Dogs of war: Historian shows the role of canines in World War II - BYU News Skip to main content
Intellect

Dogs of war: Historian shows the role of canines in World War II

Seventy years since the United States entered World War II after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a BYU historian has a new look at an often overlooked breed of soldier.

In his book “Empire of Dogs,” Professor Aaron Skabelund goes beyond the battlefield duties of these four-legged soldiers and captures how dogs like New York City’s “Skippy” and Tokyo’s “Aren” mobilized their people to their nations’ causes.

“It may be surprising to some that dogs were used in a similar manner by all combatant countries, both Axis and Allies,” Skabelund said. “They ran messages, carried ammunition, guarded prisoners and flushed out enemy soldiers that remained in the aftermath of certain battles.”

In America, an organization called “Dogs for Defense” encouraged people to enlist their dogs in military service. The recruitment included school assemblies where the military could appeal directly to children. At Public School No. 66 in New York City, one 10-year-old girl enlisted Skippy, a shepherd-collie mix, while the rest of the student body sang “The K9 Corps” march.

For families that owned dogs too small for military specifications, Dogs for Defense provided an alternative: Sponsor another dog’s training in your pet’s name.

“In exchange for a financial donation, their dog was awarded a military rank, so Rover could become a general at the right price,” Skabelund said.

In Tokyo, a teenage girl named Teshima Tamie was similarly honored for enlisting her German shepherd puppy. A newspaper quoted her as saying, “As a woman, I cannot stand on the frontline, so I asked Aren to go fight for me.”

In his research for the book – which has a Japanese focus – Skabelund located Teshima’s own scrapbook. In it she had pasted several advertisements for the movie Sensen ni hoeyu (Barks at the battlefront). Contemporary critics of the 1936 film praised it for “moving, tear-jerking scenes” of dogs wounded after they captured an enemy spy without human help.

“Both film and literature at the time are full of stories about children who love their dogs and in the end part with them and give their dogs to the military,” Skabelund said. “Ultimately this prepared children to part with their other loved ones: their father, their brother, their son, or even to prepare themselves to go off to war.”

While the United States emerged from the war as a world superpower, Skabelund presents in another chapter how Japan became a “pet superpower,” in part through the popularity of “pure Japanese breeds,” such as the Akita and the Shiba. “Empire of Dogs” is published by Cornell University Press.

Related Articles

data-content-type="article"

Student inventors help BYU rank as a top U.S. university for newly-issued patents

May 12, 2025
Brigham Young University was just ranked as one of the Top 100 universities in the nation for most issued patents. But the new ranking from the National Academy of Inventors isn’t the story for BYU; it’s who holds the patents.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

BYU research: Your beliefs about money may reveal clues about your relationship

May 07, 2025
Everyone holds their own beliefs about money – what it’s for, how much we need and how to use it. But a new study from researchers at BYU says personal beliefs about money also shape the health of your relationship.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

BYU business professors find ‘margins of error’ in workplace correlate with unethical behavior outside workplace

April 29, 2025
Tolerance standards may lead to better outcomes in the workplace, but researchers from the BYU Marriott School of Business recently published a study in the Journal of Business Ethics showing a paradoxical effect in other ethical domains.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= promoTextAlignment=
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= promoTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText=