Articles
“The Supreme Command of Our Forces is in Our Hands” : Restoring Imperial Authority and the Vilification of the Samurai
Abstract
The Restoration Edict of January 1868, which restored the political power of the emperor, was followed by a series of measures that abolished the warrior class (bushi) and established the supremacy of the imperial court in military matters. Drawing on ancient history and mythology, such as the military campaigns of Japan’s first (legendary) Emperor Jinmu, imperial apologists vilified the warrior class and accused it of “usurping” imperial authority for more than five hundred years. In this article, I show that the Imperial Japanese Army took a rather condescending view of the warrior rule of previous centuries and of “the samurai” as a whole. Although it may sound counterintuitive, the vilification of “the samurai” was a necessary precondition for the remilitarization of the imperial house, which had not been directly involved in military affairs since the fourteenth century. In addition, I demonstrate that it was World War II propaganda, particularly the propaganda directed at non-Japanese audiences, that shaped the pervasive notion of a connection between the historical “samurai” and the modern Japanese military. Following the Second World War, however, the emperor was once again demilitarized. He set aside the uniform of the supreme military commander, adopting civilian attire and becoming the foremost symbol of the “peace state.”