Kempeitai

The Kempeitai (憲兵隊 Kenpeitai) is the military police of the Imperial Army. In addition to acting as a conventional military police for the Imperial Army, the Kempeitai also acts as an internal security force for the Empire. It is the second-largest internal security organisation after the dedicated Imperial Government agency, the Imperial Security Agency.

A member of the Kempeitai is called a kempei.

Mission
The Kempeitai is primarily responsible for policing the Imperial Army and maintaining standards of discipline, as well as security of Army installations, guarding high-ranking officers and maintaining Army detention facilities.

In addition to these military roles, the Kempeitai also carries out a secondary civilian function in maintaining internal security. The Kempeitai investigates potential subversive elements in the civilian population and also carries out psychological operations, propaganda operations, counter-intelligence and counter-propaganda missions in addition to striking at subversive elements directly. These roles often overlap with those of the Imperial Security Agency, and a rivalry exists between both services.

Organization
The basic unit of organisation for the Kempeitai is the Office, a self-sustaining unit that includes security, administrative and special duties sections. Each Office has approximately 375 personnel, and is often attached to major Imperial Army bases or as standalone units to help in keeping the peace in troubled areas of the Empire. The commanding officer is a Lieutenant Colonel with a Major as the executive officer.

Each Office is divided into 65-man sections known as buntai, commanded by a Captain and 1st Lieutenant. The buntai are further divided into detachments called bunkentai, commanded by a 2nd Lieutenant and a Warrant Officer and consisting of 20 troops. Each detachment contains 5 administrative personnel and 15 men in a police squad, and are deployed to specific locations such as an entrance to a base or a troubled neighbourhood.

Special Duties
The Special Duties Section (Tokumu Han) is an elite strike force of troops geared for counterinsurgency, pacification and aggressive reconnaissance purposes. To this end, they are equipped with military-grade weaponry and body armour similar to that of the Imperial Army TokuSa's Ro-class special forces armour. A single platoon of 24 Tokumu usually accompanies every Office for high-risk situations the basic police units are unable to handle, but larger formations are not unheard of when certain operations require it.

Tokumu Kempei also often act as bodyguards for high-ranking Imperial Army officers, or provide heavy security for high-security locations.

Overseas Security Special Unit
The Overseas Security Special Unit exists to provide an internal policing department controlled by Yamatai in the Aoyama Special Administrative Zone and Jeobseon, as the Imperial Security Agency is unable to operate in a foreign nation.

Uniform
Personnel wear either the standard Imperial Formal Uniform or a patrol uniform consisting of a black shirt, pants, combat boots and a red beret. Winter variants of the patrol uniform incorporate black longcoats and fur hats. Uniformed personnel also wear a red armband on the right arm with the characters hei (兵, "soldier") and ken (憲, "law"). Personnel may also wear plain black kimonos or civilian clothing when on undercover or low-visibility duties. When in uniform, rank insignia is located on the shoulders.

When assigned to security and policing duties, police section troops may wear heavy body armour similar to that used by civilian police forces' special weapons and tactics teams. This armour incorporates a fully-enclosed helmet that protects the kempei 's entire head as well as his identity, also changing the wearer's voice.

The Special Duties Section wear a variant of the Ro-class special forces armour, painted in a colour scheme of beige and blue. Different blue markings indicate different Kempeitai units, and the fully-enclosed helmet also incorporates a voice changer to protect the wearer's identity.

Personnel can be armed with military grade weaponry, as they are a part of the Imperial Army. Officers are typically armed with a katana and pistol for officers while enlisted men carry pistols and stun batons. Junior NCOs carry a shinai especially when dealing with prisoners. Security and high-visibility units as well as the Tokumu typically carry heavier weapons like assault rifles or shotguns.