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The Imperial Way Faction (皇道派 ''kōdōha'') was a Japan ese Right-wing Nationalist political grouping, active in the 1930s and early 1940s. It was the political wing for the Japanese military, aiming to establish the military government. It was largely supported by junior officers of the Imperial Japanese Army , and promoted Totalitarianism , Militarism and Expansionism in its doctrine. One of the founders was Sadao Araki , leader of the movement. Hideki Tojo , leader of the opposing military faction leader, became the effective Dictator of Japan in 1941, with command of Imperial forces during the first periods of the Pacific War , until the Saipan disaster in 1944. HISTORY Political environment The origins of the party began in the 1920s as the Samurai disappeared and officer groups began to take their place in the Japanese military. Officer groups, such as the Double Leaf Society , were formed with the fanatical beliefs of Ultranationalism and the need to purge the Chōshū elements of the army. The Army became divided between the Kodoha (Imperial Way Faction) led by then Colonel Sadao Araki and the '' Toseiha '' (Control Group) led by General Kazushige Ugaki . The groups would eventually merge and incorporate ideas from Right-wing , Fascist ideologies and political philosophies. Influences were Kita Ikki and Nakano Seigo , amongst others. It drew on the secret political societies of the 1920s. Together, both groups formed a political movement to gain power by democratic elections, or if necessary, by force. The Imperial Japanese Navy also encountered a split within. Faced with the limits imposed by the Washington Armaments Conference of 1921, the Navy split into two factions, the Fleet Faction and the Treaty Faction . Despite this, the civilian government during the 1920s managed to keep the Military groups in check. In 1928, Osachi Hamaguchi became the new prime minister and the public’s initial confidence in him allowed Hamaguchi's to successfully challenge the military radicals and get the London Naval Conference of 1930 treaty ratified. However, Hamaguchi fell victim to an assassination attempt when he was shot on November 14 , 1930 . The assassin was Tomeo Sagoya , a member of the Aikoku-sha (Love of Country Association), another Ultranationalist secret sect. Hamaguchi survived but was hospitalized for several months. He returned to his post in March 1931 but resigned a month later. In the following years tensions within the country began to rise. The country was in the midst of the Great Depression and early conflicts of the Second Sino-Japanese War were beginning. The target was the overt Colonization of Manchuria and other key parts of China . Shortly the Kwantung Army took matters into its own hands, and moved through Manchuria . Japan and U.S. relations began to sour as the U.S. opposed Japan's territorial acquisitions. Japanese military politics The Kodoha faction was a political wing of the Imperial Armed Forces . The real idea of the Army militarists, in the Right-wing line, was a return to the old Shogunate system, but in the form of a modern Military Shogunate . Real power would fall to a leader, very similar to a Führer or Duce . On the other hand, the Navy militarists defended the Emperor and a monarchical constitution. For them the religious aspect was significant. The Showa Emperor was an important Nationalist symbol, taking its place in the constructed State Shintoism . Subjects believed him to be the supreme leader, with power to promote or dismiss in central government. The popular image was that he was well advised and had proper authoritative power, when in fact fictional advisers without real function. Industrialists and militarism At same time, the capitalist groups or '' Zaibatsu '' (principally Mitsubishi , Mitsui , Sumitomo , Yasuda ) envisioned themselves as the Krupp s of the future. Raw Materials were a major concern. Fumimaro Konoye pressed social concerns, and the need for capital, as a planned expansionist mission. As World War II the reasons for the war, in hindsight, were largely Economic . The seizure or protection of Spheres Of Influence , the maintenance of Territorial Integrity , the acquisition of Raw Materials , and new Asian markets for commercial opportunities were all reasons. Western nations, notably Britain , France , and the United States , had exhibited great interest in the commercial opportunities in China and other parts of Asia . These opportunities had attracted Western investment for the exploitation of Raw Materials for the manufacture of products not only for domestic consumption but for export of finished goods back to the Orient . These opportunities were eyed covetously by Japan through what was to become known as the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere . Rise to power In a close to chaotic political (and economic and social) situation, the military were considered politically "clean" in terms of Political Corruption . They assumed responsibility for 'restoring' the security of the nation. The armed forces took up criticism of the traditional Democratic parties and regular government for many reasons. They were also closely aware of the effects of economic depression on the middle and lower classes, as well as the Communist threat. The economic growth the Zaibatsu groups had enjoyed during WWI ended in the early 1920s, as the wartime levels of production drove down prices. Radical leftists in the Labor Unions ( Syndicalist s, and Communists with Soviet outside support), came in the wake of Japan 's Industrial birth, attracting Violence and Social Unrest to their causes. The military saw danger and decided to take action. Under the Peace Preservations Acts (mid-1920s), the '' Kempeitai '' and other police and government security groups started to crack down on the unrest, that would last until the beginning of World War II . During this time the Army began to accumulate much more power. Secret societies began to flourish, and the Kwantung Army and the ''Kempeitai'' became largely autonomous. SADAO ARAKI ERA Araki Sadao was an important figurehead and "political and thinking father" of the Kodoha party (Imperial Way Faction). He was opposed by the '' Toseiha '' (Control Group) led by General Kazushige Ugaki . He linked the ancient ('' Bushido '' code) and European Fascist ideals ( Japanese Fascism ), to form the ideological basis of the Showa Nationalism movement. In September 1932, Totalitarianism , Militarism , and Expansionism were to becoming the rule and fewer voices would be able even to speak against it. In a news conference Araki first mentioned the philosophy of "''Kodoha''" (The Imperial Way). The concept of ''Kodo'' linked the Emperor , the People , Land and Morality as one and indivisible. This led to the creation of a "new" Shinto and increased Emperor worship. Araki also devised '' Seishin Kyoiku '' (spiritual training) for the army and the '' Kikosaku '' security doctrine of the Kempeitai . The State was being transformed into a creation that served the Army and the Emperor, while the Army transformed into a Fanatic al force. Symbolically, the '' Katana '' sword came back into fashion as the Martial embodiment of these beliefs, and the Nambu Pistol became its contemporary equivalent. HIDEKI TOJO ERA Hideki Tojo , the Minister Of War , tried to maintain control over the Army . In this respect, he had the reputation for being been the most able War Minister, and with the best results, since the outbreak of the Manchurian Incident in 1931. After the February 26 Incident of 1936, Tojo did his best to eliminate the Emperor's Distrust of the Army. The views of Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe and of Tojo clashed. Konoe was planning to bring the parleys with the United States to a successful close, by agreeing to the Withdrawal of Japanese troops from China . Tojo, on the other hand, regarded this course of action as leading to the utter Nullification of Japan's Continental Policy , and he strongly opposed it. The difference in opinion gathered intensity after October 1941. Tojo spoke of the need to resolve upon war and urged such a policy to the Prime Minister. The differences between Tojo and Konoe finally led to the fall of the Prince's third cabinet. Tojo, who represented the "tough" militarists and Right-wing elements, was then recommended to head the succeeding government. The signal for war in the Pacific was given on August 26 , 1941, at a session of the Black Dragon Society in Tokyo. At this meeting, War Minister Hideki Tojo ordered that preparation be made to wage a Total War against the armed forces of the United States , and that Japanese guns be mounted and supplies and munitions concentrated in the Marshall and Caroline groups of islands by November, 1941. Approving Tojo's war orders, former Foreign Minister Koki Hirota , head of the Black Dragons secret services, discussed the advantages and consequences of a conflict with the United States. Many of those at the meeting considered December, 1941, or February, 1942, the most suitable time for Japan to attack. During September 1941 the situation worsened with continued sanctions imposed against Japanese trade and became irreversibly worse in October 1941, when Hideki Tojo became the Kodoha party leader. At the same time he also became Japanese Prime Minister. He stated that he would "start the war with America, and after sixty days reshuffle the cabinet and become a great dictator". On November 5, 1941, Prime Minister Tojo revealed to his inner circle that he felt war was increasingly certain to happen. A plan was drawn up by Army and Navy chiefs of staff . The Japanese military hierarchy planned a line of defense based on islands stretching from Rabaul in the Bismarck Archipelago to the Kuriles north of Japan, intending to swallow and digest the insular possessions of France , Britain , Holland , Australia , the Portuguese , and the United States. They would also finish off the Chinese with the notorious Twenty-One Demands . The " Indies " was crucial to the Japanese conquest planners. Without it, any embargo placed against Japan would be detrimental to the country. On November 26, 1941, the United States proposed an agreement between them and Japan in the Hull Note . The Japanese Government decided not to comply with the demands listed. Due to events already put in motion, Japanese aircraft carriers leave that day for Pearl Harbor. At the Imperial Conference of December 1, it was determined to engage in open war against the United States , Great Britain , and the Netherlands . Although the Government decided upon hostilities, it had no concrete plan for bringing the war to an end. On Sunday December 7, the Imperial Japanese Navy attached the American military base at [[Pearl Harbor. The elements of total war were revealed by the undeclared surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Elated by these early successes Admiral Yamamoto , the Chief of the Combined Fleet, convinced his superiors to expand further including the objectives of Midway , the Aleutians , and the Solomons , expanding the thin line of sea communications dangerously thinner. Individual Japanese commanders of the new "Rising Sun Empire of Asia" would go off on wild hunts to enhance their name after easy conquests unrelated to any overall strategic plan and was categorised as " Victory Disease " by the Japanese themselves. On February 16, 1942, as the war raged on, British diplomats secretly proposed a peace deal with Japan. A possible agreement was that if Great Britain formally recognized the authority of imperial Japan over Northern China and Manchuria , the Japanese would give Britain Sovereignty over the Malay Peninsula and Singapore. TOHO KAI AND KODOHA At the same time as war, a Political confrontation was in progress between the Toho kai party and the Kodoha party. This was possibly the last internal political power struggle in the government before the Midway and Coral Sea defeats in 1943 ; which sent the Japanese Military reeling. The Ultranationalist Toho kai party was led by Nakano Seigo who appeared to have some political influence at the time and expressed his outright support and confidence for Japanese Navy. He anxiously awaited the approval of the peace talks, so as to stabilize the recent conquests in Southeast Asia . Seigo also wanted to prevent any further sacrifices by the Japanese people towards the war effort, and pressured the government to halt the ambitious conquest of Asia. Tojo, leading Kodoha party, reasoned that the successes in recent campaigns in Southeast Asia were extremely rapid, and continuation of the conquests could lead to gaining most of Asia and Australia before the United States and the Allies could react to the so-called Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere . He rejected any form of peace. This angered and frustrated the Toho Kai until Seigo finally committed suicide on October 27 , 1943 . When Japan rejected such peace agreements, the imperial empire lost the opportunity to maintain their new territories in the long term. Japan was unable to reinforce the defensive infantries, which allowed the United States to launch counter-offensives by 1943. This decision by Tojo ultimately led to the downfall of Japan in World War II. TOJO AND WWII Emporer Hirohito appointed General Hideki Tojo to be assume a second role Chief of the General Staff on February 21, 1944. Despite the military authorities' justification, for a War Minister simultaneously to assume the position of Chief Of Staff was unprecedented since the inception of the independent General Staff in March 1889. People within began to argue that Tojo’s operational demands had begun to overpower the management of affairs of state, and were beginning to influencing national policy. There were a few, however, who favored Tojo’s new role, on the grounds that it expedited Imperial General Headquarters (IGHQ) affairs. In addition there was another pronounced opinion that the synchronization of state policy and High Command matters urgently demanded utmost efforts to diminish the rivalry between the Army and the Navy. As Minister of War, Tojo's attitude toward Army circles was severity personified; but toward the Navy he appeared markedly deferent. This was due to his opinion that Army-Navy co-operation was absolutely essential to the prosecution of the war. He showed respect for Navy intentions and was cautious even on trivial matters might, in order that cooperation between the two services might be improved even slightly. Because of the American task force assault upon Truk , Tojo (as Minister of War) learned that Pacific ground defenses in the Navy’s area of responsibility were extremely tenuous. He believed that the primary cause for the current state of affairs could be traced to the lack of rapport between the Army and the Navy. When he was appointed Chief of the General Staff and Admiral Shigetaro Shimada was named Chief of the Naval General Staff, Tojo took advantage of the opportunity to institute measures for the promotion of Army-Navy operational collaboration. With the institution of regular conferences, working relationships between the High Commands of both services were greatly facilitated. The meetings also proved so useful in obtaining mutual understanding that joint matters of operations and tactics were generally resolved faster than ever before. Thereafter the conferences were held regularly until the end of the War, regardless of changes in the government. DOWNFALL OF THE TOJO CABINET On July 18, 1944, after grave failures in the Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal , and The Saipan disaster the Tojo Cabinet fell. The ostensible cause was Cabinet disunity, but the inside reason (prevalent within Army circles) was that after the failure of the Marianas Campaign many had become “anti-Tojo,” which intensified among the elder statesmen, senior Navy officers, and the Emperor's intimates. Two days after the resignation of the Tojo Government, General Kuniaki Koiso and Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai received an Imperial mandate to form a new Cabinet. Marshal Gen Sugiyama took over the role of War Minister. In that same period, General Kuniaki, received the leadership role in Kodoha party, for command all political and ideological works in such party, alongside of Kantaro Suzuki , who later assumed the last command in movement. It was widely known that Sugiyama had been graduated from the army war college together with Premier Koiso and that there had been a clamor for him to assume the role of War Minister. With the resignation of the Tojo Cabinet, the Chief of the Army General Staff was reshuffled. General Yoshijiro Umezu (as Tojo s partner), till then the Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army , became Chief of Staff on July 18. It was expected that General Umezu would exercise sound command, although there was some feeling that the present stage of the war required rather more resolute authority. In general, however, there was a strong atmosphere of confidence in the ability of the new Chief of Staff. At almost the same time that the Tojo Cabinet resigned, the assassination of Hitler ( July 20 Plot ) was being attempted in Germany. The July 20 Plot gave the Japanese Army the impression that Party problems were a cancer in the German conduct of the war. In Japan, on the other hand, Army circles had the growing feeling that the structural problem involving antagonism between the Japanese Army and the Japanese Navy constituted the greatest obstacle to the prosecution of hostilities. There were growing indications of a desire on the part of War Minister Sugiyama and Chief of Staff Umezu to devote serious effort toward solving the problem of Army-Navy rivalry. THE LAST PARTY CHIEFS AND PRIME MINISTERS The final party chiefs and Prime Ministers were Koiso Kuniaki and Kantaro Suzuki , in 1944-45. The former was from the Fall Of Saipan in summer 1944, and the latter from the Japanese defeat in the Battle Of Okinawa . It was abolished, with the other nationalist organizations, by the Allied occupation authorities in 1945. POLITICAL STRUCTURE IN THE MOVEMENT The 'Kodoha party', like any political movement, had a structure. The highest placed were the secretary general and supreme party leader (first Sadao Araki , later Hideki Tojo and Koiso Kuniaki ) and their leading group or "directorate" (political cabinet). The most important founders and party associates included also Jinsaburo Mazaki , Heisuke Yanagawa , Hideyoshi Obata , Kazushige Ugaki , Gen Sugiyama , Yoshijiro Umezu , and Tetsuzan Nagata . Doctrines came also from the middle and lower party members (see Japanese Doctrines In The Showa Period ). Influence and contact with real power and central government institutions (and overseas also) was a constant concern. Important institutional links were with the Imperial Young Federation , under Kingoro Hashimoto and the "Political Department" of the '' Kempeitai ''. Amongst the ''himitsu kessha'' (secret societies), the Kokuryu-kai (Black Dragon Society), and Kokka Shakai Shugi Gakumei (the National Socialist League ) were close, and a source of less scrupulous supporters. The '' Tonarigumi '' (residents committee) groups, the Nation Service Society (national government Trade Union ) and Imperial Farmers Association were all allied. The state religious and educational systems were also targets. Direct links with Army and Navy political sections supported the formation of similar Right-wing movements in all the occupied lands of the early Pacific War . SEE ALSO |
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