History:

(Young Allies#16 - BTS) - He belonged to the Japanese royal family and entered military service during WWII. He trained a group of children in the ways of combat and indoctrinated them to be a savage suicidal fighting force to use against the Allied forces. Setting sail with his Baby Battalion in a number of submarines, he began undertaking a top secret mission. Two of his submarines were destroyed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean during transport.

(Young Allies#16) - Reaching an island occupied by US Forces, Prince Shinto swam ashore to a beach to rendezvous with Japanese soldiers who were waiting for him. He gave them orders to fight a delaying action while his troops infiltrated enemy lines. The soldiers vowed to fight to the death. A few days later, he sent two of his Baby Battalion soldiers to bomb a US airbase. The mission was successful but one of the raiders was captured. He was interrogated and a US military officer summoned the Young Allies, who were then in Australia, to investigate the matter. One day later, as the Young Allies arrived on the island, a spy alerted Prince Shinto that the Young Allies were there to hunt him down. Prince Shinto told the spy he had served his purpose and that no one alive would know of his whereabouts and had him stabbed in the back by his Baby Battalion. He then set up an ambush to capture or kill the Young Allies. Shooting Toro and capturing the others, he learnt that they were only local natives masquerading as them. He returned to his secret base and tied them up in a pit of explosives.

The real Young Allies were later attacked by a small force of Baby Battalion soldiers, who were all killed except for one who informed Prince Shinto that their base was going to be compromised. As the Young Allies freed the captive natives, they were in turn captured by Prince Shinto who, by trickery, convinced them that he had more forces about and that they were ready to destroy all the American installations even if he was to die. The Yong Allies surrendered, knowing that Toro would soon be there to set them free. Prince Shinto then left a small contingent of the Baby Battalion to blow them up as he and the rest set out to destroy the American Forces present on the island.

Toro soon arrived and set the Young Allies free before going off to attack the Mad Prince. During the melee, Prince Shinto fired a machinegun at Toro but missed him, instead setting off a massive explosion that killed himself and the rest of his Baby Battalion. Toro narrowly escaped the conflagration.

Comments: Credits unknown; Stan Lee was possibly the writer and Al Gabriele possibly provided the art.

I’m not sure if he really was a member of the Japanese Royal family or if I should just pass this off as maybe a title he had earned while in service to the Japanese military forces during WWII. He was severely scarred on top of his head and this may have been inflicted during an undefined conflict from the war or even before. He was a very despicable and evil man using children to do his suicidal missions. Japanese are very honorable and to do this act he was, in my opinion, not in the least bit honorable. Was this Baby Battalion the Japanese equivalent to the Hitler Youth from Nazi Germany? So many questions, so few answers.

The sending in of children to fight in wars is indeed despicable. However, there did not seem to be many concerns from Captain America or Allied commanders about children/minors going willingly into combat situations, such as Bucky or his Young Allies compatriots. Perhaps there are not that many differences between opponents in wartime - just the marketing. And this is only fiction and there's nothing stranger than that.--Grendel Prime

Prince Shinto could be related to Baron Shinto the Gouger (see Miss America I#1).
--Gammatotem

Profile by AvatarWarlord72.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Prince Shinto has no known connections to:

• any other "Prince" or "Shinto" characters

Baby Battalion

The Baby Battalion was a small military force of Japanese Children who were trained to fight and go on suicide missions to destroy Allied installations throughout the Pacific Theater. They were commanded by Prince Shinto and were loyal to him. Many were killed while trying to fight the Young Allies as they were nearing their base. The rest were all killed when Prince Shinto accidentally shot a box of explosives as he was shooting at Toro. None of the members of the Baby Battalion were ever named in the story.

--Young Allies#16/1

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Young Allies#16/1, p7, panel 2 (Prince Shinto)