Literacy rates in the Manchukuo armed forces?

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Hama
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Literacy rates in the Manchukuo armed forces?

#1

Post by Hama » 30 Apr 2018, 18:20

From what I've been reading, it seems that literacy rates among Chinese soldiers of the pre-WW2 years were quite low. For example:
James Yen's investigation of Fengtien troops during the 1920's showed that only 25 out of every 150 soldiers (16.6 percent) were literate; T'ao Meng-ho's investigation of a northern brigade showed that only 13 percent of the soldiers were literate. Worse conditions probably existed in other troops. For instance, Feng Yu-hsiang declared that during 1919-20, over 95 percent of the officers and men in his army were illiterate or semiliterate.
- quoted from 'Warlord Politics in China: 1916-1928' by Hsi-Sheng Chi

I know that a lot of Manchukuo's first soldiers were simply recruited from former Chinese army units in Manchuria, so I was wondering if there are any statistics on what the literacy rates were among Manchukuo soldiers during the 1930s-40s? Did the Manchukuo military bring in literacy classes as part of their training of Chinese soldiers (especially the officers) to try and improve their quality?

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Akira Takizawa
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Re: Literacy rates in the Manchukuo armed forces?

#2

Post by Akira Takizawa » 01 May 2018, 06:10

It is not answer to your question, though.

There were 文牘(secretary) in Manchukou Army. They were civilians and read/wrote documents instead of illiterate officers. Later, 文牘 was abolished according to the improvement of quality of officers in Manchukou Army.

During the improvement of Manchukou Army, several officers were dismissed only by the reason of illiteracy even though they were excellent as leader.

Taki


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Hama
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Re: Literacy rates in the Manchukuo armed forces?

#3

Post by Hama » 01 May 2018, 22:17

Thank you. Your example at least seems to show that the Manchukuo military considered literacy important enough in their officers to dismiss some otherwise competent guys. Can I ask where you read that information? I'm always interested to gather sources on these kinds of topics.

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Re: Literacy rates in the Manchukuo armed forces?

#4

Post by Akira Takizawa » 02 May 2018, 02:20

「満洲国軍」蘭星会, 1970

Taki

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Hama
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Re: Literacy rates in the Manchukuo armed forces?

#5

Post by Hama » 02 May 2018, 13:04

Thank you.

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