Jiangtian Island is located at the southern end of Seto Inland Sea and belongs to Hiroshima Prefecture. At the beginning of Meiji Restoration, under the guidance of the policy of "enriching Qiang Bing", Japan established a modern navy, and in 1876, it renamed the Naval Academy. The modern Japanese navy was established by imitating the most powerful British navy in the world at that time. Not only did its military teaching content draw lessons from the British navy, but even the bricks used by Jiangtian Island Naval School were shipped from Britain. The only difference is that while learning modern naval tactics, techniques and western-style diplomatic etiquette, the Japanese navy's daily training and management are particularly strict and even cruel, and it attaches great importance to the education of Bushido spirit for students in naval schools, highlighting their loyalty to the emperor and their sense of aggression and expansion. This kind of education is called "the spirit of Jiangtian Island". It is the spiritual pillar of the Japanese navy. The Jiangtian Island Naval School has trained a large number of key talents for the Japanese navy, from which the famous Isoroku Yamamoto graduated. It can be said that Jiangtian Island Naval School is the starting point of modern Japanese naval construction. What is the Edo Island Naval School doing today?
Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force's personnel training is mainly accomplished through military academies and military training. The former trains basic knowledge and skills, while the latter not only trains higher-level practical ability, but also observes the process of selecting key officers.
Training in military academies is divided into five grades according to ranks: soldiers, reserve noncommissioned officers, noncommissioned officers, reserve officers and officers. According to the content, it can be divided into two categories: general education training and technical training; According to the curriculum, it can be divided into junior, middle and advanced. Among them, the officer course occupies the core position.
Schools participating in the training of officers of the Maritime Self-Defense Force include Defense University, Joint Staff School and Defense Research Institute directly under the Ministry of Defense, as well as naval cadre schools, naval cadre candidate schools, 1 ~ 4 technical schools, teaching teams and training fleets under local teams. Usually, if Japanese high school students want to be officers, they will be admitted to the National Defense University of the Self-Defense Force first. Different from the way of training junior officers according to the services and arms in China, the National Defense University in Tokyo is the junior officer training school of the Japanese army, navy and air force, and the only non-commissioned officer school of the Self-Defense Force. After entering here, senior high school students will receive one year's education in the same subject, including physical fitness, queue, light weapons and cultural knowledge, and start teaching in different services and majors in the second year. After four years of study, undergraduates will be awarded the rank of master sergeant. If there are graduates belonging to the Maritime Self-Defense Force, most of them will be sent to the Naval Cadre Alternate School (formerly known as the Jiangtian Island Naval School) in Jiangtian Island Town, Hiroshima Prefecture. There are courses for ordinary officers, courses for medical officers and dentists and courses for alternate second lieutenants. , length of schooling 1 year. After graduation, students will be awarded the rank of second lieutenant or lieutenant and begin their internship life. Trainees are divided into two parts. Some of them will go to the Maritime Self-Defense Force to practice the fleet, with an internship time of 8 months (including about 5 months of offshore navigation internship training). The other part will go to local teams, escort teams and submarine teams for sea practice, and the time is only 1 month. However, although the former looks hard, it is a very important qualification for students in the future. The Maritime Self-Defense Force specially built three training ships for them, and conducted ocean navigation training once a year.
After the internship, these junior officers will receive 5-27 weeks of technical training according to the needs of future work. To this end, various technical schools also provide officer task courses and junior officer technical courses. 1 Technical School (located in Jiangtian Island) is responsible for weapons, mine clearance, navigation, communications and other subjects. The second technical school (located in Yokosuga) is responsible for the internal structure and control technology of ships such as motors, internal combustion engines and computers; The third technical school (located in Nagmachi, Chiba Prefecture) is responsible for naval aviation technology such as aircraft maintenance and aviation equipment; The fourth technical school is responsible for logistics, procurement, accounting and other skills. In a word, we should perform our duties and provide professional training for officers.
After that, when these junior and lieutenant are promoted to intermediate and captain, they need to receive new technical training in technical school and charge for 23 weeks 1 year; When you are promoted to captain or major (during which you need 4 or 5 years of military practice), you need technical courses for intermediate officers 1 year; If you think there is a future after graduation for four or five years, you will be sent to the Naval Cadre School in Tokyo to study the command and staff course again. This is the highest institution in Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (similar to the Nanjing Naval Command College in China), which mainly teaches the knowledge and skills needed by middle and senior naval commanders and staff officers. Only 60 captains and major officers are recruited each year for training as command and staff officers, with education 1 year. After graduation, most of these officers who become lieutenant colonel can apply for advanced courses for officers. The naval cadre school recruits 30 middle and colonel officers for advanced subject training every year. Returning to the army after graduation, these people will become the backbone of their own units. After a period of practical investigation and the selection of the chief of staff of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, two or three colonel officers will be selected every year to study the professional courses for officers (the academic system is also 1 year), focusing on a specialty related to strategy, tactics and logistics, and mastering the knowledge and skills that senior naval commanders and staff officers should possess. Of course, officers who are not selected can also have other promotion prospects, such as studying general courses at the Joint Staff School of the Self-Defense Forces or the above-mentioned Defense Research Institute.
Generally speaking, the resume of a typical captain of the Maritime Self-Defense Force is as follows: studying in the National Defense University (4 years)-studying in the Naval Officer NCO School (1 year)-fleet internship and professional study (1 year)-practical work (3-5 years)-intermediate officer course (1 year)-.
Generally speaking, the captains of the main warships of the Maritime Self-Defense Force are all colonels or lieutenant colonel. Simply calculate, it takes 15 ~ 20 years to train a captain under this system. For example, Ishikawa Hiroshi, the current chief of staff of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, was promoted to lieutenant colonel after joining the Self-Defense Force in 15, while the current captain of the destroyer Murata was promoted to captain after joining the army in 19. Moreover, in these two decades, about one-third to nearly half of the time, all levels of university training are being carried out. It can be seen that the Maritime Self-Defense Force attaches importance to the training of officers in colleges and universities. Doing so can prevent officers from aging their knowledge (especially technical officers), avoid them being submerged in specific routine work, and let them fully learn the new business development of their major at school, get in touch with the knowledge of related majors and expand their knowledge. Moreover, according to the usual experience, an officer who has worked in the same job for more than 3 or 4 years will have a certain degree of "work fatigue". Timely adjustment of work content is also of great benefit to maintaining the morale of officers in the whole army.
When an officer has been promoted to colonel, it means that he may become a senior manager of the Self-Defense Force in the future and will do a lot of work in overall management. Therefore, at this stage, his position will change frequently, for example, he will often be transferred from the surface warship unit to the aviation unit, then to the research department, and it is also possible to transfer between the local party team and the escort group. All of them are to let officials contact different jobs and accumulate experience from different departments. Moreover, the officer will also have the opportunity to get in touch with Japan's allies, such as American naval personnel, and conduct exercises with them to lay the foundation for future cooperation. Take Ishikawa Heng as an example: after he was promoted to colonel in 1986, he successively served as a teacher, researcher, director of the analysis office of the Ministry of Defense, commander of the 6th Air Force, director of the Ministry of Defense, commander of the 1st 1 Air Force, minister of the Ministry of Defense, and commander of the Education Air Force. About 10 years, almost every 1 or 2 years. Moreover, this can greatly increase the talent pool of the Self-Defense Forces, so that any post can be quickly supplemented or expanded when needed.
Of course, there is a direct result of this, that is, the leaders of various departments and units are frequently replaced. Take "Village Rain" as an example. Since the service of 1996, there have been five captains. According to general experience, the combat readiness and departmental running-in of the whole ship will inevitably be affected. (Of course, with its basic talent training system as a guarantee, this influence will not be great. However, from the point of view mentioned above, in the past six years, only one ship "Village Rain" has trained six officers with captain experience. Once the joint fleet needs to be greatly expanded one day, it can quickly get enough reserve officers, which is particularly noteworthy.
In a word, in the course of its development, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force established a system with its own characteristics, combining the western (especially British and American) officer training system. Judging from the current situation, this system has many advantages, especially in the continuous maintenance and improvement of officers' professional ability and the accumulation of officers' experience and experience.