Beijing’s Wartime Police Force

By Peter Harmsen
31 March, 2019
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In the months after the Japanese Army occupied Beijing in the summer of 1937, the new administration attempted to introduce a semblance of normalcy. This involved employing local Chinese in many official positions, especially at junior levels.

An example of this is the auxiliary police force shown in these photos, which were taken in October 1938. The photos suggest that traffic control was a big part of the officers’ responsibilities, but training in martial arts and the use of hand guns also reveals they were supposed to deal with more than just speeding vehicles.

The photos on this page are taken by Japanese photographers stationed in China during the war. They are part of a large batch of images taken in north China in the period from 1936 to 1945 that have recently been made available by Kyoto University. Many have never before been seen in public.