✨ The Paradox of Politeness and Brutality

Japan is a society often admired for its intense social order, humility, and almost pathological politeness. People bow instead of argue. Conflicts are defused through silence, not aggression. And yet, this same culture birthed one of the most feared and sadistic military police forces in 20th century history: the Kempeitai.

For American readers unfamiliar with the term, the Kempeitai were Japan’s military police from the late 19th century through World War II. Nominally tasked with enforcing discipline and protecting national security, they became infamous for arbitrary arrests, torture, forced confessions, and ideological cleansing. In occupied territories—especially Korea, China, and Southeast Asia—they operated as a kind of unregulated secret police. Their mission wasn’t law enforcement. It was control through fear.

🕵️ ICE and the Specter of Historical Repetition

What does this have to do with the United States and ICE?

Everything.

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) was created in the wake of 9/11, as part of a national security reorganization. But its operational focus has increasingly drifted from security toward the use of psychological fear as a compliance tool—targeting undocumented workers, not employers, and using militarized raids that disproportionately affect the poor, the brown, and the voiceless.

Despite this, ICE does not conduct high-profile raids at elite institutions. You won’t see agents in tactical gear storming a country club kitchen in a wealthy neighborhood or seizing workers from a Fortune 500 retailer. Instead, they hit mom-and-pop restaurants, construction crews, and trailer parks. Not because those are the biggest offenders—but because they can.

Why? Because status insulates. Because real enforcement would trigger political backlash. Because it’s easier to terrify the vulnerable than to confront power.

⚠️ How Institutions Turn Cruel

This is where the real danger lies. Institutions like ICE don’t fall into cruelty—they recruit into it. The more visible the tactics of domination become, the more they attract a specific kind of personality: men drawn to power displays, unbothered by moral ambiguity, and thrilled by the optics of control. The empathetic quietly walk away. What remains is a culture increasingly shaped by those who enjoy the work—not in spite of the fear it causes, but because of it. Over time, enforcement morphs into ideology, and cruelty into identity.

And once that loop takes hold, cruelty stops being a mistake. It becomes policy.

The parallels to the Kempeitai are not exact. But they are real. The Kempeitai started as law enforcers and became instruments of state terror, powered not just by command, but by culture. ICE is still in its early stages—but the signs are flashing red:

• Tactical raids meant to intimidate rather than apprehend.
• Public confusion between legality and performative enforcement.
• A labor market that depends on undocumented workers while criminalizing their existence.
• A recruiting pattern that favors domination over empathy.

ICE is not yet the Kempeitai. But the vector is visible. And it won’t correct itself.

❗ A Warning, Not a Prediction

The question isn’t “Can ICE turn into the Kempeitai?” They can.

The question is: What will stop them?

Something had better.