“Civilian fire fighting” during the early  pre-wartime Showa Era: Fire prevention  activities within the Tokyo Metropolitan  Police Agency

TAKAGISHI Saeka

doi:10.24471/shigaku.127.6_35

This article is an attempt to clarify the aims of fire prevention during the early pre-wartime Showa era through an analysis of changes that took place in the fire prevention system which originated within the Fire Department affiliated with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Agency in the wake of the Great Kanto Earthquake disaster of 1923. The system itself was based on leading law enforcement bureaucrat and former Tokyo fire chief Matsui Shigeru’s concept of “civilian fire fighting” (kokumin shobo 国民消防), which called for the whole Japanese citizenry to become better acquainted with the basic issues of fire prevention, in order to become the country’s main fire fighting force.<br> In his overview of the actual fire fighting bureaucracy of the early Showa era, the author characterizes the years 1925-1937 as a time during which those officials went beyond their conventional fire fighting duties by assuming a proactive role in the area of fire prevention, culminating in the Emergency Fire Disaster Alarm and Prevention Protocol of 1930. Soon after the Manchurian (Mukden) Incident in China (1931), however, beginning in 1932-33, the system began to weaken and finally stagnate altogether in 1936, mainly due to a rising concern regarding defense against possible aerial attacks (boku 防空) and the assumption of leadership by the Imperial Army and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government over local civil defense organizations, thus switching the priority of the TMP Fire Department from fire prevention to air defense.<br> As to the overall image the early pre-wartime Showa era in terms of the objectives of fire prevention, the author points to the 1930 Emergency Fire Disaster Protocol “regime” continuously appealing to the citizenry of Tokyo for its assistance. In order for such a proactive approach to fire prevention to be successful, it was crucial that fire fighting operations have a significant effect on people’s lives. As a matter of fact, since the TMP Fire Department was not authorized to issue direct orders to the citizenry, the authority to take command of public organizations laid out in the Emergency Protocol was not invested in the Fire Department’s executive officer. It was this proviso that motivated the Fire Department to establish direct communication with the citizenry to promote better understanding about fire prevention, thus establishing the ongoing administrative tradition of close cooperation between the government and the people with respect to the aims of fire prevention.

“Civilian fire fighting” during the early pre-wartime Showa Era: Fire prevention activities within the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Agency

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