Japanese Imperial Army

By Imperial I supose you mean 19th through 20th centuries....?

Well after the Meji restoration it was trained along German lines and thus was much like a modern european army.  Foreign observes commented on its exceptional infantry, good artillery, and somewhat lackluster cavalry.  By 1877 the samurai were no more however other than presatige through lineage.

A lot of samurai were officers in the army and navy, including general Yamagata Aritomo. As late as WW2 many officers' swords incorporated the blade of an ancestral katana

I don't have much knowledge of who the Imperial Japanese army consisted of, but I do have some obscure family knowledge of who it didn't consist of.

My grandmother was in her early teens in Imperial Japan and had older brothers.  Much to my surprise, when I asked her if any of her brothers fought in the war, she told me no.  This conflicted with the preconceived notion I had that Japanese were drafting all able-bodied men to fight by the end of the war.

She couldn't elaborate much on why they weren't drafted, other than that her father was a wealthy industrialist before the war.  According to her, he lost a lot of wealth during and after the war, but early on he was quite rich.  The family owned a sowing machine factory, among other things.  She grew up with servants in the house, who basically raised her during childhood.  Maybe he bought his sons out of military service?

I wish I had more knowledge on this part of my family, but unfortunately my grandmother was disowned by her own father for marrying my American grandfather.  She had an opportunity to marry a proper Japanese guy approved by her parents, but was rebellious and ran off to the States with my grandpa.  Although she reconciled with her brothers and sisters to some extent after the deaths of her parents, she didn't maintain relations with them.

The Japanese navy idolised the British. The officers smoked pipes and called each other "old chap." The army looked up to the Germans: Japanese soldiers grew toothbrush moustaches and took great pride in their swordsmanship

I can't remember where i read this, but i heard some Japanese officers fought duels to get facial scars like the Germans

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7_jBOpYASMQC&lpg=PA39&dq=japanese%20army%20prussian&pg=PA39#v=onepage&q&f=false

In the service of the emperor:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Rb3YvM8ZmC8C&lpg=PA1&dq=imperial%20japanese%20military&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false

Military swords of Imperial Japan
http://www.h4.dion.ne.jp/~t-ohmura/gunto_002.htm