The actual condition of casualties and the meaning of the records of rewards in the Japanese military during the March 1st Movement

This paper examines the reality of Japanese military casualties during the suppression of the March 1st Movement and the record of “rewards” for them. From our perspective, the imperialist Japanese military who suppressed the March 1st Movement were recognized as “meritorious people who crushed the resistance of the colonies”. The Japanese government sought to justify their actions by “rewarding” the casualties that occurred during the suppression of the March 1st Movement. A review of the Japanese military’s practice of rewarding casualties of the March 1 Movement reveals how the Japanese government perceived the repression and colonization of the March 1 Movement. First, the Japanese government sought to glorify the deaths of both Japanese and Korean gendarmes and auxiliaries, and to use them to further its colonial control. Second, the Japanese military’s practice of rewarding Japanese soldiers was an attempt to rationalize and justify their illegal and unauthorized actions during the March 1 Movement. Third, the term “war dead” refers to a person who dies on the battlefield as a direct result of his or her involvement in war (combat), so the meaning of “war dead” for the Japanese military during the March 1st Movement suggests that the Japanese government was treating the repression of the March 1st Movement as a wartime act. By examining the rewards and meanings of casualties during the Japanese military’s March 1 campaign, we can approach the dangers and unauthorized nature of imperialist aggression in a new light.