Tokubetsu Keisatsutai

TheTokkeitai(Đặc cảnh đội,short forĐặc biệt cảnh sát đội,Tokubetsu Keisatsutai,"Special Police Corps", or NavalSecret Police)was theImperial Japanese Navy'smilitary police,equivalent to theImperial Japanese Army'sKempeitai.

The originalTokkeitaiwas known as the General Affairs Section and concerned itself with police andpersonnelwork within the Navy: personnel, discipline and records. It took a more active role, partly to keep theKempeitaiand the Army from meddling in Navy affairs.

It was especially active in the areas of theSouth Pacificand the Naval Control Area and was as pervasive as theKempeitai.It had the samecommissarroles in relation to exterior enemies or suspicious persons, and it watched inside units for possible defectors or traitors under the security doctrine ofKikosaku.

Attached to navy units, they served as Colonial police in some occupiedPacificareas. Later accusations ofwar crimeswere made against them in that role for such acts as coercion ofcomfort womenfrom Indonesia, Indochina and China intosexual slavery.

In addition to its police responsibilities, it was the operative branch of the Secret Service Branch of the Imperial Japanese Navy (Information Office(Tình báo cục,Jōhō-kyoku),which was responsible for recovering and analyzing information and for the execution of undercover operations. Its members also provided local security nearnaval bases.In the final weeks of thePacific War,it was among the security units prepared for combat against the proposedAlliedinvasion of Japan.