This study examines how people remember the army and the war through army graveyards and navy graveyards, which have existed since the beginning of the Meiji period. This is my third essay about military graves. A. The institutional history of military graves. 1. Military graves, which were established by the Ministries of Army and Navy, had been in use until 1945 when both ministries were disbanded. Those who are buried here include soldiers who joined and were trained, officers who were engaged in service, and veterans if they wanted. Both ministries determined who were buried, how and by what procedure they were buried. The institutional history of military graves is diviided into ten periods. 2. Army graves were supervised by the accounting department of each division. Navy graveyards were under the supervision of Chinjufu (navy headquarters of ports). Guards were dispatched by each of them. 3. Soldiers were buried by interment. Reburying was not been permitted until the fourth period (1873) when permission for reburying was enacted. 4. The tombs were divided by rank. The size of tombs and grave signs was differentiated according to their rank. Noncommissioned officers and soldiers were buried together ten years after the first burying. 5. There was no religious character to the graves. The construction of torii, lanterns and water bowls were not permitted. Only table stones and grave signs were permitted. Not only nationalist Shinto, but Buddhism was available for funerals. Both Shinto and Buddhism were used in Shokonsai (Shinto memorial service) held by the divisiions. B. The present condition of military graveyards. Military gravreyards, which I surveyed all over the country, still exist in sixty-seven places. There are one or more military graveyards for each prefecture. Areas where regiments or Chinjufu were set up always has a military graveyard. There should be one in Seoul or Taipei; however, we do not know where it is. Generals were rarely buried here. Maybe they left their wills not to be buried here. I consider the history of military graveyards, using army graveyards as an example. In 1871, an area of graveyards in which grave signs of individuals are the center was founded where Chindai (the former name for divisions) were placed. Then, chapels for the Sino-Japanese War, Russo-Japanese War, World War I, Seinan incident, Manchu incident, and Shanghai incident were built. They did not include accommodation facilities for remains and were meant as memorial towers. Army graveyards have been a memorial place ever since. As the Chinese-Japanese War increased the war dead dramatically, a system was changed to construct chapels to bury separately remains and hair of the dead. Chapels were changed to "Loyal Spirit Towers" when Dainippon Tsuureikenshokai was founded in 1939. These were giant tombs, which had accommodation facilities for remains at the lower part of a tombstone. At present, the land of army graveyards is owned by the Ministry of Finance or municipal corporations and run by the association of the bereaved. C Memory of the army and the war. Military graveyards began as a burial ground for soldiers who were engaged in military service. After the Sino-Japanese War, chapels were built for the war dead and people came to consider military graveyards as a memorial place. Japanese army and schools used them to practice memorial service. As army graveyards changed from grave signs for individuals to memorial chapels, people were not able to see the dead. Magnificently built "Loyal Spirit Towers" meant equalization of the dead as invisibilization of the dead as an individual and their rank proceeded. Officers and soldiers were equalized in front of loyalty for Tennno and the battlefield was next to it. A lot of memorial towers were constructed in military graveyards after the war. It is said that the eight thousand "Loyal Spirit Memorials" before the war increased to twenty-five thousand after the war. Should we suppose that it is because the people demand memorial to the nation? Conclusionare losing witnesses and evidence for the war and the army. I will write another essay about navy graveyards. It is asked to confirm and reposition the history in the post-war society as we |