China Rattled by Japan’s Plans to Restore Imperial Army Military Rank Titles

China is shaken by a Japanese government plan to revise the rank titles of its Self-Defense Forces (SDF) officers to that held by officers of the Imperial Japanese Army who committed some of the worst atrocities during World War II.

The Japanese government recently finalized a plan to revise the rank titles of Self-Defense Forces (SDF) officers and intends to submit the relevant amendment bill to the Japanese parliament within this year. Under the proposed changes, some of the rank titles would revert to those used by the former Imperial Japanese Army.

For example, the chiefs of staff of the Ground, Maritime, and Air SDF, who currently hold ranks equivalent to general or admiral, would be redesignated "taisho," while other flag officers would be collectively retitled as "chujo," equivalent to lieutenant general or vice admiral.

Field grade officers currently designated "issa," "nisa," and "sansa" would be retitled "taisa," "chusa," and "shosa," equivalent to colonel, lieutenant colonel, and major, respectively.

According the Chinese Defence Ministry, these titles are chilling, evoking Japan's wartime past. Eighty years ago, when the International Military Tribunal for the Far East convened in Tokyo, more than half of the 28 defendants bore the ranks of "taisho" or "chujo."

Among the seven Class-A war criminals sentenced to death by hanging, six held those same ranks, including Hideki Tojo, the most atrocious war criminal who served as Japanese prime minister between 1941 and 1944, Kenji Doihara and Seishiro Itagaki, major culprits in Japan's war of aggression against China, and Iwane Matsui, the top perpetrator of the heinous Nanjing Massacre.

There were also three notorious field grade officers in the Imperial Japanese Army whose crimes against the Chinese people were legion: Kanji Ishiwara, the mastermind behind the September 18th Incident that marked the start of Japan's invasion of China, Kingoro Hashimoto, who led troops participating in the Nanjing Massacre, and Shiro Ishii, founder and head of the notorious Unit 731, whose biological warfare atrocities defy description.

The government led by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has justified the renaming as a bid to "create a work environment with a sense of honor and pride" for the SDF, and to align with "international standards." Critics in Japan, however, have bluntly pointed out that the move is in essence part of a broader, aggressively right-leaning security agenda pursued by the Takaichi administration.