Human rights groups have reported that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is recruiting children as young as 12 into a “volunteer” paramilitary campaign.
This disturbing initiative suggests that the Revolutionary Guard is prepared to draw even very young children into its all-out resistance to U.S. and Israeli attacks.
The roles assigned to them reportedly include logistical and operational tasks such as delivering supplies and conducting intelligence patrols. The reports immediately brought to my mind a dark chapter in Japan’s own past.
Eighty-one years ago, as the Japanese military braced for the anticipated U.S. invasion of Okinawa, boys ages 14 to 16 in Okinawa Prefecture were mobilized through defensive conscription shortly before the Battle of Okinawa began with the landing of American forces.
The members of the so-called “Tekketsu Kinnotai” (Blood and Iron Loyalist Student Corps) were students in the second through fifth years of secondary schools under Japan’s old education system, including Okinawa Prefectural First Middle School.
According to Okinawa Prefecture’s official history, their mobilization “cannot be said to have followed proper legal procedures.”
Shotoku Asato, then a second-year student, ran twice a day through strafing fire to deliver messages to headquarters. At night, he operated a hand-cranked power generator inside a cave shelter.
“Exhausted and half-asleep, we would scold one another to stay upright and endure,” he later testified.
A total of 1,120 male student soldiers were killed, and half of them were under 17. It was a folly that must never be repeated.
Global human rights group Amnesty International has condemned the Revolutionary Guard’s recruitment campaign, saying that “recruiting and mobilizing children as young as 12 into a military campaign” is “a grave violation of international humanitarian law amounting to a war crime.”
At the same time, many scholars point out that U.S. attacks on civilian infrastructure in Iran also violate international law. When the rule of law is so openly mocked, what can be done?
An ancient Greek statesman is said to have remarked that laws are like spider webs: they catch the weak and powerless, but the strong can tear through them and escape.
All we can do is keep repairing the web, again and again. The international community must work together to mend its tears and make it stronger and more resilient. I hope Japan will be at the center of that effort.
—The Asahi Shimbun, April 8
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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.
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