Disaster prevention and the Japanese police: 1923-1961

During the pre-World War II era, whenever disaster struck, the police would take charge of such duties as rescuing and leading victims to safety, as well as maintaining law and order in the stricken area. In Meiji times, during which there was no uniform protocol for police emergencies nationwide, each provincial authority established its own procedures and defined what disasters involved, according to their own prerogatives. <br> The first incentive towards establishing a national protocol was provided by the Great Kanto Earthquake disaster, after which provincial authorities drew up a policing plan with the occurrence of disasters clearly in mind, in search of establishing cooperation with other government agencies and private sector groups involved in the areas of rescue and recovery. Although there were provinces that attempted to define disasters in detail, even with the advent of the Showa Era, a majority still had not set up emergency police protocols. The second incentive was provided by the acts of terror which occurred during the early Showa era. Following the 15 May 1932 mutiny-coup d’etat staged by a group of young Army officers, the Ministry of the Interior put in place the first nationally integrated emergency police protocol that following September. The provincial authorities followed suit by either revising or newly establishing their own protocols accordingly. It goes without saying that police planning during the prewar Showa era was more concerned with rebellion than natural disasters. <br> The final push towards uniformity was provided by the 2nd Sino-Japanese War. As Japan became more and more involved militarily in China, the government was forced to integrate overlapping emergency police functions and the war effort into an interrelated national mobilization system. In 1939, the Interior Ministry revised its emergency police protocol, by making clear distinctions between national disasters and rebellion into two different programs, and requiring that each be dealt with separately.<br> However, with the start of the Asia-Pacific War, both aspects were again integrated in practice. Moreover, due a scarcity in police personnel, local civil defense and firefighting groups (keibodan 警防団) were mobilized, and along with the worsening of the war effort, aerial bombardment was given priority over natural and man-made disaster prevention measures.<br> After the War, the Japanese police agency was forced to completely revise its ideas about law enforcement and reform its institutions. The Law Enforcement Act of 1947 ordered that in the case of any national emergency the prime minister would oversee all police actions. Then with the enactment of the Basic Act on Disaster Control Measures of 1961, the definition of disaster was strictly defined and emergency policing was subsumed under the category of disaster prevention.