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On December 20, 1914, the central parking lot was put into use as Tokyo Station, and the tram that crossed the central parking lot under construction to the temporary parking lot of Wufuqiao began to end at Tokyo Station like a train (at this time, the fourth line from Tokyo Station to Shinagawa Station was completed).
As a result, the urban line project came to an end. However, Shinagawa Station was also affected by another renovation plan. This is the beginning of the pendulum tail structure of the sixth and seventh platforms.
Contemporary Shinagawa Station. Photography / nyiragongo, source / figure worm creative
The station platform is expanded
The boom brought about by the First World War led to an increase in the volume of goods transported. Therefore, it is necessary to build a larger dispatch field.
After some expansion and renovation, Shinagawa Station added two additional platforms for a total of four platforms, two of which were used by the Tokaido Main Line coach and the other two by the Yamanote Line and the Keihin-Tohoku Line Tram.
The construction of the station platform with four parallel platforms (having said that, the first platform is the bridge crossing line to the Tokyo side, and the second platform is the Kobe side, not the state of the four lines arranged in parallel). However, when the bus dispatching yard was built, it was decided to build a bus dispatching yard for the Upper and Lower Main Lines of Tokaido. This policy plans to juxtapose the non-standard shaped first and second platforms with the cross-line bridge as the benchmark, and add the fifth and sixth platforms on the coastal side.
It can be speculated that this is due to the large-scale transportation requirements of military trains based at Shinagawa Station when running express trains from Tokyo Station to Shinagawa Station. The tokaido main line platforms are upper and lower, and one of the sides is used by a southbound tram on the Keihin Tohoku Line. The fourth platform doesn't even have room for one more line. According to the plan to merge part of the Keihin Tohoku Line Tram with the Yokosuka Line tram to run fast between Shinagawa and Tokyo, the second and third platforms will be used for this purpose, and the fourth platform will be used by the Tokaido Uplink Line. Among the newly established platforms, the fifth platform is used for military purposes, and the sixth platform is used by the Tokaido downward line.
A Japanese station on a postcard. Source/Illustration of "History of Stations in Japan"
After that, everything was heading for war. This is the only way left.
Parking lot command with military platforms
The sixth platform is a product of the march towards war. In this way, the fourth and fifth platforms are naturally clear, especially the fourth platform, which is obviously used as a military platform. However, after the Second World War, the non-standard shape of the first and second platforms were integrated into one platform, and the original third platform became the new second platform, and the original fourth platform became the third platform, and the serial number was moved forward. The original military platform became the current Tokaido uplink platform. A new platform was built between the original platform 4 (i.e. the new 3rd platform) and the original platform 5, which is the new platform 4.
Therefore, the current fourth and fifth platforms are not military platforms after the beginning of the Pacific War. However, the former fifth platform also began to send military trains due to its connection with the direction of Kobe on the main line. In short, whether used directly or not, these platforms have sent military trains and become a mark on the history of Shinagawa Station.
The platform that now serves to send temporary trains to the Soka Gakkai and other groups is saddled with a history of war that cannot be forgotten.
So, based on the Practical Guide, we will look at how military platforms are used.
Speaking of which, what is Parking Lot Command? This is an agency established by the third part of the Army's Operational Priorities Order, which is set up in the main parking lot, responsible for the loading and unloading of military personnel and military materials in the parking lot and adjacent parking lots, and is also responsible for the maintenance of people and horses in transit. When transporting troops, transport commanders are usually appointed by transport forces to manage transport tasks. However, when transporting troops by train, because the transport commander could not handle on his own the matters of determining the transport train, the section of the train, the allocation of passenger and freight cars, the formalities for getting off the train, the arrangement of food and drink (including military horse hay) and the supply of soup and tea (called supply in military parsley), the line district headquarters was set up on the line line to transport the army, and the parking lot command was set up in the parking lot on the way, and the commander of each command was in charge of the transport affairs according to his authority.
The commander of the car park is the position responsible for liaison between the transport commander and the railway agencies, especially the station manager, and the transport commander is prohibited from directly negotiating with the station master. In fact, if the transport commander directly negotiates with the station master, it will not only hinder the railway transport business, but also bring chaos to the military transport when transporting multiple troops.
The Practical Guide was written after the beginning of the Pacific War, and we will begin to discuss it from the point of view of organization.
The commander is the Army Commander, and the headquarters consists of the General Affairs Section (1 each for a second lieutenant, a cobia, and a first-class soldier), a transportation section (1 second lieutenant, 2 cobias, and 1 superior soldier), a personnel transportation section (1 each for a lieutenant, a second lieutenant, a cobia, and a second class soldier), a cargo transportation section (2 second lieutenants, 1 each for a captain, and a first class soldier), a financial supply section (1 second lieutenant and 1 cobia), and a command (1 second class soldier), for a total of 19 people. Transport operations are shared between the Transport Section, the Personnel Transport Section and the Cargo Transport Section. The Transport Section deals with transport schedules, transport vouchers, and post-payment certificates, prepares detailed transport reports and business details, and negotiates and liaises with relevant units, officials, and stations; the Personnel Transport Section is responsible for negotiating and guiding the work of various agencies related to boarding and disembarking, confirming the allocation of trains, inspecting train parts, and also responsible for matters related to assembling and resting places; the Cargo Transport Section is responsible for negotiating and guiding the agencies on the loading and unloading of goods and horses, confirming the allocation of trains, inspecting trains and their accessories, Matters related to loading equipment are also handled.
What is the actual process of soldiers riding? As soon as the transport schedule is delivered to the headquarters (before 10 o'clock the previous day), the sections begin to prepare according to the deployment. They draw up a boarding plan, contact the station master, decide on the place where the troops will be assembled, confirm the composition of the train, the type of vehicle, the time of entry, determine the configuration of the guards (dispatched by the army), notify the gendarmerie and the police (the police station in front of the station), check the transport vouchers, hand the transport vouchers to the stationmaster, and after receiving the vouchers, check the luggage carried by the buses. After the above preparations are roughly completed, meet the troops on the bus. The meeting place is located at the Iwasaki Mansion (more than 500 people), the Maori Mansion (less than 500 people), or the Morimura Mansion (less than 200 people) in front of the station, and the troops are then guided to the station after the meeting.
After the troops are assembled, the command personnel go to the meeting point. The commander will also arrive 10 minutes before the troops depart from the meeting point and issue instructions, and the troop dispatch personnel will go to the platform inside the station to prepare for the troops to board. Then the commander is in front, and the first squadron and the second squadron are guided from the meeting point to the station in order of formation. The departure of the troops is 30 to 50 minutes before the departure, and the specific time is adjusted according to the size of the troops or other conditions.
Troops departing from the meeting point had to cross a road to enter the station, which was the Keihin National Highway. There is the Shinagawa Station Front Station of the Keihin City Electric (later Tokyo Metropolitan Electric) station, and there is a lot of traffic on the road. When troops pass, they will block road traffic, so guards and gendarmes will be dispatched. In addition, the relevant personnel of the station will definitely participate, and the police station in front of the station will also receive a notice in advance, and the police will manage the traffic. Even if it is not such a time to move the masses, there are many cases of soldiers' families and friends flocking to the army, and the traffic is very large. For the soldier's relatives and friends, at least one glance at the husband, father, son, brother or friend, at least one more look before departure, and sometimes another sentence. Even if the departure is completely secret, it may leak out of nowhere, and people will flock to Shinagawa Station.
When the troops in Tokyo set out, when marching from the camp to Shinagawa, people were restricted to the sidewalk, but they still followed the troops. This is true both at night and during the day, and the time does not differ. Of course, people could not be allowed to enter the station, so they all flocked to the square in front of the station.
On July 16, 1941, a 31-year-old soldier who had joined the 1st Company of the 9th Guards Infantry in Tokyo set out without even fastening the red cloth belt on which the representative had been called to battle, "dressed in his usual clothes, wrapped in a bag, and his hair was not cut." Such clothing is in accordance with the instructions of the military branch in the township. He arrived at Tokyo University of Arts and Sciences (later Tokyo University of Education, now the University of Tsukuba) in Koishikawa, where four squadrons, mainly reserve officers, drove late at night to Shinagawa Station to the plaza of the Iwasaki mansion.
Shinagawa Station today. Photography/kawamura_lucy, Source/Figureworm Creative
"Although it is a secret march at night, perhaps somewhere leaked the news, early in the morning around the Iwasaki mansion, the people who sent off the people have gathered on the human wall. Family members flocked to see them and say goodbye to them. "The gendarmes drove the crowd. The soldiers initially walked toward Shinagawa Station in the order of formation, "outside the four columns of soldiers, several layers of human walls surged inward." Even if you see family and friends, you can't talk or mess up the queue.
Shortly after the outbreak of the war of aggression against China, presumably at the request of the army, the Ministry of Railways issued an order prohibiting ordinary people from sending off the troops inside the station when the army set out. Waving the flag of the Sun's Pill and squeezing to the car window to take care of other scenes, it is no longer allowed.
The exception may be when returning home. Yukio Aoshima said in "Everything on Earth", Jiro Aoyama, returned from the Chinese battlefield and arrived at Shinagawa Station on March 1, 1940. Uchinaka, the port from which he returned to China, sent a telegram in advance, so the family and neighbors came to the arrival platform of Shinagawa Station to greet him.
In any case, the people who sent off were desperately crowding in front of the station. It is said that there are also cases of flocking to the next station. To guide the troops in, these people must first be completely restricted.
As soon as the troops entered the platform, the headquarters personnel used the loudspeakers on the platform to shout out instructions for the whole team and the assembly. The train enters Platform 4 line 8 40 minutes before departure time. The troops were divided according to the number of passengers carried by the passengers, and the people sent in advance informed the respective teams of the passenger cars to be taken. Each queue is in four horizontal lines, and then the loudspeaker gives instructions to "get on the train" and the teams begin to get on the train. The first person to come gets on the bus first, opens the window in the middle of the bus, and takes place in the order set.
Soldiers were required to place their weapons and equipment next to their seats or on shelves. So you can sit down. The transport commander would then order the shutters to be "closed," perhaps for secrecy, but more importantly to separate the soldiers from the crowded send-off lines at the next station.
Of course, the departure platform is forbidden to enter without the permission of the commander, except for the transport of relevant attendants, guards, gendarmes, police officers and military personnel above the rank of adjutant. Trains with shutters (often used by wooden coaches at the time) or curtains, of course, did not have signs showing the destination. From the window is not visible outside, this is not the same train. The soldiers seated in the carriages sent eight attendants to carry the bento boxes in each carriage.
The tram carriages on the Yamanote Line today. Photography/kawamura_lucy, Source/Adobe Stock Figureworm Ideas
In the Actual Instruction Book, a "Bento Contractor List" was produced for each line of Tokaido, Sanyo, Tohoku (south of Sendai), Tokiwa, Chuo (east of Shiojiri), Sobu, and Narita (from Chiba Station to Narita Station) according to the "Bento Supply Stations centered on Shinagawa". From this, you can know the production capacity of each store, the soup and tea supply equipment it has, whether it has experience in making military bento boxes, whether it has related equipment and equipment scale, and the scope of supply of other stations. At Shinagawa Station, Shinagawa's Tokiwa-ken, Shinjuku's Tanaka, and Obun's Obun-kun are the main bento providers.
There is a boiling water place in the station to supply boiling water hot tea. It can burn one stone and five buckets (about 288.6 liters) at a time, spend nearly two hours, burn 20 stones (about 3608 liters) in a day and night, and can replenish about 4000 people. The work of boiling water depends on the "assistance" of the station, and the collection and transportation of water is the responsibility of each bento shop.
After the bento and boiling water hot tea are replenished, the train waits to depart. There is no farewell flag, no Hinomaru flag, and no sound of "Long live". People who occasionally see the train from other platforms, or from a train that happens to pass by, even if they understand that the train is a military train, have to pretend that they don't know anything. Because it was not known where plainclothes gendarmes and police would be watching, they could not point or make a sound.
Even if you think that it is you who will leave tomorrow, even if you think that your husband will leave like that, you must never make a sound, and you must maintain a posture of complete ignorance. If a sigh is issued, even if it is only a temporary emotional outpouring, it will be regarded as "war-weary and anti-war"; if it refers to pointing and counting the number of carriages, it will undoubtedly be regarded as a spy, so it can only pretend not to care.
The train drove out in silence, and people could only send off in silence, which was the departure of the military train. The Modern History of the Soldier records that "the crowd rushed in toward the platform." So "the gendarmes shouted, forbidding people to go near the train, and the shutters of the freight cars were quickly closed." After the departure, the soldiers quietly bowed their heads, and the family members clinged to the other silent voices, but they still heard it from the root of their ears."
History of the fourth platform
The fourth platform of Shinagawa Station thus sent off the military train. Not only the send-off, but also the military train on which the returnees are riding will also enter the platform. However, after the start of the Pacific War, most of the soldiers who returned to China had become wounded or left bones. The Practical Guide gives detailed instructions on how to treat these wounded and bones. As for the so-called demobilized train after the war, the army had disintegrated, so the parking lot command that was supposed to greet them no longer existed.
In addition, Shinagawa Station is also responsible for sending horses and cargo. Military trains sometimes transport people and equipment (horses) together, and sometimes transport goods separately. The former consists of 3-10 buses and about 30 trucks; in the latter case, the personnel special train is composed of 15 buses, and the equipment (horse) special train is composed of 30 trucks. The former has a sending capacity of 12 trips a day in Shinagawa, the latter is 24 trips a day for military buses and 24 trips a day for military vans. When passengers and freight are mixed, the situation of 12 trains is that "the lines and equipment in the station can only change cars across the main line, and according to the current situation, the number of times ordinary trains and trams are frequently interfered with, and the capacity cannot be fully utilized", and the operation of trains in the station is restricted. Trucks grouped on the coast side stop at platform 4 and must also cross the downlink line when transferring passenger cars from platform 4 to the downlink main line or transit platform (downlink center line of trucks). In terms of the effective length of the line, Line 8 has 361 meters (18 buses of 20 meters long), and the length of the main and central lines of trucks is 465 meters (60 sections of trucks). The effective length of the wagon line is particularly long, and the practice of allowing the soldiers to transfer the passenger cars to the downward line of the wagons after the ride is more convenient for the train to be grouped. Because the military trains are grouped according to "trains destined for Wave Speed, Osaka Port, Kobe Port, Hiroshima Ukan, etc., in the order of passenger cars, horses loaded with covered cars, and other trucks (in principle, the Tokaido downward bus is in front and the truck is in the back)". Just like this, when going down, the bus is in front and the truck is in the back. If the truck is transferred to the fourth platform and the transferred truck is withdrawn to the Tokyo side, it is necessary to avoid the buses transferred from the bus dispatch yard also on the Tokyo side. If the bus is transferred to the downward line of the truck, it is only necessary to fix the truck on the downward line, withdraw the bus to the side of Kobe, and then connect with the truck.
Aerial view of Shinagawa Station and buildings in Tokyo. Photography / Jovannig, source / Adobe Stock Figureworm Creative
In this case, the way to retreat is to let the soldiers ride first and then transfer the group to the truck line (both uplink and downlink lines) to retreat. Line 8 of course has the uplink (Tokyo direction) and downlink (Kobe direction) lines of the Tokaido Passenger Line, and the downlink (Shin-Tsurumi direction) line where trucks can start directly has also been built [cargo up (Shiodome direction) only need to be withdrawn to the Shin-Tsurumi direction of the uplink line and then turn around].
For military trains that need to be adapted, setting up the line in this way is the most efficient. However, these changes and changes have created obstacles to the tokaido passenger downline, cargo uplink and downlink line, and it can only be said that the transportation efficiency is extremely low.
Regarding the volume of railway transportation, according to the "History of Transportation in Korea" (1986), the "Emergency Officers' Meeting of Fresh Manchurian Special Transport" was held in Fengtian (Shenyang) on July 15. This is a meeting between Mantetsu and the Railway Bureau of the Governor-General's Office of North Korea. According to this, with Busan, Masan, and Yeosu as the unloading ports in North Korea, after July 21, 40-car freight trains (converted into 24 knots) pulled by Mega locomotives traveled north more than a day.
The steerable wagons of the Mantetsu or the Governor's Palace of Korea have a capacity of 43.5 tons per carriage, 1,044 tons per 24 carriages, and a daily transport capacity of 15,000 or 6,000 tons. Based on the estimated transportation volume in the last month after late July, the rough statistics can reach about 400,000 tons. If a 1,000-towed truck is running in Japan, it can be considered that there are more than a dozen trains running every day. In addition, from the perspective of soldiers, if you transport 400,000 people a month, you must transport about 13,000 people every day. Each train carries about 1,000 passengers, and when transported by military bus, there must be 14-15 trips per day.
In short, military trucks and buses cannot achieve such mobilization transportation if they do not run about 30 times.
This transport had a decisive influence on the state of the fourth platform of Shinagawa Station and in the years that followed. Plans to use the fourth platform as an uplink line to the Tokaido were discontinued, followed by the outbreak of the Pacific War, and in July of the following year, even the construction of the line from Tokyo Station to Shinagawa Station was suspended.
Until the end of the Pacific War, platform IV was used as a military delivery platform.
After World War II, in April 1953, the first platform of the counterclockwise line of the Yamanote Line ceased to be used, with the original second platform as the first platform for the clockwise and counterclockwise lines of the Yamanote Line, the original third platform as the second platform was used by the south and north of the Keihin Tohoku Line, and the original fourth platform was renamed the third platform for the uplink line of Tokaido passengers. The fourth platform is vacant.
On December 15, 1960, a new fourth platform was established between the third platform (formerly the fourth platform) and the fifth platform, which was put into use as a temporary departure platform for year-end trains in the direction of Tohoku, Okuwa, and Pan-etsu. The fourth platform, along with the fifth platform, serves as a temporary train to send the platform regeneration. In this way, from the history of the changes of the fourth platform, we can read the series of experiences of the transformation of Sagawa Station and the setbacks encountered in the transformation caused by the war.
This article is authorized by the publishing house and excerpted from "The History of Japanese Stations: Modern Railways as Public Spaces"——
A History of Stations in Japan: Modern Railways as Public Spaces
Author: [Japanese] Katsumasa Harada
Translator: Ye Xiaoyao
Social Science Literature Publishing House January 2022
Authorized by the publisher
END
Author | Katsumasa Harada