Trajan (typeface)

The Kempeitai (Japanese: 憲兵隊, "Corps of Law Soldiers") was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945. It was not an English-style service police, but was a French-style gendarmerie. Therefore, while it was institutionally a part of the Imperial Japanese Army, it also discharged the functions of the military police for the Imperial Japanese Navy under the direction of the Admiralty Minister (although the IJN had its own Tokeitai), those of the executive police under the direction of the Interior Minister, and those of the judicial police under the direction of the Justice Minister. A member of the corps was called a kempei

In World War II Allied propaganda, the Kempeitai was often called the "Japanese Gestapo".

History

Kempei officers aboard a train in 1935

The Kempeitai was established in 1881 by a decree called Kempei Jourei (Japanese: 憲兵条例）, literally "articles concerning gendarmes". Its model was la Gendarmerie Nationale of France. The details of the Kempeitai's military, executive and judicial police functions were defined by the Kempei Rei of 1898 which was subsequently amended twenty-six times before Japan's defeat in August 1945.

The force initially consisted of 349 men. The enforcement of the new conscription legislation was an important part of their duty, due to resistance from peasant families. The Kempeitai's general affairs branch was in charge of the force's policy, personnel management, internal discipline, as well as communication with the Ministries of the Admiralty, the Interior, and Justice. The operation branch was in charge of the distribution of military police units within the army, general public security and intelligence.

In 1907, the Kempeitai was ordered to station in Korea. Its main duty in Korea was legally defined as preserving the (Japanese army's) peace in Korea, although it also functioned as a military police for the Japanese army stationed in Korea. This status remained basically unchanged after Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910.

The Kempeitai maintained public order within Japan under the direction of the Interior Minister, and in the occupied territories under the direction of the Minister of War. Japan also had a civilian secret police force, Tokko, which was the Japanese acronym of Tokubetsu Koto Keisatsu ("special higher police"). Tokko was a part of the Interior Ministry. However, the Kempeitai, too, had a Tokko branch of its own, and through it discharged the functions of a secret police. As such, the Kempeitai assumed the power to arrest, often without warrant of any kind whatsover, those whom it regarded as subversive to public order, such as communists, liberals and those against the war. The Kempeitai often did not hesitate to torture those whom they had arrested, especially during the 1930s and the early 1940s.

When the Kempeitai arrested a civilian under the direction of the Justice Minister, the arrested person was nominally subject to civilian judicial proceedings. In practice, it was very difficult to prove one's innocence once arrested as Japan had very few procedural safeguards against forced confessions before 1948.

The Kempeitai's brutality was particularly notorious in Korea and the other occupied territories. The Kempeitai were abhorred in Japan's mainland, too, especially during World War II when Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, the Commander of the Kempeitai of the Japanese Army in Manchuria from 1935 to 1937, used the Kempeitai extensively to make sure that everyone was loyal to the war. Under Tojo, the Kempeitai reduced Japan to a police state.

According to United States Army TM-E 30-480, there were over 36,000 regular members of the Kempeitai at the end of the war; this did not include the many ethnic "auxiliaries". As many foreign territories fell under the Japanese military occupation during the 1930s and the early 1940s, the Kempeitai recruited a large number of locals in those territories. Taiwanese and Koreans were used extensively as auxiliaries to police the newly occupied territories in Southeast Asia, although the Kempeitai recruited French Indochinese (especially, from among the Cao Dai religious sect), Malaysians and others. The Kempeitai may have trained Trinh Minh The, a Vietnamese nationalist and military leader. Some sources report that the Kempeitai recruited criminals as law enforcers.

The Kempeitai was disarmed and disbanded after the Japanese surrender in August 1945.

Today, the post-war Self-Defence Forces' internal police is called Keimutai (See Japanese Self-Defence Forces). Each individual member is called Keimukan.

Japanese Secret Services and the Axis Powers

In the 1920s and 1930's, the Kempeitei forged various connections with certain pre-war European intelligence services. Later when Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, the Japanese Secret Services formed formal links with these intelligence units, now under German and Italian fascists, known as the Abwehr and the Italian SIM. Along these lines, the Japanese Army and Navy, contacted their corresponding Wehrmacht intelligence units, Schutzstaffel (SS), or Kriegsmarine concerning information regarding Europe and vice versa. Europe and Japan realized the benefits of these exchanges (for example, the Japanese sent data about Soviet forces in the Far East and in Operation Barbarossa from the Japanese Embassy, and Admiral Canaris offered aid in respect to the Portuguese neutrality question in Timor).

One important contact point was at the Penang Submarine base, in Malaysia. This base served Axis submarine forces: (Italian Regia Marina, German Kriegsmarine, and the Dai-Nippon Teikoku Kaigun, or Imperial Japanese Navy). Here at regular intervals, technological and information exchanges occurred. Until the end of conflict, Axis forces used the bases in Italian occupied Ethiopia, the Vichy France territory of Madagascar and some "officially" neutral places like the Portuguese Colonies of Goa in India.

This intelligence collaboration was maintained until early 1945, and in a greatly reduced from then until circa August 1945.

Organization

The Kempeitai maintained a headquarters in each relevant Area Army, commanded by a Shosho (Major General) with a Taisa (Colonel) as Executive Officer and comprising two or three field offices, commanded by a Chusa (Lieutenant Colonel) and each with approximately 375 personnel.

The field office in turn was divided into 65-man sections called 'buntai'. Each was commanded by a Tai-i (Captain) with a Chu-i (1st Lieutenant) as his Executive Officer and had 65 other troops. The buntai were further divided into detachments called bunkentai, commanded by a Sho-i (2nd Lieutenant) with a Junshikan (Warrant Officer) as Executive Officer and 20 other troops. Each detachment contained three squads: a police squad or keimu han, an administration squad or naikin han, and a special duties squad or Tokumu han.

Kempeitai Auxiliary units consisting of regional ethnic forces were organized in occupied areas. Troops supplemented the Kempeitai and were considered part of the organization but were limited to the rank of Shocho (Sergeant Major).

The Kempeitai had 315 officers and 6000 enlisted men by 1937. These were the members of the known, public forces. Allies estimated that by the end of World War II, there were at least 75,000 members of the Kempeitai, figuring in undercover personnel and so on. This number might be even higher.

Wartime mission

The Kempeitai was responsible for the following:

• Travel permits
• Labor recruitment
• Counterintelligence and counter-propaganda (run by the Tokko-Kempeitai as 'anti-ideological work')
• Supply requisitioning and rationing
• Psychological operations and propaganda
• Rear area security
• Running prisoner of war and forced labor and special camps (The Kempeitai apparently provided guards for several 'human experimentation' units which housed 'difficult' prisoners, including over 3,500 Americans, Chinese, Europeans, Koreans and Russians sent to Unit 100 and Unit 731.
• Provision of "comfort" women (jugun ianfu) for the "comfort houses" (These were brothels maintained by the IJA for the use of its troops. Originally Japanese volunteers were used but as these became rare or limited to the use of officers, many Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, and some European women were kidnapped and placed in these facilities to be "used" by members of Japan's military. The Kempeitai also regulated the accommodation facilities of the brothels, checked the identities of their customers, and controlled the violence and drunkenness within.)

Uniform

Personnel wore either the standard M1938 field uniform or the cavalry uniform with high black leather boots. Civilian clothes were also authorized but badges of rank or the imperial chrysanthemum were worn under the jacket lapel. Uniformed personnel also wore a black chevron on their uniforms and a white armband on the left arm with the characters ken (憲, "law") and hei (兵, "soldier").

A full dress uniform comprising a red kepi, gold and red waist sash, dark blue tunic and trousers with black facings was authorised for officers of the Kempeitai to wear on ceremonial occasions until 1942. Rank insignia comprised gold Austrian knots and epaulettes.

Personnel were armed with either a cavalry sabre and pistol for officers and a pistol and bayonet for enlisted men. Junior NCOs carried a shinai (竹刀, "bamboo kendo sword") especially when dealing with prisoners.

Japanese Secret Services and Conquest Planning

Japanese Secret Services provided the Imperial High Command, the Army and the Navy with intelligence information which had some bearing on their strategy of conquering the "Southern Theatre".

The Japanese Army General Staff obtained such information through their channels in China and the Soviet Union under the Japanese strategic planning for mainland Asia (1905-1940). The Army strategists saw detailed data in their Intelligence headquarters in Manchukuo and Kwantung.

For the Japanese Navy Staff, the information came from western colonies in Southeast Asia, and the Pacific area. Navy experts analyzed all aspects of these countries in their Intelligence HQ at Taihoku, Formosa.

At the same time, another important point in planning was in relation to future confrontation with the United States linked to these conquest strategies. These details were studied at Imperial House and Central Government Intelligence organizations in Tokyo.

When all intelligence organizations analyzed the Japanese Army defeats in their strategy in the Russian-Japanese Incidents during 1929-39, the situation stayed in favour of the Japanese Navy ideologists in their proposed South Seas conquest strategy. This changed the political balance in favour of the Navy in 1941, using their proposals in the Southern Area.

The Japanese Secret Services provided important economic, industrial, and social data to help in the organization of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere economic conquest doctrine, with Japanese conquest planning. This recovery of information continued during the Japanese occupation period until August 1945.

After World War I, Japan sided with the Allies, and Japanese Intelligence then monitored the German colonies in the Pacific. Japan occupied Palau Island, the Marshall Islands, and the Caroline Islands. They used the islands as sea and air bases for their intelligence operations, spying on shipping lanes. Dutch New Guinea was a hotbed of Japanese espionage.

Overseas services and collaborators

• Japanese undercover actions in United States and Mexico

Japanese Secret Services used some "covers" to protect their activities. For example, The Molino Rojo (Red Mill) in Tijuana, Mexico as a brothel used by Japanese intelligence agents for conferences and as a meeting place. The Molino Rojo is located in Tijuana's notorious Zona Norte, with its many bars and brothels. The interesting thing about Tijuana is that it is less than 15 miles from the U.S. Navy's San Diego Destroyer Base (now Naval Station San Diego) and the North Island Naval Air Station. An Imperial Navy Lieutenant Commander and subervsive agent, a former exchange student at California's Stanford University, had recruited an American spy, former Navy yeoman. Starting with a $500 lure and $200 monthly payment, Japanese agents persuaded the American to board U.S. Navy ships dressed in a yeoman's uniform, to obtain intelligence from the crews. The Japanese recruited an American in San Pedro, two hours drive up the California coast, and also the location of U.S. shipping and naval units. This American was detected by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and was later sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Japanese spies had assumed the cover of diplomats, businessmen, fisherman and other mundane occupations and frequently relied on the cooperation of, or the blind eyes of top officials of supposedly neutral governments. The Japanese attempted to subvert U.S. politics and foment unrest among minorities with overtures to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This practice was repeated in Mexico and in South America and was patterned after Japan's subversive activities throughout Asia.

• Japanese intelligence and Secret societies underground actions

The Japanese, like their counterparts in China, developed espionage programs by linking secret societies with ultranationalist aims--such as Genyosha (Dark Ocean Society), Kokuryu-kai (Amur River Society), the Black Dragon Society--and organized criminal enterprises--such as Yakuza crime syndicates. Indeed, Dark Ocean and the Black Dragons supplied espionage and subversion services to the Empire in Korea in 1895 and perhaps earlier. Dark Ocean founder and Black Dragon mentor Mitsuru Toyama, as well secret society links to the Japanese Kempei Tai, a functional equivalent to Hitler's Gestapo that relied upon the secret societies for manpower and support.

The Black Dragons were the Amur River Society (Kokuryu-kai) in 1930s and 1940s Japan. The Black Dragons were ultra-nationalists heavily involved in the conquest of China, and as spies and fifth columnists subverting nations targeted for conquest. The Black Dragons were active up and down the Pacific Coast of North and South America.

Black Dragons were a concern to Lieutenant Commander K. D. Ringle of U.S. Navy Intelligence and other security officials. They were a secret society with political aims. Many of its members served in industry and government including diplomatic posts and bureaucratic and military roles such as the Kempei Tai secret political police. The veiled relationship of secret societies such as Black Dragon to government and business exemplifies a Japanese social phenomena.

Secret Japanese documents titled "The Three Power Alliance and the American/Japanese War" were alleged to have been stolen from an intelligence officer of the Black Dragon Society by an anti-Japanese Korean patriot. The documents were purported to detail Japanese war plans for the simultaneous invasion of the Panama Canal Zone, Alaska, California and Washington State. He was said to have obtained the documents by clandestine means in a Los Angeles hotel room in 1940.

In the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines, as in the U.S. and Mexican west coasts, throngs of Japanese fishermen pulled nets and took notes and pictures for the Empire. Japan's fishing fleets were augmented by farmers, mining engineers, industrialists and merchants, barbers, house-boys, maids and prostitutes, especially in those areas designated as part of Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. In this sea of ordinary Japanese was submerged a potent fifth column of spies, subversives and saboteurs. There is a story of a French writer travelling worldwide, observing Japanese spy rings operating in Malaya, India, Burma, Ceylon, Thailand and as far away as Middle East, Morocco, Port Said, Egypt and Italian-occupied Ethiopia .

• Japanese secret services operations in Europe

In neutral Spain, spy masters operating under the aegis of Japan's Ambassador controlled TO spy rings worldwide and coordinated exchanges of intelligence with the other Axis powers through Germany's Abwehr general staff intelligence agency and Italy's Military Secret service. In neutral Portugal, the Japanese Ambassador provided a vital link and source of intelligence for the Axis. In Germany, the Japanese Ambassador outranked both the Japanese diplomat in Madrid and in Lisbon, and much of the TO intelligence was funneled through Japan's Embassy.

In Berlin, where the Japanese Ambassador enjoyed a close friendship with the chief of Germany's secret services, a diplomat relayed TO information to Tokyo along with messages coordinating policies and operations between the three Axis powers. Japan's diplomats in Afghanistan spied on Russia, Iran and India and fed information into the Japanese Madrid center. This pattern of diplomatic cover and use of neutral third countries and Japanese people of ordinary backgrounds was repeated around the world.

The TO network even operated in Great Britain, where an eyewitness said that he had run TO operations from England and stated that the "Spanish leader knew every detail of our activities with the Axis". Early on, the Japanese Ambassador in Spain established a successful spy ring in the U.S. aided by a Spanish operative introduced by Spain's Foreign Minister Suñer. In this net were some Japanese spies operating in a U.S. City in Pacific area.

• Japanese intelligence services and Japanese communities in overseas

In the period from about 1895 to 1941, Japan encouraged emigration of its citizens to nations bordering the Pacific Ocean, including the United States. These Japanese were often referred to as doho, or "compatriots". The position taken by Tokyo was that the doho held dual citizenship, with loyalty to Japan, and loyalty to the Emperor first and foremost. While unknown numbers of Japanese citizens rejected the demands of being doho, many did not. The doho created security problems for Asian nations, the Pacific islands and for the United States and Canada. Routinely denied by Japanese-Americans, doho performed espionage and subversive duties for Japan on U.S. soil. Japanese men returned to Japan to serve the Tenno. Thousands of Japanese-American men renounced their loyalty to the U.S. and demanded repatriation to Japan during World War II. Black Dragons disrupted U.S. internment camps. Declassification of U.S. security files including top secret intercepts of Japanese Code Machine and other ciphers has confirmed and added to the body of information on doho.

There were among the Japanese both alien and United States citizens certain individuals, either deliberately placed by the Japanese government or actuated by a fanatical loyalty to that country, who acted as saboteurs or agents. This number is estimated to be less than three percent of the total, or about 3500 in the entire United States.

The most dangerous of these people were either in custodial detention or members of such organizations as the Black Dragon Society, the Kaigun Kyokai (Navy League), or the Hoirusha Kai (Military Service Man's League), or affiliated groups. The membership of these groups was already fairly well known to the Naval Intelligence Service or the FBI and could be immediately placed in custodial detention, irrespective of whether they were alien or citizen. Another example, in the Southeast Asia area, were Japanese living in Malaya before World War II carrying out subversion and providing intelligence information, troops and war materiel. These Japanese immigrants, or first generation descendants of Japanese born in Malaya, were considered doho, or compatriots by Japanese traditions and law. Their allegiance to the Emperor and Japan was assumed by Japan's leaders. The doho in Malaya included the Japanese Editor of a local journal, a Japanese diplomat (arrested for espionage), thousands of Japanese prostitutes, businessmen, dentists, photographers and barbers. The policy of this editor was to oppose the pro-England, pro-Southeast Asia policies of local newspapers and soften public opinion in Japan's favor. The prostitutes, passed on pillow talk, and the businessmen, dentists, photographers and barbers were all well-placed to collect intelligence, take photos and glean intelligence while hearing the chatter of their customers and social contacts.

Political Department

The Political Department refers to the political and ideological section of the Kempei Tai military police of pre-Pacific War Japan. It was meant to counter hostile ideological or political influences, and to reinforce the ideology of military units.

It worked through political propaganda and as an ideological representative of the Imperial Japanese Army's Kodoha (Imperial way faction, or war party). In the first phase this section drove against communist propaganda, but extended its responsibilities in other directions, at home and overseas.

It acted in Manchukuo and other areas on the Asian mainland. It was a rough equivalent to the NKVD political sections and or politruk (political commissar) units of the Soviets; or the German Nazi SS propaganda departments. They promoted racial superiority, racialist theories, counterespionage, intelligence, political sabotage and infiltration of enemy lines. They liaised with the Manchukuo military police, intelligence service, regular police, 'Residents' committees, local Nationalist Parties and the Japanese Secret Service detachment in Manchukuo. The section in Manchukuo used some agents from White Russian, Chinese, Manchu, Mongol and other foreign backgrounds for special services or covert actions at home and abroad.

Special equipment

In line with their particular functions, Japanese secret agents utilized specialized equipment:

Radios

• Long-range wave radio
• Short-range wave radio

Electronic devices

• Certain Asdic or Sonar equipment
• special radar equipment
• other types of electronic devices

Special Code Handbooks

• Japanese Army Code Handbook
• Diplomatic Services Code Handbook

Cipher Machines

• Japanese Navy
  • "JADE" Cypher Machine
  • "CORAL" Cypher Machine
  • "Type 91" or "RED" cypher Machine

• Diplomatic service
  • "PURPLE" or "J" cypher Machine
  • "GREEN" cypher Machine as Japanese Enigma version

• Special Codes:
  • Purple Code
  • Red Code
  • J Code

Weapons

• Type 26 9 mm Revolver
• Type 14 8 mm Nambu Pistol
• Type 94 8 mm Pistol
• TERA Rifles
• Bergmann Sub Machine Gun
• Type 100 Sub Machine Gun
• Shorter version of Type 38 Rifle, Type 38 Cavalry Rifle, Type 44 Cavalry Rifle and Type 99 Rifle.
• Type 97 Sniper Rifle
• Type 99 Sniper Rifle

Uniforms

Depending upon the secret mission, the Japanese Secret Services wore regular uniforms, special forces uniforms, police uniforms, captured enemy military or police uniforms, or simply civilian clothing.

Transport

During special operations, the Japanese Secret Services used various local or captured types of transport:

Aircraft

• Mitsubishi Ki-21 "Sally" (medium Bomber modified for deploying secret agents or special forces)
• Mitsubishi Ki-67 "Peggy" (medium bomber modified for deploying special forces)
• Mitsubishi Ki-57 "Topsy" (transport for secret agent parachute drops)
• Kawasaki Ki-56 "Thalia" (another aircraft for special services)
• Tachikawa Ki-54 "Hickory" (light transport for secret operations)
• Aichi E13A1 "Jake" (light hydroplane for use in covert missions)
• Kawanishi H6K2 (flying boat for covert missions)
• Junkers Ju 86 (transport in secret or paramilitary operations in Manchukuo)
• Showa/Nakajima L2D2 "Tabby" (DC-3 local version in special operations use)
• De Havilland Puss Moth (light transport in undercover actions in Manchukuo)
• Tachikawa Ki-36 "Ida" (light bomber in secret missions)
• Kyushu K10W1 "Oak" (light transport for secret agents)
• Kawasaki Ki-48 "Lily" (light bomber for secret operations)
• other types of aircraft

Vessels and Submarines

Japanese Secret Services also used merchant vessels, transport cruisers, coastal or modern high sea fishing vessels, sea or river patrols, Surface Navy War Vessels, regular or modified light boats, and modified or regular Midget or larger Submarines between another vessels types.

Land Transports

During land operations, the Japanese Secret Services used cars, trucks, jeeps, motorcycles/sidecars, bicycles, armed or unarmed armored troops transports, light or medium tanks or railway services.

Structure of Japanese Secret Services

(The author of this section is advised to provide the audience with sources and to transfer this section and any relevant section below to another article.)

Japanese Secret Services Supreme Commander and associated Operative Chiefs

• The Supreme Commander (possibly nominally) of intelligence services is the Tenno in the post of commander of Imperial Armed Forces.
  • Another chief was Hideki Tojo, the High Operative Leader in Japanese Intelligence Services in wartime.
  • Kesago Nakajima, Since 1921 relevant military intelligence chief,also from 1941 lead Japanese State Police among the Kempeitai operation inside Japan and Asia during wartimes
  • Yakichiro Suma, Japan's Ambassador to Spain, Chief of the Japanese spy network code named "TO".
  • Koki Hirota - former Foreign Minister and head of the Black Dragons (Also guided intelligence services in the group)
  • "Darkside Emperor" was the title of supreme leader of "Soshi" (Brave Knights) overseas secret agents of Black Dragon Society in first stages of World War II,
  • Prince Takeda - underground, supreme chief and secret agent in Japanese Secret Service in Manchukuo.
  • Torashiro Kawabe - Staff Officer (Operations; Intelligence), Kwantung Army
  • Kanji Tsuneoka Directed the Mongol department of Kwantung Army inland and native saboteurs and secret agent units.
  • Hiroshi Akita - Chief of German Section of Japanese Military Intelligence.
  • Tadashi Hanaya - Head of Special Services Agency, Kwantung Army
  • Kenji Doihara - Head of Special Service Agency, Kwantung Army
  • Jinzo Nomoto - Head of Mongol unit in Special Service Agency of Kwantung Army. He served in Tibet and Sinkiang areas in wartime.

Beneath the Supreme Commander was:

National Defense

• Daihonei (Imperial High Command)
  • Sambo Hombu (Army General Staff)
    • Intelligence Section
      • General Intelligence Bureau
      • Army Second Bureau (Intelligence Bureau)
        • Major General Okamoto - Chief of the Second Bureau (Intelligence) at the time of the outbreak of Japan's War against the United States and the British and Dutch Empires
        • Captain Onoda - Navy officer attached to the Army's Second Bureau (Intelligence)
          • "Australian Section" ("Tokyo Gimusho") linked with Japanese Naval Intelligence Staff under command of Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff. The office had orders to collect information about the British Empire in Southeast Asia and the Pacific
      • Kempeitai (Imperial Japanese Gendarmerie)
      • 5th Section (U.S.S.R. Intelligence)
      • 16th Section (German and Italian Intelligence)
      • Special section (Chinese Intelligence unit)
      • Joho-Kikan (Army Intelligence Service)
      • Small regional intelligence/special operations groups:
        • Tokumu Kikan
        • Hikari Kikan
        • Matsu Kikan (Pine Tree) - Secret unit with special reconnaissance missions in Australia.
          • Masayoshi Yamamoto - Led the Matsu Kikan Secret Agency under the command of the 19th Army, with headquarters in Ambon.
        • Minami Kikan (Little Tree) - Secret section organized for the Burma National Army.
        • Tokumu-Bu ("Special Service Unit")
      • Renkraku-Bu ("Liaison organizations")
      • Unit 731 (biological/chemical experiments)
      • Unit 831 (occult knowledge/advanced tecnologies)
        • Kuniaki Koiso - Leader of Intelligence Services in Manchukuo
        • Kwantung Army
          • Harbin Special Intelligence Agency, Kwantung Army
            • Michitaro Komatsubara - Intelligence Chief in Harbin.
            • Noboyushi Obata(Shinryo) - Chief of Secret Unit in Harbin.
            • Seikichi Hyakatuke - Head of Harbin Special Services Agency, Manchuria.
          • Hailar Special Intelligence Agency, Kwantung Army
            • Kingoro Hashimoto - Chief, Special Service Agency, Hailar, Kwantung Army
          • Hsinking Special Intelligence Agency, Kwantung Army
          • Dairen Special Intelligence Agency, Kwantung Army
            • Officer Takeoka - Operative Chief in Dairen Special Service Agency of Kwantung Army.
          • Ryojun (Port Arthur) Special Intelligence Agency, Kwantung Army
          • Manchu Secret Police, Hsinking, Manchukuo
            • Toranosuke Hashimoto - Commanding Officer, Manchu Secret Police, Hsinking, Manchuria (as a branch of the Kempeitai intelligence unit in Manchukuo); First Priest in Manchoukuan Shintoist Central Temple, Military Hachiman, Hsinking Shrine; and National Foundation, a cultural organization in Manchukuo.
      • Korea (Chosen)
      • Formosa
      • Karafuto(Sakhalin)

Japanese national defense organization

• Army Intelligence Section (Joho-Kikan)/Kempei Tai

Both perform similar work to German Military Intelligence units Abwehr im Oberkommando der Wehrmacht ("Abwehr"), the Brandenburg Unit and the German Naval Intelligence section.

The Japanese Intelligence Services also organized a spy network code named "TO" and others. The system collected any relevant intelligence data for future objetives or anything related to national defense and the Japanese Army or Navy military plans.

Other Complimentary Military Intelligence units:

• In Chisima Archipielago:
  • Matsuwa Air Intelligence Unit
  • Uruppu Air Intelligence Unit (800 men)
  • Etorofu Air Intelligence Unit

Kempeitai Intelligence Section

• Decoding & Codebreaking Department
• Political Department (linked with Kodoha party)
• Counterespionage/Counterintelligence Department
• Propaganda and Indoctrination Department
• Subversion and Sabotage Department
• Kempei Tai (Army Secret Security) (previously known as the Service Section)

Security Doctrine

• Kempeitai used Kikosaku as a method of punishment.

Headquarter Locations

The Japanese Navy Intelligence Center was located in Taiwan and the Japanese Army Intelligence Headquarters was in Manchukuo.

Intelligence Departments by Region

• China
• North America & South America
• Soviet Union / Russia
• Southeast Asia
• Western Europe
• Middle East & Africa

Special Services

• Matsu Kikan (Pine Tree) - Secret unit with special reconnaissance missions in Australia
• Minami Kikan (Little Tree) - Secret section organized for the Burma National Army.

Such sections were under the command of Joho-Kikan (Japanese Army intelligence), Tokumu Kikan (Japanese Army Espionage service) and Kempei Tai Intelligence unit. The Japanese Navy has some similar intelligence units.

Central Government

• Imperial House Affairs Ministry (Intelligence section)
• Foreign Affairs Ministry (Intelligence office)
• Greater Asian Affairs Ministry (Intelligence unit)
• Bureau of Economic Research(Intelligence department)
• Naimusho (Home Ministry) (Intelligence unit)
• Shihisho (Ministry of Justice) (Internal Intelligence security)
• Information Department

Annex Intellligence units outside Japan

Korea (Chosen)

• Kempeitai Training school in Keijo (Seoul)
• Kempei Tai Chosen unit (Japanese/Korean units)
• Japanese Army Chosen Army Intelligence Branch

Manchukuo & Kwantung

• Kempeitai native section (Japanese/Manchu and others units)
• Manchu Secret Services
• Manchu Military Intelligence Services

Mengchiang

• Kempeitai native branch (Japanese/Mongol members)
• Central Academy(Intelligence School) in Kalgan
• Mongol National Army (intelligence unit)

Reformed Chinese state

• Tung Wen College(Intelligence School) of Shanghai
• Kempeitai native section (Japanese/Chinese units)
• Chinese National Army (intelligence section)

Formosa

• Kempeitai Formosa unit
• Japanese Army Taiwan Army Intelligence Branch

South Pacific Mandate

• Kempeitai South Pacific Mandate unit
• Japanese Army South Seas Army Intelligence Branch

Southeast Asia

• Kempeitai branches in area (Japanese/native units)
• Kempeitai Training Singapore School branch
• Kempeitai Training Manila School branch

Other Intelligence sections

• Kempeitai (Imperial Japanese Gendarmerie)

had responsibilities similar to German

• Schutzstaffel ("SS") and Sicherheitsdienst

("SD") (German Security Service) or Soviet Russian NKVD, and Politruk unit, for watching exterior enemies or suspicious persons and watching inside of own unit for possible defectors or traitors; and used the security doctrine of "Kikosaku".

• Overseas Security and Colonial Police Service special unit dedicated to the maintenance of security in occupied territories in Southeast Asia. This also undertook some administrative responsibilities.
• Kempeitai ran a number of special schools to train its recruits:
  • Koho Kimmu Yoin Yoseijo (Reservists Training Center) in Kudan, Tokyo.
  • Keijo (Seoul) section
  • Kwantung leased territory section
  • Mukden Manchukuo section
  • Singapore section
  • Manila section
• The Kempeitai was divided into:
  • Keimu Han (Police and security)
  • Naikin Han (Administration)
  • Tokumu Han (Special Duties)

Portrayals in popular culture

• Unlike the Nazis and the Schutzstaffel ("SS"), the Kempeitai has received very little notice in literature and films regarding the subject. In the Clint Eastwood film, Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), one of the main characters is a former Kempei, from whom the other soldiers maintain distance, fearing that he was sent to their quarters to spy on them lest they think of desertion or mutiny. It ultimately transpires that he was shipped to fight on the frontlines during the battle of Iwo Jima after he had deliberately failed to follow an order from his commanding officer to shoot a family dog that was barking and thus "cause[d] a threat to military privacy and silence."

• In “Human Condition I,” (The Human Condition 1959), also known as "Ningen no joken I," of director Masaki Kobayashi, in 1943 the Kempeitai furnish 600 “special laborers” to an iron ore mine in Manchuria. Two Kempeitai officials explain that these workers must be kept isolated from “ordinary workers,” and instruct that “their quarters must be enclosed in barbed wire” which is electrified.

See also

• Japanese war crimes
• Yasumasa Fukushima (founder of Kempeitai)
• Kempeitai Political Department and Epidemic Prevention Research Laboratory
• Kokuryu-kai
• Unit 100
• Unit 731
• Tokeitai - Imperial Japanese Navy equivalent to Kempeitai
• Keishicho (to 1945)
• Imperial Way Faction
• List of Japanese secret agents (1930s to World War Two)
• List of Japanese War Atrocities
• Gendarmerie

External links

• Axis intelligence units in WWII in Australia, etc.
• Japanese WWII-era nationalist groups
• U.S. Report on Kempei (1945)