A Social Basis for Prewar Japanese Militarism

"The major part of this study will be based on data collected in a number of rural communities ? Discussions of the activities of the army?s organizations in these communities will be presented as case studies of the military?s efforts at the socialization of civilians. The local materials are drawn from a collection of unpublished Anj? materials, from interview and questionnaire information ? and from a few local youth association histories ? The interviews and questionnaires are especially important because of the dearth of other local documentation; many of the materials that were not destroyed by American strategic bombing were burned by order of the reserve association?s national headquarters in August, 1945, or were sold as wastepaper after the war "--P. xix.