Lady Kaalratri: special intelligence officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Tokubetsu-keibi-tai — the literal translation being, “Corps of Special Navy Police.” Originally in charge of personnel, discipline and records from 1881 to 1945, by the outbreak of WW2 its officers were being used in both the fields of espionage and as a secret police force, much like Nazi Germany’s Gestapo. It was only one of three branches of the empire’s military that sided with Admiral Yamamoto in his attempt to prevent Tojo and the War Cabinet to bomb Pearl Harbor and begin the war against the United States. After Yamamoto’s death many of the Tokubetsu-keibi-tai’s top officers were executed as being “corrupting influences” upon the war’s effort.

The background image shows the Imperial Japanese submarine I-111 sinking the Duch passenger liner, Amsterdam, during the last days of World War 1.