​
|指揮 “Command”|指揮官 “Commander”|
|:-|:-|
|司令 “Command”|司令官 “Commander”|
|指令 “Command”|~~指令官~~ *Not a valid word*|
So they all mean command. Curiously, 指揮 and 司令 can both be suffixed with 官 to form “commander”, whereas I do not see an entry in Jisho for 指令官.
Because of some familiarity with gacha games and the tropes involved therein, I’m at least familiar with “shikikan”. However, I’m in the (US) Navy and was reading about some [change in leadership](https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20240215/k10014359221000.html) we had in Japanese and I noted they referred to the admirals as 司令官, which is what sent me down this rabbit hole. I’ve done some searching online, but I’m still not 100%.
I think 司令 is a more martial term but 指令 is more for general use. However I’m still left scratching my head at 指揮. The best I can come up with is it might be a generic ‘scene leader’ or ‘coordinator’ commander vs ‘big daddy with full authority’ commander. I’m reminded of how [in a lot of RTS games you are always the commander](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu2X3Fqjpgk), regardless of actual rank of promotions. In the military IRL, you might have a OIC (officer in charge) who is just the guy in charge, they could be any rank. But a real, bonafide, official commander of a unit has to check a lot of boxes and satisfy rank requirements. So maybe 指揮官 is a sort of “you might be the guy conducting the orchestra, but you don’t get to pick which songs to play’ kind of deal? That’s the domain of the 司令官? So to recap my best guesses: 指令=General use/society word? 指揮=On scene OIC? 司令=Full authority commander?
Appreciate any insight on all this.
by GiltTurbine