Conférence - Naoko Shimazu : Japanese War Diaries from the Russo-Japanese War

Anne Cheng

Collège de France

Histoire intellectuelle de la Chine

Année 2024-2025

Conférence - Naoko Shimazu : Japanese War Diaries from the Russo-Japanese War

War and Peace: A Global History of Japan, 1904-1943

Naoko Shimazu

Professor and Deputy Director, Tokyo College

Naoko Shimazu est invitée par l'assemblée du Collège de France sur proposition de la Pr Anne Cheng.

Résumé

The Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5 was the first modern warfare of the twentieth century. Japan won the war against Russia which had the largest land army in the world at the time. In this lecture, we focus on the personal war diaries of Japanese conscripts who had been conscripted from all over the country, and mobilised to fight against the Russians in the northeastern provinces of China. Contrary to the official narrative of 'honorable war death' where Japanese soldiers were supposed to have found honour in dying for the country, conscript diaries told entirely different stories. Many of the conscripts came from poor rural areas and were bread winners of their families. They wrote about their profound sadness in leaving their elderly parents back home, and their desire of surviving the war and return without injuries. We also learn about their attitude towards death on battlefields, when they witnessed and engaged in the business of fighting and killing as soldiers. Their diaries reveal the process of brutalisation in war as conscripts became accustomed to seeing death everywhere on battlefield. In all, conscripts diaries offers a rare glimpse into the emotional world of a conscript and how they processed their desftiny of dying for the state. In turn, such an insight enables us to have a better understanding of Japanese attitudes towards death.