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Casualties of History: Wounded Japanese Servicemen and the Second World War
By Lee K. Pennington
536 pages
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Thousands of wounded servicemen returned to Japan following the escalation of Japanese military aggression in China in July 1937. Tens of thousands would return home after Japan widened its war effort in 1939. In Casualties of History, Lee K. Pennington relates for the first time in English the experiences of Japanese wounded soldiers and disabled veterans of Japan’s "long" Second World War (from 1937 to 1945). He maps the terrain of Japanese military medicine and social welfare practices and establishes the similarities and differences that existed between Japanese and Western physical, occupational, and spiritual rehabilitation programs for war-wounded servicemen, notably amputees. To exemplify the experience of these wounded soldiers, Pennington draws on the memoir of a Japanese soldier who describes in gripping detail his medical evacuation from a casualty clearing station on the front lines and his medical convalescence at a military hospital.
Moving from the hospital to the home front, Pennington documents the prominent roles adopted by disabled veterans in mobilization campaigns designed to rally popular support for the war effort. Following Japan’s defeat in August 1945, U.S. Occupation forces dismantled the social welfare services designed specifically for disabled military personnel, which brought profound consequences for veterans and their dependents. Using a wide array of written and visual historical sources, Pennington tells a tale that until now has been neglected by English-language scholarship on Japanese society. He gives us a uniquely Japanese version of the all-too-familiar story of soldiers who return home to find their lives (and bodies) remade by combat.
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Casualties of History: Wounded Japanese Servicemen and the Second World War (Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University) Hardcover – May 6, 2015
by Lee K. Pennington (Author)
Part of: Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University (83 books)
Thousands of wounded servicemen returned to Japan following the escalation of Japanese military aggression in China in July 1937. Tens of thousands would return home after Japan widened its war effort in 1939. In Casualties of History, Lee K. Pennington relates for the first time in English the experiences of Japanese wounded soldiers and disabled veterans of Japan’s "long" Second World War (from 1937 to 1945). He maps the terrain of Japanese military medicine and social welfare practices and establishes the similarities and differences that existed between Japanese and Western physical, occupational, and spiritual rehabilitation programs for war-wounded servicemen, notably amputees. To exemplify the experience of these wounded soldiers, Pennington draws on the memoir of a Japanese soldier who describes in gripping detail his medical evacuation from a casualty clearing station on the front lines and his medical convalescence at a military hospital.
Moving from the hospital to the home front, Pennington documents the prominent roles adopted by disabled veterans in mobilization campaigns designed to rally popular support for the war effort. Following Japan’s defeat in August 1945, U.S. Occupation forces dismantled the social welfare services designed specifically for disabled military personnel, which brought profound consequences for veterans and their dependents. Using a wide array of written and visual historical sources, Pennington tells a tale that until now has been neglected by English-language scholarship on Japanese society. He gives us a uniquely Japanese version of the all-too-familiar story of soldiers who return home to find their lives (and bodies) remade by combat.
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Casualties of History is an innovative study that draws upon hitherto unexplored sources, including a variety of visual materials that are reproduced as color plates in the mid-section of the book, and adds to a richer understanding of Japanese culture during the Asia-Pacific War."-- Alexander R. Bay ― Medical History
"After Japan surrendered to the Allies in 1945, a segment of the population became effectively disenfranchised in the decades to come. 'In an era of memories and memoirs filled with the voices of failed kamikaze pilots, bereaved families, and atomic-bombing survivors, there was little room remaining for the tales of war-wounded, leftover servicemen,' writes Dr. Pennington, a U.S. Naval Academy professor. His book provides just that room."― GW Magazine
"In this pioneering book, Lee Pennington adds to the growing literature that places the history of the body squarely within the narrative of modern Japan and the history of the Asia-Pacific War. Casualties of History examines wounded servicemen, who, despite prominence as symbols of righteous sacrifice during World War II, became forgotten relics of a painful military debacle. Casualties of History is an innovative study that draws upon hitherto unexplored sources, including a variety of visual materials that are reproduced as colour plates in the mid-section of the book, and adds to a richer understanding of Japanese culture during the Asia-Pacific War."-- Alexander R. Bay ― Medical History
"Lee Pennington is most effective in blending analyses of government documents with accounts of boots-on-the-ground soldiers and veterans. His book is now the best investigation of Japanese wartime medicine, physical trauma, and social mobilization in support of rehabilitation. It deserves a place on the must-read list of every student of Japan in and after the Second World War."-- Aaron William Moore ― Michigan War Studies Review
"Meticulously researched and thoughtfully conceived, Casualties of History is a premier work of disability history―one that deserves to be read by students and teachers alike."-- John M. Kinder ― Disability Studies Quarterly
"This book is rich in detail and sources, and places the wounded veteran in the greater context of Japanese culture and the militarization (and subsequent demilitarization) of Japanese society.... Pennington's work is a valuable addition to the expanding historiography on those survivors of war aptly described as the debris of battle."-- Steven Oreck ― H-War
"Studies focused on wounded soldiers and physically disabled veterans of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) have been largely absent from both Japanese mainstream narratives and English scholarship. Pennington's work breaks through this silence."-- Aiko Otsuka ― Pacific Affairs
"Clearly reveals how disabled veterans figured in the state's management of the lives of the people.... The book thus achieves its important and main goal of recovering more of the experiences of these individuals."― Japanese Studies
"This is a powerful analysis of an important but neglected subject. I enthusiasticly recommend it to my final-year undergraduate students studying Japan during the Asia-Pacific War and Allied occupation and commend its use of a wide range of Japanese sources, together with its skillful use of personal narratives to bring the subject alive."― Journal of Japanese Studies
Review
"Based on a deep immersion in Japanese-language sources and an impressive familiarity with Japanese culture, Lee K. Pennington's book about wounded soldiers and disabled veterans succeeds in bridging the analytical gap between the perspectives of disability studies and the new military history, and brings to life the sufferings of these neglected men and uses to which their sacrifices were put by the Japanese state. It evokes especially convincingly the problems that massive civilian casualties and military defeat caused in making sense of their service."-- David A. Gerber, University at Buffalo (SUNY), editor of Disabled Veterans in History
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Product details
Publisher : Cornell University Press; Illustrated edition (May 6, 2015)
Language : English
Hardcover : 304 pages
ISBN-10 : 0801452570
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Oreck on Pennington, 'Casualties of History: Wounded Japanese Servicemen and the Second World War'
Author:
Lee Pennington
Reviewer:
Steven Oreck
Lee Pennington. Casualties of History: Wounded Japanese Servicemen and the Second World War. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2015. xviii + 282 pp. $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-8014-5257-4.
Reviewed by Steven Oreck (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Published on H-War (July, 2015) Commissioned by Margaret Sankey
As long as there have been conflicts there has been the issue of what to do with those whose wounds, whether physcial or psychic, have rendered them unable to resume their pre-conflict occupations. The irony of the issue of disabled veterans is that as wars and weapons became more destructive of human flesh, medicine has evolved to have more, and more severely injured, soldiers survive. The Romans would employ disabled veterans within the castra (fort); however, following the fall of the Roman Empire, disabled veterans, unless of the nobility, were generally left to beg the charity of the public, a situation that only gradually began to change in the early modern era, evolving to the current emphasis on the rehabilitation and reintegration of the wounded veteran we see today. As part of the evolving scholarship on the wounded and the veteran, Lee Pennington examines the severely wounded veterans of modern Japan.
Pennington begins his narrative with the veterans of the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars, the first wars of post-Meiji Japan. The number of disabled veterans was small, and the early emphasis was on private and patriotic efforts, assisted by imperial charity, to care for them. Following World War I the Japanese government and military took the lessons of the powers that had large numbers of casualties, and began to develop a primarily government-run system, and one that shifted emphasis from domiciliary care to rehabilitation and reintegration. With the beginning of the conflict with China in the early 1930s, the system came under pressure to expand and reorganize as casualties of the war in China began to return to Japan with wounds that rendered them lost to the military. At the same time, as part of the national effort of militarization, the term for a diabled soldier was officially changed from haihei (crippled soldier) to shoi gunjin (sick or wounded soldier). Simultaneously, disabled soldiers were touted as "heroes in white" (after the white robes they wore).
Pennington goes into detail on the pensions and pension systems for wounded veterans and families of the war dead and uses a few personal narratives as well as examples of children's books and magazines to illustrate the effort to glorify the wounded, an important theme in a society not very tolerant of physcial deformity. The years 1941-45, or the "Pacific War," contain less detail than other sections of the book; the author explains that many records of this period were destoyed in 1945, and also the reality that by 1943 evacuation of casualties from the Pacific Islands to Japan was cut off by the US submarine force. Left unsaid is the reality that as islands were taken by the US forces there were few survivors at all.
Most poignant is the section on the postwar period. During the occupation the Americans worked hard to demilitaize Japanese scoiety, and this included dismantling all military pernsion systems, including those for disabled veterans and war widows. There needs were to be taken care of through a wholly civilian social welfare system, without any preferences. Only in the late 1940s were organizations advocating for greater benefits for disabled veterans (and war widows) tolerated. As the author notes, disabled veterans went from heroes in white to forgotten men.
This book is rich in detail and sources, and places the wounded veteran in the greater context of Japanese culture and the militarization (and subsequent demilitarization) of Japanese society. Where I noticed errors they were minor, and of a medical/technical nature--one example being the misrepresenting a functional articifical arm of the 1920s in Japan as one of the first functional prostheses whereas such prostheses had been used since the 1860s/1870s. The author does properly defend the Japanese military medical system against charges of systemic inadequacy--the logistical failures of the Japanese military severely impacted the ability of the medical department to care for sick and wounded. In fact, during the Russo-Japanese War American observers had touted the Japanese Army Medical Department for its high standards and efficiency, especially compared the Russian system. Overall Pennington's work is a valuable addition to the expanding historiography on those survivors of war aptly described as the debris of battle.
Printable Version: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=43934
Citation: Steven Oreck. Review of Pennington, Lee, Casualties of History: Wounded Japanese Servicemen and the Second World War. H-War, H-Net Reviews. July, 2015. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=43934
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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BOOK REVIEWS, NORTHEAST ASIA
VOLUME 90 – NO. 1
CASUALTIES OF HISTORY: Wounded Japanese Servicemen and the Second World War | By Lee K. Pennington
Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2015. xviii, 282 pp., [8] pp. of colored plates (Figures, tables.) US$39.95, cloth. ISBN 978-0-8014-5257-4.
Studies focused on wounded soldiers and physically disabled veterans of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) have been largely absent from both Japanese mainstream narratives and English scholarship. Pennington’s work breaks through this silence. Placing these men in the historical shift of Japanese institutions and welfare services from the 1890s to 1952, the author illustrates how they became casualties of war and later “doubly casualties of history” (16). In particular, this project reveals two distinct dimensions of Japan’s war history: the institutions that existed to treat and rehabilitate these men, and the status of the men themselves, seen by the Japanese state as an integral component of the mobilization effort during the war. This research is a vital addition to studies of war and battlefield experiences from the perspective of the defeated.
The use of a rich set of materials widens the scope of the study, including first-hand accounts, medical-related materials, institutional resources, war memoirs, and popular media. For instance, Pennington integrates IJA Physician-Captain Kawahara Kaiichirō’s memoir The Fighting Artificial Arm (1941), which enables readers to perceive how soldiers came to be wounded, how they were treated on the battlefield and at the home front, and how they interacted on a day-to-day basis with other veterans and people in wider society.
The book is divided into three major periods: prewar (1890s–1937), total war (1937–1945), and the Allied Occupation (1945–1952). Although the main focus of this study is the period of total war, Pennington begins with an exploration of military support in the prewar period, arguing that significant progress was achieved during this time. The Japanese state had previously preferred private assistance, and relied on financial contributions and support from civic associations. Following the Russo-Japanese War in 1904–1905, military assistance became a state-driven concern, initiating the establishment of military pensions, the Crippled Soldiers Institute, and the Military Assistance Law. These foundations became an important part of the rise in extensive care for veterans during war.
Another vital element in this period is the state’s shifting perception of wounded and disabled veterans. Particularly, soldiers who fought during the Russo-Japanese War were called “crippled soldiers” and were considered passive recipients of welfare services, incapable of acting for the nation. However, the Japanese state officially re-labelled them as “disabled veterans” in the 1930s, thereby removing negative connotations. Such a change was derived from the state’s need to enlarge mobilization for the imminent total war.
The volume’s major contribution is found in the following two chapters: the first is concerned with the sophisticated medical system at overseas battlefronts and the second with the comprehensive care at home between 1937 and 1941. Pennington demonstrates how the military medical system, and its echelon IJA medical care facilities, were well established at the war front in China, enabling the wounded to be evacuated from the battle lines and receive treatment from field surgeons and medics. Integrating logistics and military medicine, his investigation overturns what Ruth Benedict represents in her well-known work, Chrysanthemum and the Sword—that the standard of the IJA’s medical treatment was wretched.
Similarly, Pennington examines the care services administered for amputees at Tokyo Number Three, a provisional army hospital described as similar to a military barrack. The amputees who were sent back from the theatre of war received physical, vocational, and spiritual rehabilitation at the hospital. The disabled men practiced a variety of exercise therapies from daily calisthenics to sports in order to strengthen their bodies. Functional artificial arms were developed and granted to these men, and vocational training using prostheses was also offered. Spiritual training involved creative activities such as ikebana and tanka, and entertainment from external performers. Such programs were intended to reframe these men as imperial subjects rather than relegating them to the periphery of society.
Focusing on the period between 1937 and 1945, the next two chapters elucidate the favourable treatment given to disabled men who sacrificed their limbs for the sake of the nation. Not only were fully fledged welfare services available to the wounded and disabled veterans, they were also presented as physically capable actors and heroic figures. Pennington employs the term “extraordinary treatment” (174) to characterize the response of the state and wider society. Depictions of these men were positive, affirming, and respectful.
The lives of the defeated soldiers after 1945 are the subject of the final chapter. War casualties, which until this point had been particular to military servicemen, became pervasive among Japanese civilians toward the end of the war. Against this backdrop, Pennington describes how the preferential wartime system for the wounded and disabled men was shattered by the Allied occupation’s introduction of equal welfare services for the needy under its demilitarization and democratization efforts. Additionally, the war-bereaved families became major political actors, as they were depicted as “acceptable icons of sacrifice” (198) after the defeat. These circumstances resulted in a decline in the special status granted to disabled veterans during wartime.
Pennington’s achievement fills a lacuna in studies on Japanese wounded soldiers and disabled veterans of World War II by examining the history of soldiers conscripted by the wartime state. With his fascinating insight into war history, he extensively examines the lives, experiences, and representation of these men in mass culture, and their institutional surroundings. His observations on wartime Japan fit within a broad study that illuminates contrasting aspects of the war in the dark valley. Furthermore, this book benefits Japanese scholarship as, to date, attention to this subject has been anything but voluminous and has been inclined to focus on rather short periods and restricted topics. With these reasons, Casualties of History should attract a large audience with an interest in war history and the history of casualties.
Aiko Otsuka
University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom
pp. 153-155
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