Tokkeitai

The Tokkeitai (特警隊), fully the Tokubetsu Keisatsutai (特別警察隊; Special Police Unit), was the and  branch of the Yamataian Armed Forces formed in 1910. It was the first new military branch to be created since the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy were founded in the late 18th century.

The Tokkeitai was formed to police the joint operations of the military government, but later came to be the national secret police force. Over time, the Tokkeitai's duties and powers expanded to include intelligence gathering and political suppression, and towards the end of its existence the force even began to raise formations of combat troops of its own. The political reach of the Tokkeitai steadily expanded until its commanders became the leaders of Yamatai towards the end of the military rule period, after which it was disbanded and replaced by civilian agencies. The Tokkeitai was one of the most feared secret police forces during the period of its existence, and it remains well-known in popular culture to this day.

History
Prior to the formation of the Tokkeitai, the secret police and military police functions were carried out by the Imperial Army's Kenpeitai and the Imperial Navy's Shomutai. During this period of military rule, Yamatai was divided into military districts that were overseen by various military units of both branches, typically demarcated due to the presence of strategic resources or facilities required or overseen by either military branch. Internal security within these areas was thus the responsibility of the Kenpeitai in Army-controlled areas or the Shomutai in Navy-controlled areas. The fierce rivalry between both branches meant that enforcement of laws between different areas sometimes differed widely, occasionally differing even between different military police units, enabling many abuses against the civilian population and high public discontent.

The national government at the time was a joint effort between the Army and the Navy, and officers from both branches staffed the various government ministries and sat on the Imperial High Council. Theoretically, these officers were supposed to work together and be impartial to both branches. In practice, the continued rivalry between the Army and Navy resulted in common deadlocks, nepotism and corruption throughout the government service. Any investigations and prosecutions carried out against officers within the joint government offices was carried out by the military police of their respective service branch, enabling corruption to spread as officers could often expect leniency from their own service branch. This situation resulted in the creation of "lords of corruption" that were firmly entrenched within the bureaucracy and could not be removed by any external power lesser than the Empress of Yamatai.

Aiming to curb this corruption once and for all, in 1907 Imperial Grand Marshal Tsugunaga Hanako formed a joint anti-corruption task force led by General Negishi Toshiyuki and including both Army and Navy personnel that were personally loyal to Negishi due to various reasons, forming the basis of the later Tokkeitai. This task force was empowered to investigate and indict personnel within the joint government for corruption regardless of their branch, though actual prosecution still lay in the hands of the Kenpeitai and Shomutai. In 1910, Tsugunaga announced the formation of the Tokkeitai on 15 July, which would be a third branch of the military and truly impartial to the ongoing feuds within the Army and Navy, and would enforce military law on all officers within the government apparatus. This was only possible as Tsugunaga had maneuvered many of her loyalists into high-ranking positions in both the Army and Navy, though there was wide discontent amongst the middle ranks of both branches. General Negishi Toshiyuki was the first commander of the Tokkeitai.

This discontent eventually spiralled into a coup plot against Tsugunaga by several Army officers who saw this as a betrayal by her, giving Tsugunaga the justification for expanding the newly-formed Tokkeitai's duties to include secret policing and suppression of dissidents. Army and Navy officers were forbidden from attempting to enter the Tokkeitai, and a new batch of officers was recruited to staff the burgeoning force to keep it impartial to the traditional rivalry.

By 1915, the Tokkeitai also took over the policing duties of the Kenpeitai and Shomutai within the military districts in the Yamataian islands, though the Kenpeitai and Shomutai remained the primary secret police forces in colonial areas. Tokkeitai policing of the country was not markedly better for civilians than the previous forces, though was more consistent in its enforcement of national laws throughout the country. Nonetheless, abuses such as extrajudicial killings and random beatings of civilians were still common in some areas. The Tokkeitai was responsible for internal enforcement in the New Territories, as the New Territories were not considered a colonial area. During the 1930s, the Tokkeitai also gained the responsibility of intelligence-gathering, both domestic and foreign, and was also able to raise divisions of auxiliary troops for the defence of the New Territories and later Hinomoto, which enabled the Tokkeitai to begin raising armed divisions of its own.

By the end of the Second Escar-Varunan War, the Tokkeitai had grown to over 800,000 members, had attained its own military forces and intelligence apparatus, and had amassed a large amount of political power. Due to Army and Navy infighting following the end of the weakening the position of both branches, the Tokkeitai came to dominate Yamataian politics in the late 1940s. Post-war Tokkeitai leaders generally developed a shared new direction for the governance of Yamatai, leaning towards reducing the role of the Army and Navy and attempting to introduce civilian governance to end the infighting that was hindering post-war reconstruction and reconciliation. The machinations of the Tokkeitai culminated in the head of the Tokkeitai, Matsushita Takao, becoming the Imperial Grand Marshal in 1948. Matsushita's successor, Okabe Nariakira, was also a member of the Tokkeitai.

As part of his reforms to Yamatai to introduce civilian governance and reduce the military's role in the government, Okabe later abolished the Tokkeitai on 10 July 1957 along with the Interior Ministry, dividing its roles between civilian-led agencies; the Public Security Unit under the newly-formed Ministry of Public Safety and the Imperial Intelligence Agency under the Ministry of Defence. In 1976, these two successor organisations would be merged again as the Imperial Security Agency under the Ministry of National Security.

Organisation
The Tokkeitai was divided into five main branches by 1940, which were the Headquarters Department, the General Affairs Department, the Field Enforcement Department, the Intelligence Department, and the Auxiliary Operations Department.

The Headquarters Department was in charge of the entire Tokkeitai and by 1932 became largely synonymous with the Ministry of the Interior, as from that year onwards the head of the Tokkeitai was always simultaneously the Minister of the Interior. The General Affairs Department was the main judicial and military police force that policed the joint government branches, which included the Tokkeitai itself, and was responsible for investigating and conducting court martials for any personnel within the government apparatus only, with no jurisdiction on Army and Navy personnel outside of the government agencies. The Field Enforcement Department, typically referred to as the Field Tokkeitai, was the main gendarmerie and secret police force in the military districts of Yamatai and the New Territories, and enforced the national martial law as well as punishing sedition and treason. The Intelligence Department was responsible for internal and external intelligence, particularly directed at Chisei. Finally, the Auxiliary Operations Department was created in 1940 to oversee the various Special Auxiliary Forces that had been created during the war.

The Field Tokkeitai maintained a headquarters within each military region, commanded by a major-general with a colonel as executive officer, and comprising three to four field offices. These field offices were commanded by a lieutenant-colonel with a major as an executive officer, and comprised of approximately 380 personnel. For areas requiring a larger military police presence, such as major cities, it was not unheard of for the headquarters to have more field offices. One of the most egregious examples was the Wanshu Tokkeitai, which by the time of the Third Battle of Wanshu commanded over 20 field offices on paper.

Each field office was in turn divided into 65-man sections, each commanded by a captain with a 1st lieutenant as their executive officer. These were further divided into 20-man detachments led by 2nd lieutenants and warrant officers. Each detachment contained three squads: a police squad, an administration squad, and a special duties squad.

Special Auxiliary Forces
During the Second Escar-Varunan War, the Tokkeitai was granted permission to raise Special Auxiliary Forces with the Auxiliary Forces Declaration, which were battalions of troops typically forcibly conscripted from the civilian population. These forces first appeared in the New Territories during the Chiseian offensive of 1937 and were supposed to take over auxiliary roles to free up Imperial Army forces needed elsewhere. However, they were eventually considered as infantry battalions and were increasingly used in frontline combat. Most of these emergency forces were poorly equipped and had low morale, and their impact on operations they were involved in was minimal.

In mid 1938, the Niihama Tokkeitai formed three motorised infantry and one armoured division in Yamatai using the Auxiliary Forces Declaration. These units saw combat in Chisei and were considered to be elite and fanatical troops, and the Tokkeitai began to raise more regular troops as "auxiliaries", alongside continued forced conscription of civilians. These forces became increasingly relevant as Yamatai began losing the war, particularly during the Invasion of Hinomoto. By the end of the war, the Tokkeitai had amassed over 25 divisions of Special Auxiliary Forces.

Organisationally, Special Auxiliary Forces were initially under the command of various Field Tokkeitai offices, though in practice they often operated in areas far from their home office. Later in the war, the Special Auxiliary Forces were placed under the newly-created Auxiliary Operations Department.

In modern popular culture, the Tokkeitai's forces are often misrepresented as elite troops. In reality, except for a few units, the majority of the Special Auxiliary Forces were often poorly equipped and poorly trained compared to their Imperial Army counterparts. There were also some cases of Tokkeitai Auxiliaries raiding Imperial Army supply convoys for supplies and food.