Sword Hunt after WW2

[Moritsuchi]

Hi all,

 

I am an undergraduate Student of Japanese Studies and am currently researching to write a paper on the destruction of coultural heritage during the sword confiscation by the SCAP during the alliied occupation and the process of recognizing Japanese swords as objects with artistic value and the development to the Firearm and Sword Posession Control Law from 1958. Sadly I haven't found many sources by now, and I would really appreciate if someone could help me out. I would be specifically interested in the initial order by the SCAP to confiscate all swords and destroy them and the process that led to this order being issued. I have no Idea where I could find those documents but I am sure they exist somewhere.

 

Thanks for any help, and kind regards,

 

Florian

[Brian]

Hi Florian,
Definitely worth starting here:
https://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/files/file/32-ww2-us-govt-archived-documents/

You will find members here that can maybe assist with some of that info. Unfortunately some people with good knowledge have passed away, like Guy on Warrelics or guys who aren't able to give input like Guido Schiller.
But let's see what the members can help with.

[Moritsuchi]

Thanks a lot, that is already a good chunk of what I was looking for.

EDIT: For american people: Is there some archive or institution where you can ask for access to documents? Or ask where some information is located and have it scanned?

[SteveM]

These documents should be in the National Archives, but it is not very user friendly. 

https://www.archives.gov/

 

I did some of this same kind of research using both US and Japanese sources, so I have some information if you need it. But basically I tried to recreate the exact timeline of the orders and their various modifications from the time the first orders were issued, to the US approval of the establishment of the first registration system (1946). It didn't take until 1958 to start saving swords. It happened pretty quickly. 

The order to disarm (i.e. for Japanese to surrender all weapons to the US authorities) came very quickly. Actually I think it was GHQ Order #1 issued on September 2nd, 1946, which was the order for all Japanese to surrender all weapons. It was left to local police departments to actually carry out these orders, which started happening around September 15th. But already there was some resistance to surrender cultural treasures on the grounds that they weren't weapons. GHQ issued a compromise order which instructed the cultural items to be "prepared for collection" and await further clarification from GHQ on their disposition.

 

The guys doing the work on the ground were Junji Honma (Japan's Ministry of Education - MOE) and Todai University Professor Kikuo Kojima. They approached Prime Minister Higashikuni, who left these negotiations to Konoe Fumimaro (PM during the war, and royal family member). It seems the US and Fumimaro had a fairly good relationship, as Fumimaro was able to get exemptions for culturally important properties, but unfortunately he committed suicide in December of 1945. The remaining work of defining an "art sword" vs. a military sword, and the details of the registration system, were sent back to Junji Honma. The first law allowing possession of guns and swords with artistic value was issued on June 1st, 1946, but it took a few months to still work out details of how items were to be submitted, and who would review them. This is actually the origin of today's NBTHK (Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai - The Society for the Preservation of Art Swords).

 

Anyway, let me know if you get stuck on any of this. I think a lot of the written records are in the file that Brian provided. 

[Moritsuchi]

@SteveM thanks for your Help, that really speeds up my research. I really appreciate that. I would be looking for more or less exactly what you did, so if you could share your results/notes or give me names, document numbers or even just keywords that I could use to search the national archives, that could help me recreate the thought process that led from the order to destroy all swords to the recognition of the artistic value, at least from the american perspective. I guess to find documentation on the Japanese perspective it would be most effective to write to the NBTHK directly, wouldn't it?

[SteveM]

I think the NBTHK wouldn't have the resources to answer general research questions, but they do have some details of the post WW2 events on their website. Unfortunately it is all in Japanese, but maybe Google and DeepL can help you out. 

https://www.tousyoukai.jp/gendai010/

 

The Americans weren't really too interested in the question of art sword vs. weapon sword. It was mostly left to the Japanese to sort this out, and so Junji Honma and his colleagues developed the criteria and the registration scheme that would identify and certify "art swords" as opposed to weapons. The Americans didn't seem to spend too much time worrying about it. The US person who was overseeing the efforts was military police commander Colonel Victor C. Cadwell of the US 8th Army. It was he who agreed (or, convinced MacArthur to agree) to allowing Japanese keep cultural treasures. After that, it was up to the Japanese to decide what exactly was an "art sword". 

 

The order from GHQ was to surrender all swords to the local police stations, and immediately there were questions (complaints) about whether even family heirlooms were to be surrendered. The US authorities at first said that family heirlooms could be exempted, but this lead to more confusion, and so the GHQ issued the directive stating all swords were to be surrendered (with the idea that the art swords would eventually be released, once they could be identified). It took several months for things to get sorted out, and in the meantime things were not very organized, and I imagine there was a lot of chaos at the level of the local police. It was during these first few months that a lot of important swords were lost (including the Honjo Masamune).

 

By June of 1946 there was a consensus on how to validate art swords. So I think the problems were more bureaucratic than philosophical. Actually, to this day we are still stuck with the bureaucracy imposed by those first discussions.

 

Also, look for an article here on NMB by Guido Schiller called "Honjō Masamune". It has some references at the bottom of the article that may be of use to you. 

 

Key people

Junji Honma (also spelled Homma)

Sato Kan'ichi (aka Sato Kanzan) 

the above mentioned Col. Cadwell

 

 

Edit: Sorry - the website I linked to is for the All Japan Swordsmith Association, not the NBTHK. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kiipu]

Hi Florian, maybe Nick's WRF thread below will help with your research article.

The Battle for the Survival of the Japanese Sword 1945-48

[Baba Yaga]

 The NBTHK didn't organize until 1948. A lot of confusion for cities which were on fire and leveled from war.  

[Soshin]

I just read this The Japan Times article (Resurrecting a prince's home with a dark wartime past | The Japan Times) about the home of the war time PM Fumimaro Konoe that they are restoring. It is a nice read.   

[SteveM]

Wondering how this research is proceeding. Was the NBTHK any help? Were you able to locate any new information that might be of interest to the group here? 

[Moritsuchi]

On 7/30/2023 at 8:33 PM, SteveM said:

Wondering how this research is proceeding. Was the NBTHK any help? Were you able to locate any new information that might be of interest to the group here? 

 

Well, I've started writing on the more general parts of the paper, like the history of Japanese swords in general and on the modern manufacturing process. I've found some Japanese sources which I am translating at the moment and some weird additional american documents of which I am unsure how they relate to the sword hunts, but when googeling some of the SCAPIN document numbers, some strange document showed up in the results. I'm not sure where I saved it, but when I find it again, I'll post it here. When I finished the more general parts, I'd be glad if someone with more knowledge on modern (I'm mostly interested in Kofun-period warfare, so anything after 8th century is modern to me haha) Japanese swords looks over it that I make no mistakes. I have to submit my paper at the End of september, so around that that time I can share my results with you all.

 

Also, a question i just ran into whilst reading about the sword manufacturing of gendaito/shinsakuto, is that the jap. government limits the number of how many swords are allowed to be made, and that the training of the smiths is highly regulated. Does anyone know, how many swords are made each year, and why it is limited? And where I could have a brief overview how the smith training works, how long it takes etc?

 

 

[SteveM]

The Japanese government doesn't limit the number of swords, although to become a licensed swordsmith it is expected that it will take you about two weeks to make a sword - hence the self-imposed regulation of two swords per month. We had a thread on this a while back. 

 

 

The limitation is probably a function of two things: limited availability of tamahagane, and expectation that swordsmiths will create "art swords", and not just pump out pointed metal sticks. I think there are 188 licensed smiths in Japan. If each are producing ~26 swords a year, I guess there is a maximum capacity of ~4,888 new swords made every year, but that feels like a very high number to me. I don't know if all 188 smiths are producing at maximum capacity. Some of them must be close to retiring and are not actively smithing anymore. 

 

Smith training is via apprenticeship. The link below has some info in English. The "All Japan Swordsmith Association" also has info (but in Japanese). 

 

https://katana-sword...og/katana-blacksmith

 

https://www.tousyoukai.jp/want/

 

Edit to include the link to the site providing the number of swordsmiths in Japan (2017). 

https://www.touken-world.jp/tips/17617/

 

[Wah]

Florian,

 

I wish you well.

 

 

I look forward to reading your paper.

Someone said,

"If Japan is to turn in swords, Emperor Hirohito should first make an example."

 

At wars end, the Imperial house was only allowed to keep a small number of swords out of the large number in their collection. Originally, they were told by GHQ that they could keep only 50. These 50 or so  they chose were known to have been in their family for centuries.

An article said that relatively new swords in the collection were placed in the sorting out section and were to be liquidated.

In 1947 the swords that didnt go missing were placed in the newly named Tokyo National Museum in Ueno. Previously Tokyo Imperial Museum.

 

There was a sword collection in the Imperial family at wars end under the category of Emperor Meiji's  (Gunto) military sword collection and consisted of about 13 blades. 

 

These blades were in the Imperial Household collection for a short time , under 100 years, so they were not as important as swords that had been owned by them for centuries.

These blades were the ones surrendered to Emperor Meiji in about 1868 by the Tokugawa's and other high ranking officials. Emperor Meiji chose to rule with those swords by his side.

 

One of these from the Emperor Meiji collection, a famous Masamune, was handed in at wars end by none other than Iemasa Tokugawa. How painful that must have been considering the circumstances. People continue to search for it till this day.

 

Some of the story can be seen in Token to Rekishi 445,  1968 . Also in the Biography of Emperor Meiji, these swords including the missing Masamune are listed as the 12 or 13 military swords of Emperor Meiji.

 

 

Stephen T.

 

[Matcha]

Hi Florian,

 

I've been searching on a similar theme recently, and wondered if this would help.

『刀剣と歴史 (536号)』（日本刀剣保存会刊）
浦茂（元中佐）「日本刀保存についてマッカーサー司令部との交渉経過（当時の日誌から）」

A memoir by Shigeru Ura (1909-2001, ex-military), "The Process of Negotiation on the Preservation on Japanese Swords with MacArthur Headquarter (With Reference to My Journals from 1945)"

https://asahitoken.j...sm-katanagari-C.html

 

The Journal 『刀剣と歴史』seems to be published by 日本刀剣保存会 (NPO), but they don't have any online archive.

(Their website is still working on the English version)

http://hozonkai.jp/3book.html

 

Also, SCAPIN orders like NO.50, 181 and 574 can be found here. (National Diet Library's website)

(NO.2099 includes the list of SCAPIN orders related to instructions on surrendering arms)

https://rnavi.ndl.go...pation/jp/SCA-1.html

 

Wish you best luck!

Eugene

[Moritsuchi]

@Matcha Thanks, the first one looks really promising. I'll definitely take a look into it.

 

The SCAPIN are a really good source for the american perspective, I've also been shown a lot of Documents around them here, and best is: they are in english, I don't need half an hour per page to read haha

[Matcha]

I always feel the same with WW2 military stuff too!

Especially the names of American military personnels... it's so hard to reverse-engineer them from katakana version published in 1940s.

 

If you have time, I'd also like to recommend this paper, though it's all written in Japanese 

But it provides a good overview on the negotiation between GHQ/SCAP & Japanese government, so I'll just give you the link anyway.

 

Takashi Ara (1991) "Demilitarization and Disarmament under the Occupation (1945-1952) : GHQ's Sword Hunt"

https://xn--rikkyo-9...ge_id=13&block_id=49

[BIG]

Hi Florian, unce I linked article about modern sword hunts, do not know if you got it, if not Ithink it helps..

 

https://minpaku.repo.../files/SES54_009.pdf

 

Best

[Moritsuchi]

@Matcha That sounds very interesting, but I somehow can't open the link. Do you have a PDF or something?

 

Edit: Nevermind, I googled it and saw that I already have it as PDF, but thank you anyways

 

 

[Conway S]

Greetings, 

 

I know this thread has not been active for a while, but I came across some documents for sale that may be of interest to some members here. A few of the documents reference the Imperial Household and Yasukuni Shrine. See below. It's regrettable that the US made a specific effort to remove swords from museums in order to destroy them or send them to the US. 

 

WW2 US Officer Occupation Japanese Imperial Household Museums Access Swords Tech

 

Conway

[PNSSHOGUN]

Of note is a GHQ tag authorizing the recipient to retain a Japanese sword. Sometimes these show up in Japan, a recent example was an Onkashi-To authorizing the Japanese officer to own it. 

 

 

 

[SteveM]

Very interesting to have this documentation. November 23, 1945. This was when the US army was going back and forth on whether or not family heirloom swords could be retained by their owners, or whether demilitarization meant absolutely no weapons whatsoever. I think the hardliners were in the majority in early December. But by the end of December, the negotiations had worked in the favor of allowing heirloom (i.e. art swords) to be retained by their owners. Great to see this kind of hard evidence of those times.   

[John C]

I wonder if any of the Yasukuni swords ended up in US museums re: the last line in the note?

 

John C.

[John C]

The last word in the sentence is obscured (disposal), however the swords were to go to Nippon Steel as scrap (which, interestingly is possibly buying US Steel for 14 billion).

 

John C.