Tekketsu Kinnotai
The Tekketsu Kinnōtai ( Jap. 鉄血勤皇隊 , literally, " blood and iron for the Kaiser' troops", English "Student Units of Blood and Iron for Emperor" also. "Blood and Iron Student Corps") were (auxiliary -) Troops recruited from Japanese school children from schools on the island of Okinawa and used in the Pacific War during the final stages of the Battle of Okinawa . There are a total of 1,787 middle school boys, predominantly between 14 and 17 years of age, some of them younger. Half of the students died in the course of the war.
In addition to the Tekketsu Kinnōtai , girls were usually grouped together as auxiliary nurses in their own troop units for the frontline and gained notoriety , for example as Himeyuri Gakutotai or Shiraume Gakutotai .
history
When the Pacific War came to its final phase with the Battle of Okinawa, people in Okinawa began to mobilize students as paramilitary auxiliaries. Since the students were still minors, there was no legal basis to mobilize the youths unless their legal guardian agreed to volunteer ( 志願 , Shigan ). It so happened that stamps were made and official papers forged without the consent of the schools. For example, at the Second Prefectural Middle School, students who did not take part in paramilitary training were sent home by the instructor on the grounds that there was no food for them. At the Middle School for Agriculture and Forestry, the students were sent home with the threat of having them shot.
So students who did not volunteer were intimidated and pressured by threats. After American forces landed on Okinawa, those who did not join the Imperial Army were defamed as traitors and attacked. Refugees were arbitrarily recruited informally and without official documents by verbal orders as relief forces.
Among the American documents relating to the invasion of the US 10th Army and the defense of Okinawa by the Japanese 32nd Army is a note about an official notice from the Okinawa Prefecture, translated into English. The notice about the Tekketsu Kinnōtai and their use states:
- Every student must be organized in the Tekketsu Kinnōtai, take part in paramilitary exercises and, in the event of an emergency, be sent to the military units and take part in the battle.
- It was also decided that, in accordance with the annexes to this communication, 14 to 16 year old students who have not yet reached the enrollment age will also be required and mobilized.
After students were declared combatants against the American Army, the Okinawa Prefectural Authority mobilized all boys and girls based on the name registers of all schools that had been handed over to the army and consistently called them up to the 32nd Japanese Army for the defense of Okinawa.
This notification also shows that many combatants were shot in the event that they did not fight in an attack and did not immediately obey the recommendations of surrender. It is a tragedy that many killed themselves because of the desperate situation, because they knew this message and because it said: You do not go into captivity, not knowing that civilians (as non-combatants ) were protected from American troops.
The Tekketsu Kinnōtai were in most cases equipped with inadequate equipment. In concrete terms, this meant that they had to create and expand positions, be on the way as a messenger or even as a living mine, i.e. H. on orders with an explosive charge on his back, in a suicide squad, as Gyokusai (“mass suicide”) pounce on the American attackers.
Tekketsu groups and their losses
| school | Troop designation | reading | Troop strength |
Fallen | Death rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Okinawa Normal School | 師範 鉄 血 勤 皇 隊 | Shihan Tekketsu Kinnōtai | 386 | 224 | 58.0% |
| First Prefecture Middle School | 一 中 鉄 血 勤 皇 隊 ・ 通信 隊 | Ichichū Tekketsu Kinnōtai Tsūshintai | 371 | 210 | 56.0% |
| Second Prefectural Middle School | 二 中 鉄 血 勤 皇 隊 ・ 通信 隊 | Nichū Tekketsu Kinnōtai Tsūshintai | 144 | 127 | 88.2% |
| Third Prefectural Middle School | 三 中 鉄 血 勤 皇 隊 ・ 通信 隊 | Sanchū Tekketsu Kinnōtai Tsūshintai | 363 | 37 | 10.2% |
| Okinawa Prefecture Trade School | 工業 鉄 血 勤 皇 隊 ・ 通信 隊 | Kōgyō Tekketsu Kinnōtai Tsūshintai | 94 | 85 | 90.4% |
| Okinawa Prefecture Agriculture and Forestry School | 農林 鉄 血 勤 皇 隊 | Nōrin Tekketsu Kinnōtai | 173 | 41 | 23.7% |
| Prefectural School of Fisheries Education | 水産 鉄 血 勤 皇 隊 ・ 通信 隊 | Suisan Tekketsu Kinnōtai Tsūshintai | 49 | 23 | 46.9% |
| Naha Municipal Trade School | 商 工 鉄 血 勤 皇 隊 ・ 通信 隊 | Shōkō Tekketsu Kinnōtai Tsūshintai | 99 | 72 | 72.7% |
| Kainan Middle School | 開 南 鉄 血 勤 皇 隊 ・ 通信 隊 | Kainan Tekketsu Kinnōtai Tsūshintai | 81 | 70 | 86.4% |
| Miyako Middle School, Okinawa Prefecture | 宮 古 中 鉄 血 勤 皇 隊 | Miyakochū Tekketsu Kinnōtai | unknown | 0 | 0.0% |
| Okinawa Prefecture's Yaeyama Middle School | 八 重 山 中 鉄 血 勤 皇 隊 | Yaeyamachū Tekketsu Kinnōtai | 20th | 1 | 5.0% |
| Yaeyama Agricultural and Forestry School (School for Boys) | 八 重 農 鉄 血 勤 皇 隊 | Yaenō Tekketsu Kinnōtai | unknown | unknown | unknown |
| total | 1,780 | 890 | 50.0% |
Others
A statue of peace and the memorial for the fallen boys ( 健 児 隊 ) were erected at the site of the Tekketsu Kinnōtai battle trench of the Okinawa Normal School in Mabuni in Itoman . This group, the Shihan Tekketsu Kinnōtai, is therefore also called Kenjitai 健 児 隊 . This group of students was transferred from Shuri to Mabuni together with the 32nd Japanese Army . Traces of flamethrower attacks can be found everywhere in these dark places.
More groups of students
In addition to Tekketsu Kinnōtai, there are also various other names, such as Gokyōtai ( 護 郷 隊 , " Home Guard "), Giyūtai ( 義勇 隊 , " Heroic Troop "), Tokushi Kangotai ( 特 志 看護 隊 , "Special Nursing Team ") and Kyūgotai ( 救護 隊 , " Schutztruppe ") in use. In addition, groups of schoolchildren are to be named under the following romanticizing names that embellish the atrocities: Himeyuritai , Shiraumetai , Sekitokutai ( 積 徳 隊 ), Zuisentai ( 瑞 泉 隊 ), Deigotai ( 梯 姑 隊 , Indian coral tree ). The mobilization of students for the war effort is peculiar to Okinawa.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Online dictionary (Japanese): In the definition of the term, the entry refers to the formation of the term “blood and iron” in Otto von Bismarck 's speech of the same name .
- ↑ Report by contemporary witness Prof. Masahide Ota ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ The World is beginning to know Okinawa: Ota Masahide Reflects on his Life from the Battle of Okinawa to the Struggle for Okinawa. The Asia Pacific Journal, accessed February 8, 2011 .
- ↑ Remembering Okinawa's Boy Soldiers. NHK World, accessed February 18, 2020 .
- ↑ Tree and ornamental plant from the Edo period , also adorns Okinawa's coat of arms.
