The Kempteitai Role in Japanese Imperialism and War

Introduction

From the years of 1881 to 1945, the Kempeitai played a significant role in Japanese warfare, acting as the secret military police force of the Japanese army. Throughout its existence, the Kempeitai served as the puppet master in various roles across the Pacific, spreading the power and influence of Imperial Japan through its methods of brutality. The height of the Kempeitei took place during World War II, in which the secret police led several operations, including the control of occupied territories, propaganda, and sourcing of human test subjects.  

Imperialism

The Kempeitai were essential to Japanese Imperialism and expansion, serving as ruthless authoritative figures to civilians in occupied territories. With the right to arrest, torture, and execute any civilian deemed “suspicious” under Imperial law, the Kempeitai were able to assert dominance and total control over the Pacific. 

Although the height of the Kempeitai’s power occurred during World War II, their reign began long before. In 1910, the Korean Peninsula was annexed into the Japanese Empire, and the Kempeitai began to forge its purpose as a major authority for propaganda in the Pacific. Initially, the Kempeitai established itself within local police stations to assert control over civilian populations. Here, they focused on suppressing Korean nationalism and began forcing imperial policies on the culture, language, and population of Korea. 

One of Japan’s most significant imperialistic efforts was the establishment of Manchukuo, a portion of Northeast China invaded and conquered by the Kempeitai in 1931, which was used as a political puppet state of Imperial Japan. Here, the Kempeitai began developing Manchukuo as a significant base of operations, with at least 18,000 soldiers by 1932. In Manchukuo, the Kempeitai controlled prisoner of war camps, established imperialist ideals, and engaged in intelligence campaigns, often operating through methods of brutality and torture.  

The Kempeitei’s role did not only extend to outside the Japanese islands, however. Within the home empire of Japan, the Kempeitai took the roles of traditional police officers to set up inside police stations and continue the spread of propaganda and anti-imperialist sentiment. The assertion of control did not stop for Japanese civilians, and many foreigners and non-foreigners on the home islands deemed distrustful were subject to brutal questioning and torture at any time. 

War Crimes

The Kempeitai forefronted war crimes in the Pacific in the name of the Japanese Empire. With dominant control in the region, the Kempeitai could easily source human subjects for a variety of purposes, including forced labor, human experimentation, and forced prostitution. In Japanese-controlled territories, the Kempeitai had free rein over civilian populations. The stories of Unit 731, Japan’s biological warfare test unit, are well-known as some of the most brutal war crimes ever to take place. The test subjects for these human experimentations were often former prisoners of war, or even just civilians considered unruly, either taken by the Kempeitai for “misbehavior” or without identifiable reason, for use in human experiments. The Kempeitai additionally sourced women for use as “comfort women”, forced prostitutes for the Japanese Imperial Army, or as members of the all-female Tokyo Rose radio propaganda broadcasts.

Dissolvement

No civilian was spared from the brutality of the Kempeitai, and any civilian, both under occupation of Imperial Japan and from the home islands, was in constant danger of sudden abuse under Kempeitai rule. While Japan’s horrific crimes in the Pacific are well known and documented, the underlying political actions of the Kempeitai are much less discussed, and the war crimes they forefronted had a lasting impact on generations of communities across the Pacific. 

The Kempeitai was dissolved after Japan’s surrender in 1945, and many of its commanders were tried for war crimes. Unlike the crimes committed by Germany during WWII, however, much of the crimes committed by the Kempeitai remained private and hidden until years after the trials. Many responsible for the crimes committed by the Kempeitai received immunity during trials, and the civilians affected by the crimes of the Kempeitai have never received justice.

This collection provides a 35-page document on the Kempeitai files