perspectives of Micronesians which were not recorded in official documents (Poyer 2001; Falgout 2007; K. Camacho 2011). No analysis, however, has been made on policies, the very premise of establishment of wartime regime. In the meantime, the Japanese commitment to the wartime regime and casualties from ground war has often been explained in terms of patriotism and loyalty. But the actual mobilization, which this paper addresses, suggests that patriotism and loyalty alone are insufficient to explain such casualties. In addition, morale of local Japanese residents during wartime were considered low by the Japanese authorities while not all immigrants were able to deal with tough situations, both of which are worth noting. These indicate that much emphasis was placed on labor control as well as on thought control in establishing the wartime regime, with rigorous controls in place to set up logistics bases in the closing days of the war. This study provides examples to make these points clear, with focus on 1) evacuation to homeland, 2) enforcement of the Military Service Law and 3) the Yano-Obara Agreement, which stipulated the impressments of NKK by the Japanese Army. Japan’s wartime records contains little information on Chamorros and Carolinians, most of which concerns Chamorros. While 1) and 2) were the policies intended for the Japanese, other policies for local people may provide clues about the situation they were in and the sacrifice they made. At the same time, this study refers to unpublished records of the Japanese Army, Nan’yo Cho [the South Seas Government] and reminiscences made by civilians.
Construction of military installations in Saipan and Tinian and the role of NKK in it As discussed in Chapter 3 of this paper, the entire NKK was eventually impressed to set up logistics bases in Saipan and Tinian in the closing days of the war. While the close relationship between the South Seas Government and NKK is well known, this paper examines the premises of wartime mobilization and labor management, based on NKK’s response to the construction of military installations from the latter half of the 1930s (Imaizumi 2004).
2! ・ 3rd Marianas History Conference 2017