The mobilisation of the Japanese people in an all-out war effort was achieved through a mixture of economic incentives, coercion and techniques of social control. However, the Japanese home front was not well organised as they were too focused on propaganda.
The government manipulated their citizens to get them to support the war effort. This sometimes led to hardship, suffering and even their deaths. Many people offered to sacrifice their lives for the emperor and their country because of the cultural values of gratitude, indebtedness and repayment embedded in Japanese society. Schools encouraged patriotism and reverence for the emperor. Children were also sent to work to support the war effort. Agricultural production in the home islands was held up well during the war. But when the bombing started, levels of productions fell dramatically. Imports dried up. The Japanese domestic food supply depended on the imports but were cut off due to the American submarine and bombing campaigns. This caused a growing food shortage and some malnutrition. The government launched a ‘National Spiritual Mobilisation Campaign’ which was concerned with bringing the many independent patriotic organisations already in existence in Japan to support the war. Mass rallies took place to celebrate military events. There were drastic reductions in consumption, integration of hitherto marginal social groups into the war production system and offering of all able bodied men to the military machine. Women on the Home Front Women played a huge role on the home front. Their generous contributions included savings bond campaigns, local labor brigades and their psychological support for local families whose fathers and sons were away at war. Women were also relegated to various volunteer associations. By 1944 more than four million women worked in seventeen important industrial sectors such as aircraft manufacturing, munitions, electrical factories, pharmaceuticals and textiles. Rationing system The government then introduced a system of stringent rationing. The rationing of milk led to smaller babies. The government’s attempt to raise the marriage rate and the birth rate was unsuccessful and there was little or no long-term impact on the overall demographic profile of Japan. Resistance However, many Japanese resisted the government’s orders by ignoring the considerable social pressures to conform, breaking rules and regulations, publicly defying the authorities and resorting to petty thievery. Japan lacked the economic power and infrastructure to implement a sophisticated mass marketing campaign. |