and New Steel, 1950–1952 Chapter 5: The GSDF Organized, 1952–1960 Chapter 6: Sheathing the Blade, Polishing the Spirit: 1960–1976 Chapter 7: A Sword in the Storm, a Life-Giving Sword: Policy and Ground Truth, 1978–1995 Chapter 8: New Century, New Threats, New GSDF, 1996–2015 Chapter 9: Drawing Weapons: Reimagining the Soldier, 1945–2015 Chapter 10: Conclusion: A Sword Well Made

Editorial Reviews

Japan suffered epic defeat after fifteen years of war in 1945. Forces were broken, industry crippled, population starving, the country was occupied, and the government’s perfidy to the Japanese people was exposed. The Japanese Imperial Army, guilty of both atrocities and acting as a sovereign authority, was thoroughly disgraced. Yet within five years Japan was transitioning to a robust democracy and her Ground Self Defense Force began to emerge from the ashes in a unique relationship with the government and the people of Japan. David Hunter-Chester tells how this happened and how the Ground Self Defense Force developed from this humble and fraught beginning in a well-researched and very readable work that is a must-read for those wishing to understand America’s most important security partner.

Wallace "Chip" Gregson

This highly readable book provides an unparalleled explanation of the historic, cultural, and political roots of Japan's modern ground forces. David Hunter-Chester takes the reader inside the story of how pacifist Japan re-tempered and sharpened a sword once sheathed.

Michael J. Green

David Hunter-Chester has painstakingly researched the facts of Japan’s demobilization, the origins and adoption of the postwar constitution, and the debate over the pace of rearmament, both domestically and between the Japanese and U.S. governments. His in-depth detailing of the papers of Colonel Frank Kowalski, who was placed in charge of the National Police Reserve upon its U.S.-ordered creation following the outbreak of the Korean War, is, in my opinion, the very best available in either English or Japanese. His overall study of Japan’s demobilization and rearmament constitutes very valuable and readable scholarship.

James E. Auer

Creating Japan’s Ground Self-Defence Force, 1945-2015: A Sword Well Made is unique in the way it captures all of the major and minor players who took part in shattering and reforging the Sacred Sword that is Japan’s Ground Self Defense Force and puts all of that information into an all encompassing format…. This book has value for those who wish for more than just a Japanese perspective on the reconstruction of Japan after World War II and during the Cold War. The book is also valuable in the picture it paints of how difficult it truly is to create/recreate an army and all of the cultural and social nuances that are required to help its integration into society. This can be helpful to those wishing to gain further insights of the struggles undergone by during the reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which needed to completely rebuild their armies.

The Strategy Bridge

Creating Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force, 1945–2015: A Sword Well Made is a must-read for scholars and students of Japan, particularly those who focus on Japan's national security policy. The narrative of the evolution of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF), particularly how its force build-up has been affected by external events, provides the readers an opportunity to better understand how the JGSDF, which looks and moves like army, has had to navigate itself through normative constraints imposed on them in postwar Japan. While there are many books that focus on the history, strategy, doctrine, and culture of pre-1945 Imperial Japanese Army, very few have focused specifically on the JGSDF. This book fills a void and, without a doubt, is a very important contribution to the study of Japan's national security policy.

Yuki Tatsumi