Return to the Sword: Martial Identity and the Modern Transformation of the Japanese Police
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Return to the Sword: Martial Identity and the Modern Transformation of the Japanese Police The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Glasnovich, Ryan Sullivan. 2019. Return to the Sword: Martial Identity and the Modern Transformation of the Japanese Police. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42029818 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA RETURN TO THE SWORD: MARTIAL IDENTITY AND THE MODERN TRANSFORMATION OF THE JAPANESE POLICE A dissertation presented by Ryan Sullivan Glasnovich to The Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of History and East Asian Languages Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 2019 © 2019 Ryan Sullivan Glasnovich All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: David L. Howell Ryan Sullivan Glasnovich Return to the Sword: Martial Identity and the Modern Transformation of the Japanese Police ABSTRACT This dissertation traces the creation and development of the Japanese police institution in the late-nineteenth century. Drawing on primary and secondary sources written by and for police officers, I focus on the role those officers played in creating their own distinct group and social identities during the formative years of modern policing in Japan. Previous scholarship has invariably taken a Foucauldian approach that situates police officers as tools of a modern, disciplinary state. Using social identity theory, I instead show how police officers actively created their role by developing an identity for themselves that incorporated Western theories of policing, traditional warrior ideologies, and a form of military masculinity. I argue that this martial identity and outlook presupposed police officers to see themselves as warriors on a battlefield rather than civil servants walking a beat. This, in turn, contributed to the authoritarian nature of the imperial Japanese state that developed in the late 1800s. Focusing on Tokyo, my thesis begins by examining the groundwork laid for modern policing under the Tokugawa shogunate (1600–1868) and the subsequent occupation of Edo by imperial forces at the dawn of the Meiji era (1868–1912). Status-based policing and self- governance were deconstructed in the aftermath of the Meiji Restoration as Edo transitioned to Tokyo. I then follow the police through three pivotal periods: the initial creation of a Western- style system, police officers’ service in the 1877 Satsuma Rebellion, and the intensification of militarization in the war’s aftermath. Each stage was a moment of discontinuity and change that offered many possible paths for Japan’s police institution and its officers. The road taken, however, led to a militarized police institution whose officers invariably saw themselves as at war with the ordinary people of Japan. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE ..................................................................................................................... i COPYRIGHT .................................................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................ iv FRONT MATTER .......................................................................................................... vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................... vii DATES, NAMES, AND TERMINOLOGY ............................................................................. viii INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 Martial Identity ............................................................................................................ 3 HISTORIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................. 4 THEORY AND METHOD ..................................................................................................... 9 The Foucauldian Approach .......................................................................................... 9 Total Institutions and Organizations ......................................................................... 11 Social and Organizational Identity ............................................................................ 14 Gender and Military Masculinity ............................................................................... 17 CHAPTER OUTLINE ......................................................................................................... 19 CHAPTER 1: POLICING EDO .................................................................................... 23 Policing and the Police .............................................................................................. 23 The Tokugawa Status Order ....................................................................................... 26 Status and Policing ..................................................................................................... 28 SELF-GOVERNANCE IN EDO ............................................................................................ 29 Samurai Districts ....................................................................................................... 30 Townspeople Districts ................................................................................................ 34 ADMINISTRATIVE POLICING IN EDO ................................................................................ 37 Town Magistrates ....................................................................................................... 38 Bailiffs and Constables .............................................................................................. 39 Spies and Thief-takers ................................................................................................ 41 POLICING AND VIOLENCE ............................................................................................... 43 Judicial Torture .......................................................................................................... 44 Public Punishment ...................................................................................................... 45 POLICING BEYOND EDO .................................................................................................. 47 Policing Other Cities .................................................................................................. 48 Policing the Provinces ............................................................................................... 49 CONCLUSION: THE PUBLIC FACE OF POLICING ............................................................... 51 iv CHAPTER 2: OCCUPYING TOKYO ......................................................................... 54 Fall of the Tokugawa .................................................................................................. 54 Rise of the Sh!gitai ..................................................................................................... 58 The Battle of Ueno ...................................................................................................... 61 SECURING EDO ............................................................................................................... 65 Debating an Eastern Capital ...................................................................................... 65 Fighting Disorder ....................................................................................................... 68 Enforcing Censorship ................................................................................................. 73 BECOMING TOKYO ......................................................................................................... 75 An Imperial City ......................................................................................................... 76 Remaking Neighborhood Governance ....................................................................... 78 Rethinking Censorship ............................................................................................... 80 CONCLUSION: BREAKING THE STATUS CONTRACT ......................................................... 82 CHAPTER 3: SAMURAI COPS ................................................................................... 87 The Creation of a Western-style System ..................................................................... 87 Western Theory .......................................................................................................... 90 Kawaji Toshiyoshi ...................................................................................................... 94 The Rasotsu Transition .............................................................................................. 96 CENTRALIZATION AND WESTERNIZATION .....................................................................