Prologue Background The Role of ATIS in Intelligence Gathering Methodology Author's Note Acknowledgements Chapter One - Setting the Scene A Synopsis of Japanese Military History The Emergence of the kokutai: the re-creation of the ancient myth Japan at War Becoming the Emperor's Soldiers The Ultimate Weapon: The Spirit of Yamato Damashii Creating Tragic Heroes Chapter Two - An Extraordinary Diary of an Ordinary Soldier Diary Writing in Japan The Diarist: Tamura Yoshikazu A Soldier Diarist's Journey The Diary of Tamura Yoshikazu The Diary as a Tool of Investigation: Uncovering kokutai Why Does Tamura Write? How Does Tamura Write? What Does Tamura Write? Chapter Three - Priming the Country for War: Imperial Rescripts as Fortifiers of the Kokutai Disseminating Kokutai ideology: Imperial Rescripts From Ritualism to Unconditional Conformism: Enforcing the Kokutai The Rescript to Sublimate: The Kokutai no Hongi Educating in the Kokutai War and the Kokutai Ensuring Soldiers' Compliance: The Senjinkun ('Instructions for the Battlefield') The Kokutai as Dysfunctional Military Family Wholesale acceptance? Chapter Four - Out of Landscape Japan as the Sublime: The Acculturation of Japanese Nature A Hell-hole of a Place The Jungle as Physically Perverse The Jungle as Disorder The Ennui of Endless Rain Chapter Five - The Landscape of Deprivation No Tropical Paradise The Spectre of Starvation Disease, Illness and Utter Fatigue Submitting to Power Communication Breakdown Chapter Six - Creating an Idealized World Diasporic Dilemma Enforced Exile Media Travel in the Homeland Journey across the Asian Continent Letters Chapter Seven - Re-creating an Emotionally Accommodating Landscape Setting it Right Nature: Controller or Controlled Autumn as a Seasonal Anchor Mountains as Redemption The Moon as Traveller The Battlefield as Surreal Landscape Chapter Eight - Death as Man's True Calling The Grand Desire to Die for the Emperor Ego Involvement: Reward for Loyalty Self-motivating to taigi - The Great Obligation to Die The Ocean as Facilitator to a Noble Death Motifs of Death The Already Dead Chapter Nine - Challenges to a Resolve to Die The Useless Rhetoric of the Emancipation of Asia The Tedium, the Terror and the Lowly Role Death as Ignoble Reality A Life Flawed Chapter Ten- Reconciling Death Relinquishing a Sense of Self - jibun ga nai The Torment of Becoming a Man without a Me Accepting Death: The Final Act of Loyalty Epilogue List of Images Glossary of Terms Abbreviations for sources held at the Australian War Memorial (Canberra, ACT) Bibliography Index