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Senshi Sōsho

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The Senshi Sōsho (戦史叢書, War History Series), also called the Kōkan Senshi (公刊戦史), is the official military history of Imperial Japan's involvement in the Pacific War from 1937 to 1945. The task of compiling the official account of the Japanese involvement in World War II began in October 1955 with the opening of the War History Office (the present Military History Department of the "National Institute for Defense Studies", or NIDS, of Japan's Ministry of Defense in Tokyo, Japan). Its main function was to serve as educational research material for the Self-Defense Forces. The office was led by Colonel Nishiura Susumu, a senior official in the War Ministry during the war. The publisher was Asagumo Shimbunsha.[1]

The history, comprising 102 volumes, the first of which was published in 1966 and the final one in 1980, was compiled from Imperial Japanese Army, Imperial Japanese Navy, other Japanese government records, and personal diaries and records which survived Japan's defeat in the war. Many of the records were initially confiscated by Allied governments, mainly the United States, but were returned to Japan in 1958.[2] The 102 numbered volumes of the series include 37 volumes on the Imperial Headquarters, 34 volumes on army campaigns, 21 volumes on navy campaigns, nine volumes about air services campaigns, and one volume of chronology.[3] In 1985 and 1986 two supplemental unnumbered volumes were published.

English translations

The work provides information and details on Japanese organization and operations in the whole Pacific Theater of Operations. Currently, only a limited number of volumes were translated, making it difficult for Western historians who do not read Japanese to make use of the information in western studies of the Pacific War.

By the Corts Foundation

Two volumes (Vol. 3 "Occupation of Dutch East Indies"[4] and Vol. 26 "The Operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal"[5]) have been translated into English by The Corts Foundation. A third volume (Vol. 34 "Army Air Drive to the Southern Pacific") was translated into English and published as "The Invasion of the South: Army Air Force Operations, and the Invasion of Northern and Central Sumatra" in 2021.[6] These translations focus specifically on the volumes relevant to the study of the Japanese attack on and the subsequent occupation of the former Dutch East Indies in the period of 1941 to 1945.[3]

By Australian War Memorial

There is another translation by The Australian War Memorial, "Japanese army operations in the South Pacific Area: New Britain and Papua campaigns, 1942–43". This book is a translation of portions of volumes 14 ("Army Operations in the South Pacific: Port Moresby to the First Phase of Guadalcanal, pt. 1") and 28 ("Army Operations in the South Pacific: Guadalcanal - Buna Operations, pt. 2") of the Senshi sôsho, covering the invasion of Rabaul, the battles along the Kokoda Trail and at Milne Bay, and the destruction of the Japanese forces at Buna, Gona and Giruwa in northern Papua.[7]

Digital Japanese edition

In December 2018, all updated and corrected volumes became available online at NIDS Library & Historical records Search System.[8]

Criticisms and discrepancies with other Japanese records

Philippines

Senshi Sōsho's Shō-gō rikugun-sakusen (2), published by Japan's Defence Ministry Bōeichō senshishitsu, is contradicted by Japan's own Ministry of Health and Welfare (社会・援護局) on the number of Japanese dead on the island of Jolo during the Battle of Sulu (スールー諸島の戦い). The Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare says 6,030 Japanese were in Jolo and most of them were killed, in contrast to Senshi Sōsho which claims there were only 3,425 Japanese of the Independent Combined (Mixed) 55th Brigade (独立混成第55旅団 (日本軍)) on the island.[9] Senshi Sōsho says 135 Japanese survived out of the 3,425 in total on Jolo, and that the casualty rate was 96%, and only mentions the battle on Jolo starting after the American landing on April 9 in 1945 and attributes most Japanese casualties to American actions. barely mentioning local Muslim Moro guerillas.[10]

Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR) gives yet a totally different number from both Senshi Sōsho and the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare, saying there were 3,875 Japanese soldiers in Jolo.[11]

Japanese veterans who actually survived the battle of Sulu on Jolo, endorsed the number by the Japanese Ministry of Health and Welfare that said 6,030 Japanese were there and most of them were killed except 88 survivors, with the Japanese veterans saying one third were killed by local Muslim guerillas right after the 55th mixed brigade landed on Jolo on October 4, 1944, a year before the Americans landed, one third killed by Americans after they landed in Jolo in April 1945, and one third dead of disease.[12][13][14]

American military sources also contradict Senshi Sōsho on Jolo, the Americans said 3,900 Japanese were still lodged on Jolo's Mount Daho after the Americans landed in April in 1945, not counting Japanese already killed by local Muslim guerillas in the year before that, and then the Americans and guerillas both attacked Mount Daho to kill the remaining Japanese.[15]

Senshi Sosho cites the 365th Independent Infantry Battallion Major Fujikichi Tenmei and claims brigade commander Major General Tetsuzo Suzuki was killed in action against Americans between 31 July and 2 August 1945 in the middle of Jolo while fighting on the north-south road.[16]

55th Independent Mixed Brigade quartermaster officer at brigade headquarters, Major Takeo Inoue wrote a memoir called "The Crossroads of Fate - Jolo Island, the Island of Annihilation, Was an Isolated Island in the South Seas Inhabited by the Ferocious Moro People" in which his description of the death of brigade commander Major General Tetsuzo Suzuki contradicts Senshi Sosho. Inoue gives a less glorious depiction of Suzuki's death, saying his health failed so much he could not walk when being pursued by Muslim Moro guerillas and soldiers had to use branches to make an improvised stretcher for him, and the soldiers themselves were weak and all of them fell, and then they tied him to a donkey to transport him and he died after being tossed around carried on cliffs, valleys, and steep slopes. He eventually died when they were at the bottom of a valley. Muslim Moro guerillas were chasing the defeating Japanese around the island so they couldn't even give him a burial or ceremony and just dumped his corpse in the valley and he was replaced by Major Kikuo Takeda.[17][18] Inoue said only 3 field officers including himself survived, with Major Tenmei and an unnamed other battalion commander, with only 81 survivors in total.[19]

Japanese nurse Tsuki Suzuki revealed she found out that Japanese military nurses in the Philippines were euthanised against their will by the Japanese military when they fell ill and they begged not to be euthanised, but the Japanese military euthanised them anyway and lied, saying they perished in battle against the US to their families.[20] Kikue Kobayashi also reported that ill Japanese nurses being killed by the Japanese army in the Philippines and she was forced to live off wild plants, leaves and potato vines and use tree branches to walk and their swollen feet could no longer fit their shoes.[21]

China theatre

Senshi Sōsho meanwhile claims its 13th Army only lost 1,284 killed and 11th Army lost only 336 killed in the Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign.[22]: 260-264 : 294-295 
A Japanese POW who worked in biowarfare who told Americans he saw Japanese secret documents saying over 1,700 Japanese were killed in their own failed biological warfare attack and over 10,000 ill in the Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign, but he said that the true number of Japanese dead was bigger since it was normal for Japanese to "pare down unpleasant figures".[23][24][25]

According to Senshi Sōsho, the losses of the Japanese Army at the Shanghai Front by November 8, 1937, totaled 9,115 troops killed and 31,257 troops wounded.[26] However, according to a modern study, the Japanese Army lost 17,000 troops killed in action, 1,800 died of illness, 35,000–40,000 wounded, and 40,000 sick in the battle of Shanghai, with the number of deaths seconded by General Iwane Matsui's Speech in 1938.[27]

Senshi Sōsho recorded the losses of the 20th Army from April to June 1945 during the battle of West Hunan as 123 killed, 189 wounded, and 5,336 sick in April, 436 killed, 798 wounded, and 4,657 sick in May, and 136 killed, 194 wounded, and 14,647 sick in June. The total number of deaths recorded in another statistical table were 1,252 deaths including 122 deaths from wounds and 1,007 deaths from illnesses in April, 1,743 deaths including 79 deaths from wounds and 516 deaths from illnesses in May, and 1,035 deaths including 121 deaths from wounds and 778 deaths from illnesses in June. While the number of troops killed in action, died of wounds, and died of illnesses in April and June matched up with the total deaths in these two months, the number of troops with specific classification of deaths totaled only 1,031 while the total deaths recorded in the same month was at 1,743.[28] According to the medical department of the 20th Army, the losses of the army in these three months were 436 killed, 798 wounded (including 75 who died of wounds), and 4,657 sick (including 698 died of illnesses) in April, 1,146 killed, 1,699 wounded (including 79 who died of wounds), and 8,068 sick (including 516 died of illnesses) in May, and 136 killed, 194 wounded (including 121 who died of wounds), and 14,647 sick (including 778 who died of illnesses) in June. The losses in April recorded by Senshi Sōsho are actually the losses for the army in March. The total number of deaths recorded in both sources ended up being similar (4,030 from Senshi Sōsho and 3,987 from the document on the "Japan Center for Asian Historical Records" website) and but the specific number of troops killed in action and died of illnesses differed by a significant margin.[29]

Senshi Sōsho does not mention the Japanese use of chemical and biological weapons in China.[30]

Miyuki Endo (遠藤 美幸) in his book "The Mourners: Oral Histories of Former Soldiers and Their Families" (Ikinobiru Books).(『悼むひと　元兵士と家族をめぐるオーラル・ヒストリー』（生きのびるブックス）) interviewed a Japanese soldier named Hirata who was in west Yunnan revealed that because of intra-Japanese racism, all mention of a battle his sub-unit fought with heavy deaths inflicted on his unit by Chinese was deliberately and completely censored by both his divisional unit diary and Japan's official war history Senshi Sosho. Japanese soldiers from different regions fo Japan discriminated against each other with insulting stereotypes, the Nonaka battallion had a machine gun company and was inside the Yasu brigade in the 119th regiment and that was where Private first clas Hirata was assigned. Ōkami, Sai, Yasu, Yū, Ryū brigades were in west Yunnan. The Ryū brigade mae up part of the Lameng garrison and was praised for being "strong soldiers" who dug foxholes since they were coal miners at Chikuhō in Kurume, Kyushu. The other Japanese had insulting stereotypes of Japanese from Osaka and Kyoto in Kansai calling them weak soldiers (「弱兵」) and greedy for making money, insluting the osaka regiment's 8th infantry regiment and the Yasu and Sai units, blaming them for Japan losing in Burma. Japanese from Tōhoku were in the Yū brigade and Ryū brigade and viewed as good at fighting. At veteran's association gatherings, they would say "we lost because Sai and Yasu came stumbling into the Burma front." (「ビルマ戦線に祭と安がノコノコやって来たから負けたんだ」), "Yasu was easily put on the altar, while Ryū and Yū fought tooth and nail." (「安はやすやす祭り上げ、龍と勇がしのぎを削る」), "Lost again, 8th Regiment," (「またも負けたか8連隊」). Japanese veteran's associations maintained discriminatory hierachial dominance and continued treating Japanese soldiers from the rank of private and from certain units badly after the war, insulting Hirata at the veteran's reunions, saying "Oh, you're a new recruit from Yasu," (「おー、安の初年兵か」). Hirata said to a Kiku division captain that his own Nonaka Battalion from Yasu brigade sent 500 men beyond the Tōbun Guard post at a 3 way junction on the Burma road that led to Pingka, Lameng and Longling, a try to relieve the Lameng garrison Ryū brigade by distracting Chinese as a decoy at the "Battle of the Tōbun Guard Post" (「峠分哨の戦い」). Hirata said many of his fellow Yasu soldiers were killed by Chinese at the "Assault mountain" (「突撃山) close to the battle of the Tōbunguard post. Hirata was injured and his Nonaka battalion wiped out by the Chinese at the battle of Longling after the battle of the Tōbun guard post. Ryū and Kiyu were sister formations. The Kiku division captain he told him to said he was a liar, saying "There's no way Yasu could have advanced to the three-way junction beyond the Tōbun Guard Post that Ryū couldn't break through." (「龍が突破できなかった峠分哨の先の三叉路に安が進軍できるわけがない」). The other Japanese veterans also insulted him and said Hirata was lying. The 53rd vision Yasu unit history does not mention the battle of the Tōbun guard post and neither does Senshi Sōsho. Hirata said he would have been believed by the other veterans if he was not from the Yasu brigade and not a private. Hirata vowed to continue pushing for the truth, saying that his dead comrade's sacrificed would be ignored since he was the only survivor and he must write about what happened for the future to know. He said Sai and Yasu fought and he could never tolerate the insult "Yasu was easily put on the altar, while Ryū and Yū fought tooth and nail."[31][32]

Yasu private Hirata also said the other Japanese soldiers forced the manual labour like carrying every's mess kits on the lowest ranking privates like him and their uniforms were filthy since they had no time to clean. He was also forced to cook the whole squad's meals and carry ammunition boxes.[33]

Destroyed classified documents

Japan Center for Asian Historical Records (JACAR) revealed that the Japanese ministry of the Army Secretariat adjutant-general, Colonel Miyama Yōzō admitted that the Japanese Ministry of the Army ordered the Japanese army to mass incinerate classified documents in the day they issued the surrender order, mass destroying countless documents to stop the enemy Allied forces from obtaining them, and then the incineration order itself, Army Classified Telegram No. 69 (Directive on Incineration of Army Classified Documents) was subsequently hidden. The Japanese army was already ordered during the war as standard procedure to carry celluloid and gasoline to get ready to burn documents to stop them from reaching enemy hands.[34] Documents were torched before the surrender.[35]

The Japanese military itself like its 110th division filed reports to their Ministry of Defense after the war on February 1946, boasting about how they incinerated weapons related documents.[36] Japanese also filed reports to the demobilization bureau claiming they lost war related documents[37] or that the documents did not exist.[38]

Notes

  1. ↑ Parshall; Tully, p. xxiv; NIDS.
  2. ↑ Taylan
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Corts Foundation
  4. ↑ The Corts Foundation: September 2015: Publication Senshi Sosho volume
  5. ↑ "The Corts Foundation: September 2018: Publication Second Senshi Sōsho volume". Archived from the original on November 7, 2018. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  6. ↑ The Corts Foundation: The Army Air Force Operations in the Invasion of the South (The translation covers the main text of Vol. 34 of the Senshi Sosho minus the chapters on the Philippines, Malaya, and Burma, as well as chapter 4 of Vol. 5 dealing with northern and central Sumatra. The Articles of Association of the Corts Foundation limit its activities to the area of the former Dutch East Indies, so we reluctantly had to drop the more detailed chapters on the Philippines, Malaya, and Burma. Nevertheless, the remainder of the book (the general sections and the chapters on Singapore, Palembang, and Java) give a good description of the whole campaign.)
  7. ↑ The Australia–Japan Research Project: "Japanese army operations in the South Pacific Area: New Britain and Papua campaigns, 1942–43"
  8. ↑ "NIDS Library & Historical records Search System". Archived from the original on May 13, 2019. Retrieved May 13, 2019.
  9. ↑ Yoshiaki, Yoshimi (2015). Grassroots Fascism: The War Experience of the Japanese People. Columbia University Press. p. 313. ISBN 978-0-231-16568-6.
  10. ↑ "第十章 中、南比、離島部隊の終拙". 戦史叢書. Vol. 第060巻 捷号陸軍作戦＜2＞ルソン決戦. p. 638-646.
  11. ↑ アジア歴史資料センター Ref.C12120987300
  12. ↑ 藤岡first=明義 (1991). 敗残の記: 玉砕地ホロ島の記錄. 中央公論社. p. 7, 12, 13, 18. ISBN 4-12-201790-4.
  13. ↑ 井上, 武男 (1993). 運命の岐路 玉砕のホロ島は獰猛なモロ族の棲む南海の孤島であった. 日本図書刊行会. p. 38. ISBN 4-7733-1844-9.
  14. ↑ 防衛庁防衛研修所 (1972). 捷号陸軍作戦 <2> ルソン決戦. 戦史叢書. 朝雲新聞社. p. 647. CiNii BN00948240.
  15. ↑ Hatzinger, Kyle; Villanueva, James (March–April 2024). "A "Light but Aggressive Command": The 1945 Campaign in the Southern Philippines". Military Review. Army University Press.
  16. ↑ "第十章 中、南比、離島部隊の終拙". 戦史叢書. Vol. 第060巻 捷号陸軍作戦＜2＞ルソン決戦. p. 638-646.
  17. ↑ 井上, 武男 (1993). 運命の岐路 －玉砕のホロ島は獰猛なモロ族の棲む南海の孤島であった－. 近代文藝社. Archived from the original on November 11, 2025.
  18. ↑ 井上, 武男 (1993). 運命の岐路 玉砕のホロ島は獰猛なモロ族の棲む南海の孤島であった. 日本図書刊行会. p. 70. ISBN 4-7733-1844-9.
  19. ↑ 井上, 武男 (1993). 運命の岐路 玉砕のホロ島は獰猛なモロ族の棲む南海の孤島であった. 日本図書刊行会. p. 74. ISBN 4-7733-1844-9.
  20. ↑ 鈴木, ツキさん (2017). "「お二人の娘 私たちが殺した」". Asahi Shimbun. 宮城県.
  21. ↑ 小林, キクエさん (2014). "「南方で従軍 野草も食べ尽くし」". Asahi Shimbun. 新潟県.
  22. ↑ War History Office of the National Defence College of Japan (1966). 戦史叢書第055巻 昭和十七・八年の支那派遣軍 [Senshi Sōsho Volume 55: The China Expeditionary Army in Shōwa 17 and 18]. Senshi Sōsho. Asagumo Shimbunsha.
  23. ↑ Tsuneishi, Keiichi (2013). "1". Japan's Wartime Medical Atrocities: Comparative Inquiries in Science, History, and Ethics Asia's Transformations. John Junkerman. Routledge. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-136-95260-9.
  24. ↑ Tsuneishi, Kei-ichi (2011). "13". Beyond Victor's Justice? The Tokyo War Crimes Trial Revisited. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-21591-7.
  25. ↑ Geissler, Erhard; Haynes, Robert H., eds. (1991). Prevention of a Biological and Toxin Arms Race and the Responsibility of Scientists. Walter de Gruyter GmbH. p. 51. ISBN 3-05-501286-0.
  26. ↑ War History Office of the National Defence College of Japan (1966). 戦史叢書第086巻 支那事変陸軍作戦＜1＞昭和十三年一月まで [Senshi Sōsho Volume 86: Army Operations in the China Incident (1): Before January 1938]. Senshi Sōsho. Asagumo Shimbunsha. p. 387.
  27. ↑ Lai, Benjamin (2017). Shanghai and Nanjing 1937: Massacre on the Yangtze. Osprey Publishing. p. 88. ISBN 978-1-4728-1749-5.
  28. ↑ War History Office of the National Defence College of Japan (1966). 戦史叢書第064巻 昭和二十年の支那派遣軍＜2＞終戦まで [Senshi Sōsho Volume 64 : China Expeditionary Army in Shōwa 20 (Part 2): up to the end of the war]. Senshi Sōsho. Asagumo Shimbunsha}. p. 357.
  29. ↑ "大東亜戦争陸軍衛生史編纂資料（終戦前）　自昭和１９年１１月１日至昭和２０年８月１４日　旧第２０軍軍医部／３、患者の状況". 大東亜戦争陸軍衛生史編纂資料　昭和１９．１１～２０．１２, ID: C13120593800, p. 5. Japan Center for Historical Records. Retrieved July 13, 2026.
  30. ↑ Grunden, W.E. (2017). "10 : No Retaliation in Kind: Japanese Chemical Warfare Policy in World War II". In Friedrich, B.; Hoffmann, D.; Renn, J.; Schmaltz, F.; Wolf, M. (eds.). Hundred Years of Chemical Warfare: Research, Deployment, Consequences. Springer, Cham. pp. 259–271. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-51664-6_14. ISBN 978-3-319-51663-9.
  31. ↑ 遠藤, 美幸 (April 26, 2024). 「戦死せんと、村の者に顔向けならん」…「地獄のビルマ」を生き抜いた日本軍兵士は、なぜ家族からも疎まれて居場所を失ったのか. Gendai media.
  32. ↑ 遠藤, 美幸 (2023). 悼むひと 元兵士と家族をめぐるオーラル・ヒストリー. 生きのびるブックス. ISBN 978-4-910790-15-2.
  33. ↑ 遠藤, 美幸 (April 26, 2024). 拉孟戦とは何か. Gendai media. p. 3.
  34. ↑ Hasegawa, Yūya (August 15, 2025). "Document Incineration at the End of the War: A Case Study of the Army". JACAR Newsletter. No. 48.
  35. ↑ "Tokyo Trial records document evidence of Japanese war crimes during WWII". Bastille Post. July 28, 2026.
  36. ↑ 昭和21. 2 兵器関係書類焼却報告書綴 第110師団. Japan Center for Historical Records. Retrieved 25 July 2026.
  37. ↑ cite archive: |institution= required; (help)
  38. ↑ cite archive: |institution= required; (help)

References

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