Japanese Forces

Japanese Home Defence, 1945.

A soldier trains Japanese women to defend the Emperor with bamboo spears. To put this in perspective - not only would a 16th Samurai have found such a weapon primative, even common soldier-servant in a 16th century Japanese army would probably have sniffed at it. This was the sort of thing used by the downtrodden peasants to finish off fleeing Samurai from the losing side in 16th century battles. I suppose we shall never know for certain whether the bamboo spear might have been the ideal weapon against the Garand, the .50 cal., the Sherman, the Helldiver, etc. - thanks to the efforts of "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" ... An image that raises troubling reflections, I think ... JR.