The Home Front: Patriotism, Profit and Loss

Abstract

In the previous chapter we looked mainly at the official structures for mobilising wartime support. The conflict with China may be termed modern in so far as a rational bureaucracy, universal education and evolving media existed to incorporate all levels of Japanese society, into the war. However, the level of this involvement differed according to such factors as region, industry and occupation. This was not a total war in the sense that government invaded and controlled every aspect of society. Nationalism, the nation-state, and the nation-in-arms, were all in production, not finished products. Thus, to pursue our understanding of the development of modern Japan, let us now consider the diversity of responses to the war and the range of profit and loss, commercial or otherwise, incurred by small business, organised religion, and families of the troops.