During World War II, Imperial Japan was the world’s most militarized society, with a host of uniformed organizations supporting the war effort in East Asia and the Pacific and ultimately tasked with defending the home islands. Featuring full-colour artwork, this book reveals the organization and appearance of the military and civil-defence forces that supported the Japanese war effort from 1937 to 1945.

From the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 until the Japanese surrender in August 1945, a multitude of military and civil-defence forces strove to support the Japanese war effort and latterly prepared to defend the Home Islands against invasion. During World War II, Japan was the world’s most militarized society and by 1945 nearly every Japanese male over the age of 10 wore some kind of military attire, as did the majority of women and girls. In this volume, Philip Jowett reveals the many military and civil-defence organizations active in wartime Japan, while specially commissioned artwork and carefully chosen archive photographs depict the appearance of the men, women and children involved in the Japanese war effort in the Home Islands throughout World War II.