In the system in effect in our country in the ancient past everyone was a soldier. In an emergency the emperor became the Marshal, mobilizing the able-bodied youth for military service and thereby suppressing rebellion. When the campaign was over the men returned to their homes and their occupations, whether that of farmer, artisan, or merchant. They differed fundamentally from the soldiers of a later period who carried two swords and called themselves warriors, living in arrogant idleness, and in extreme instances cutting down people in cold blood while officials turned their faces.
Following the appointment of Uzuhiko as Governor of Katsuragi by Emperor Jimmu, military contingents were established as were the systems of imperial guards and coast guards. During the Jinki (724-28) and Tempyō (729-49) eras the system of Six Headquarters and Two Military Outposts was established for the first time. Following the Hōgen [1156-58] and Heiji [1159-60] eras, the court became lax, and military control passed into the hands of the warrior class. Feudal conditions spread throughout the country, and there appeared among the people a distinction between the farmer and the soldier. Still later, the distinction between the ruler and the ruled collapsed, giving rise to indescribable evils. Then came the great Restoration of the government. All feudatories returned their fiefs to the Throne, and in 1871 the old prefectural system was restored. On the one hand, warriors who lived without labor for generations have had their stipends reduced and have been stripped of their swords; on the other hand, the four classes of the people are about to receive their right to freedom. This is the way to restore the balance between the high and the low and to grant equal rights to all. It is, in short, the basis of uniting the farmer and the soldier into one. Thus, the soldier is not the soldier of former days. The people are not the people of former days. They are now equally the people of the empire, and there is no distinction between them in their obligations to the State.
No one in the world is exempt from taxation with which the state defrays its expenditures. In this way, everyone should endeavor to repay one's country. The Occidentals call military obligation "blood tax," for it is one's repayment in life-blood to one's country. When the State suffers disaster, the people cannot escape being affected. Thus, the people can ward off disaster to themselves by striving to ward off disaster to the State. And where there is a state, there is military defense; and if there is military defense there must be military service. It follows, therefore, that the law providing for a militia is the law of nature and not an accidental, man-made law. As for the system itself it should be made after a survey of the past and the present, and adapted to the time and circumstance. The Occidental countries established their military systems after several hundred years of study and experience. Thus, their regulations are exact and detailed. However, the difference in geography rules out their wholesale adoption here. We should now select only what is good in them, use them to supplement our traditional military system, establish an army and a navy, require all males who attain the age of twenty, irrespective of class, to register for military service, and have them in readiness for all emergencies. Heads of communities and chiefs of villages should keep this aim in mind and they should instruct the people so that they will understand the fundamental principle of national defense.
adapted from Tsunoda, De Bary and Keene, Sources of Japanese Tradition, II: 196-98.
徵兵吿諭
我 朝上古ノ制海內擧テ兵ナラサルハナシ有事ノ日 天子之カ元帥トナリ丁壯兵役ニ堪ユル者ヲ募リ以テ不服ヲ征ス役ヲ解キ家ニ歸レハ農タリ工タリ又商賣タリ固ヨリ後世ノ雙刀ヲ帶ヒ武士ト稱シ抗顏坐食シ甚シキニ至テハ人ヲ殺シ官其罪ヲ問ハサル者ノ如キニ非ス抑 神武天皇珍彥ヲ以テ葛城ノ國造トナセシヨリ爾後軍團ヲ設ケ衞士防人ノ制ヲ定メ神龜天平ノ際ニ至リ六府二鎭ノ設ケ始テ備ル保元平治以後朝綱頽弛兵權終ニ武門ノ手ニ墜チ國ハ封建ノ勢ヲ爲シ人ハ兵農ノ別ヲ爲ス降テ後世ニ至リ名分全ク泯沒シ其弊勝テ言フ可カラス然ルニ太政維新列藩版圖ヲ奉還シ辛未ノ歲ニ及ヒ遠ク郡縣ノ古ニ復ス世襲坐食ノ士ハ其祿ヲ減シ刀劍ヲ脱スルヲ許シ四民漸ク自由ノ權ヲ得セシメントス是レ上下ヲ平均シ人權ヲ齊一ニスル道ニシテ則チ兵農ヲ合一ニスル基ナリ是ニ於テ士ハ從前ノ士ニ非ス民ハ從前ノ民ニアラス均シク 皇國一般ノ民ニシテ國ニ報スルノ道モ固ヨリ其別ナカルヘシ凡ソ天地ノ間一事一物トシテ稅アラサルハナシ以テ國用ニ充ツ然ラハ則チ人タルモノ固ヨリ心力ヲ盡シ國ニ報セサルヘカラス西人之ヲ稱シテ血稅ト云フ其生血ヲ以テ國ニ報スルノ謂ナリ且ツ國家ニ災害アレハ人々其災害ノ一分ヲ受サルヲ得ス是故ニ人々心力ヲ盡シ國家ノ災害ヲ防クハ則チ自己ノ災害ヲ防クノ基タルヲ知ルヘシ苟モ國アレハ則チ兵備アリ兵備アレハ則チ人々其役ニ就カサルヲ得ス是ニ由テ之ヲ觀レハ民兵ノ法タル固ヨリ天然ノ理ニシテ偶然作意ノ法ニ非ス然而シテ其制ノ如キハ古今ヲ斟酌シ時ト宜ヲ制セサルヘカラス西洋諸國數百年來硏究實踐以テ兵制ヲ定ム故ヲ以テ其法極メテ精密ナリ然レトモ政體地理ノ異ナル悉ク之ヲ用フ可カラス故ニ今其長スル所ヲ取リ古昔ノ軍制ヲ補ヒ海陸二軍ヲ備ヘ全國四民男兒二十歲ニ至ル者ハ盡ク兵籍ニ編入シ以テ緩急ノ用ニ備フヘシ鄕長里正厚ク此 御趣意ヲ奉シ徵兵令ニ依リ民庶ヲ說諭シ國家保護ノ大本ヲ知ラシムヘキモノ也
明治五年壬申十一月二十八日