The , also known as Kempeitai, was the military police or gendarmerie of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945 that also served as a secret police force. In addition, in Japanese-occupied territories, the Kenpeitai arrested or killed those suspected of being anti-Japanese. While institutionally part of the army, the Kenpeitai also discharged military police functions for the Imperial Japanese Navy under the direction of the Admiralty Minister (although the IJN had its own much smaller Tokkeitai), those of the executive police under the direction of the Home Minister and those of the judicial police under the direction of the Justice Minister. A member of the Kenpeitai corps was called a kenpei (憲兵). History The Kenpeitai was established in 1881 by a decree called the , figuratively "articles concerning gendarmes". Its model was the National Gendarmerie of France. Details of the Kenpeitai's military, executive, and judicial police functions were defined by the Kenpei Rei of 1898, which was amended twenty-six times before Japan's defeat in August 1945. The force initially consisted of 349 men. At the beginning, enforcement of new conscription legislation was an important part of their duty, largely due to resistance from peasant families. In 1907, the Kenpeitai was ordered to Korea, where its main duty was legally defined as "preserving the peace", although it also functioned as a military police for the Japanese Army stationed there. Its status remained basically unchanged after Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910. The Kenpeitai maintained public order within Japan under the direction of the Interior Minister, and in the occupied territories under the direction of the Minister of War. Japan also had a civilian secret police force, Tokkō, which was the Japanese acronym of Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu ("Special Higher Police", also known by various nicknames such as the Peace Police and as the Thought Police) that was part of the Interior Ministry. However, the Kenpeitai had a Tokkō branch of its own, and through it discharged the functions of a secret police. When the Kenpeitai arrested a civilian under the direction of the Justice Minister, the arrested person was nominally subject to civilian judicial proceedings. The Kenpeitai's brutality was particularly notorious in Korea and the other occupied territories. The Kenpeitai were also abhorred on the Japanese mainland, especially during World War II when Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, formerly the Kenpeitai Commander of the Japanese Army in Manchuria from 1935 to