League to Raise the Political Consciousness of Japanese Troops

The League to Raise the Political Consciousness of Japanese Troops (日本兵士覚醒同盟) was a Japanese resistance organization formed in 1939 in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was made up of small groups of Japanese soldiers taken prisoner by the Eighth Route Army. This was the first Japanese resistance organization made up of Japanese prisoners of war (POWs) in the Communist areas. One year before, Sanzo Nosaka formed his Japanese People's Emancipation League in the Chinese Communist stronghold of Yan'an. These Japanese resistance organizations soon grew in areas held by the Eighth Route Army. By April 1944, 220 members of these organizations were engaged in propaganda work against Japanese Imperial Forces.