While ordinary imperial edicts had a Chinese classics flavor, the rescript was written in the Japanese literary style with hentaigana (anomorous Japanese cursive syllabary), and military men were required to recite it despite its long passages consisting of nearly 2,700 letters and characters in total.
通常の勅語が漢文調であるのに対し、変体仮名交じりの文語体で、総字数2700字におよぶ長文であるが、軍人は暗誦できることが求められた。