The Actual Conditions of the Imphal Operations and the Novel Youth and Mud by Hino Ashihei
The Actual Conditions of the Imphal Operations and the Novel Youth and Mud by Hino Ashihei

Summary/Abstract: Thirty-nine-year-old Hino Ashihei volunteered for the Imphal operations conducted by the Japanese army during the Second World War, and served as an army press crew member. The Imphal operations were the operations that aimed to capture the city of Imphal, which was the base of the Allied Forces in north-eastern India, in order to cut the Allied lines of transportation. Three divisions, 烈the ‘Furious Division’ (the 31st infantry division), 祭the ‘Festival Division’ (15th infantry division) and 弓the ‘Bow Division’ (33rd infantry division) were formed under Lieutenant- General Mutaguchi Ren’ya, the commander of the 15th Army, and the operations were carried out from the 8th of March to the 3rd of July, 1944. The operations did not lead to the capture of Imphal, and, as the war dragged on, the Japanese army ran short of food and other supplies, had many victims and was finally defeated. Hino left six pocket notebooks on the operations, called Army Service Notebooks. As he took part in the actions of the ‘Bow Division’, many people who belonged to it, as well as the actual conditions are described in these notebooks. After the war, Hino wrot the novel Youth and Mud based on his pocket notebooks. In this paper I will discuss the actual conditions of the Imphal War and the novel Youth and Mud.

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