Abstract
One of the first scholars to attempt a rigorous theoretical framework for civilian control of the military was Samuel P. Huntingdon.1 He created two opposing concepts, subjective control and objective control, and these have been refined and also at times criticised by later scholars.2
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Notes and References
The clearest definition is to be found in his ‘Civil-Military Relations’, in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (New York: Free Press, 1968).
Bengt Abrahammson, Military Professionalism (New York: Sage Publications, 1972) pp. 153–7.
A detailed history of the Meiji Military establishment is Ito Kobun’s ‘Meiji Kokka Ni Okeru Seigun kankeill’ (Civil-Military Relations in the Meiji State), Boei Ronshu, vol. 7, no. 2, Nov. 1968, pp. 3–13.
The best analysis remains Roger Hackett, ‘Yamagata Aritomo’ in The Rise of Modern Japan (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1971).
See my ‘The Evolution of a General Staff System in the Imperial Japanese Navy’, in Proceedings of the British Association of Japanese Studies, vol. 4, 1979, G. Daniels (ed.), pp. 73–86.
The definitive study of the Japanese Genro is Lesley Connors, The Emperor’s Advisor: Saionji Kinmochi and Prewar Japanese Politics (London: Croom Helm, 1987).
These concepts are taken from the seminal work of, J. Crowley on the military establishment and cited in his ‘From Closed Door to Empire: The Formation of the Modern Military Establishment’, in B. Silberman and H. Harootunian (eds), Japan in Crisis: Essays in Taisho Democracy (Princeton University Press, 1966) pp. 261–87.
The most recent detailed study of internal naval arms control and Japanese civil-military relations is I. Gow, ‘Kato Kanji and the Politics of Naval Arms Limitation in the Japanese Navy in Politics and Politics in the Japanese Navy’, PhD, Sheffield University, 1984.
However Cabinet interpretations did permit the PM to occupy the position of Service minister concurrently and pro tern. This happened during the Washington Conference (1921–2) and London Conference (1930) when the Navy Minister attended as chief plenipotentiary. The army was adamant, however, that it would never permit this ‘infringement’ of the Supreme Command.
This interpretation has its basis in the work of Yale Candee Maxon, Control of Japanese Foreign Policy (University of California, 1957), which is a work over-reliant on the documents of the Imperial Military Tribunal, Tokyo’s prosecution documents.
See Asada Sadao, ‘Japanese Admirals and the Politics of Naval Arms Limitation’, in Gerald Jordan (ed.), Naval Warfare in the Twentieth Century (London: Croom Helm, 1977) for an early analysis of this. See also Gow’s Kato Kanji. ...
See Jieitai Junenshi (Ten-year History of the SDF) (Tokyo, 1961), by Jieitai Junenshi and Henshu Iinkai (eds).
See my comments in J. Chapman, I. Gow and R. Drifte, Japan’s Quest for Comprehensive Security (London: Pinter, 1983) pp. 71–6.
The House of Representatives established a special Committee on Security on 1 April 1980, and this was followed by a House of Councillors’ Special Committee on security in January 1981. The Ministerial Council on security problems within the Cabinet was set up in December 1980.
The Chief of the combined Chiefs of Staff (Bakuyro Kaigi-Cho) is already an official appointed by Imperial Attestation (i.e. by attending the Palace). The best recent analysis of civilian control issues is Hirose Katsuya, Kanryo to Gunjin: Bunmin Tosei no Genkai (Bureaucrats and Military Men: The Limits of Civilian Control) (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1989).
For a completely different view of participation in the UN, citing the Japanese right to be a conscientious objector nation within the UN, see Makoto Oda, Gekkan Asahi, January 1991, A Nation of Conscientious Objectors (Ryôshinteki hansenka no kuni).
See Tokyo Shinbun, 4 October 1991, for the discussion of the five Principals and their negotiations in the legislation.
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© 1993 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Gow, I. (1993). Civilian Control of the Military in Postwar Japan. In: Matthews, R., Matsuyama, K. (eds) Japan’s Military Renaissance?. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22777-8_3
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