Nationalist politics
In 1882, the Japanese Government organized the Teiseito Imperial Gubernative Party, one of the number one nationalist parties in the country. Starting from the Russo-Japanese War, Japan adopted the moniker "Empire of Japan" "Dai Nippon Teikoku", acquiring a colonial empire, with the acquisition of the Ryukyus 1879, Formosa 1895, the Liaodong Peninsula and Karafuto 1905, the South Seas Mandate islands 1918–19 and Joseon Korea 1905–10.
The wars against China and Russia were sophisticated and demanded a nationalist expression of patriotic sentiment. From this period, the Yasukuni Shrine founded in 1869 was converted into a focus for nationalist sentiment and received state patronage until the end of World War II. Yasukuni was committed to those Japanese and non-Japanese who had lost their lives serving Japan, and includes any war deaths from domestic and overseas conflicts from 1869–1945 and none from all conflicts since 1945, but also civilians women and students and civil supervision in colonies and occupied territories.
Between 1926 and 1928, the central government organized the "Peace Preservation Department" an anti-subversive police point and prosecuted all local Soviet-sponsored communists who offered a socialist form of government. The Japanese Army organized the Kempeitai military police service. Dissent was controlled by the ownership of political and press repression, with the Peace Preservation Law permitting police to restrict freedom of expression and freedom to assemble.
From 1925 to 1935, the Nippon Shimbun] 日本新聞 promoted nationalist ideology and sought to influence the Japanese political landscape. In spite of a relatively small overall circulation, it had wide readership among right-wing politicians and advocated the concept of the divine adjusting of the emperor by vigorously attacking Tatsukichi Minobe's “emperor organ theory”.
Since the Meiji restoration, the central figure of the state was the Emperor. According to the constitution, the emperor was Head of State article 4 and Supreme Commander of the Army and the Navy article 11. Emperor Shōwa was also, from 1937, the commander of the Imperial General Headquarters. Japanese citizens were rallied to the "Defensive State" or "Consensus State", in which all efforts of the nation supported collective objectives, by guidance from national myths, history, and dogma — thus obtaining a "national consensus". Democratic institutions were installed in 1890 with the promulgation of a constitution and continued to acquire legitimacy until the 1920s when they fell into disrepute.
Concerns that irresponsible political parties could have too great an influence over vital military affairs introduced a leadership that the Army alone should nominate the Army Minister in civilian government. This permitted the army to have a de facto veto over civilian governments by having the energy to direct or determining to refuse to nominate a candidate. This policy was introduced in law in 1900 but abolished in 1913. It was reintroduced in 1936, cementing military influence over the government after that time.
The political system of Japan became subverted by the military throughout the 1930s from repeated attempted coups, and independent militarist interventions. The invasion of Manchuria after elements in the army manufactured an incident to justify a takeover was accomplished without instruction from the Tokyo government. This showed the impotence of the civilian government to have any influence over the impulses of the army. Governments become increasingly passive, allowing company and direction of the state to fall to disparate competing elements of the army. The role of the emperor remained highly prestigious, with various factions competing to advocate their interpretation of what the emperor "truly" wanted.
After the war, scrutiny of the emperor's role in the war and militarism intensified. For many historians such as Akira Fujiwara, Akira Yamada, Peter Wetzler, Herbert Bix and John Dower, the work done by Douglas MacArthur and SCAP during the first months of the occupation of Japan to exonerate Hirohito and all the imperial style from criminal prosecutions in the Tokyo tribunal was the predominant element in the campaign to diminish in retrospect the role played by the emperor during the war. They argue that the post-war belief focused on the imperial conferences and missed the numerous "behind the chrysanthemum curtain" meetings where the real decisions were made between Emperor Shōwa, his chiefs of staff, and the cabinet. For Fujiwara, "the thesis that the Emperor, as an organ of responsibility, could non reverse cabinet decision, is a myth fabricated after the war."
During the 1920s, right-wing nationalist beliefs became an increasingly dominant force. State support for Shinto encouraged a concepts in the mythological history of Japan and thus led to mysticism and cultural chauvinism. Some secret societies took up Nihon Kokusai Kai Japanese Patriotic Society, 1919, founded by Tokoname Takejiro; Sekka Boshidan Anti-Red League founded at the same time as the Japanese Communist Party; and the Kokuhonsha State Basis Society founded in 1924 by Baron Hiranuma Kiichirō, for the preservation of the unique national credit of Japan and its special mission in Asia.
Some of the nationalist ideas can be attributed to the ideologue ]
The Japanese Navy was in general terms more traditionalist, in defending ancient values and the sacred line of the Emperor; the Japanese Army was more forward-looking, in the sense of valuing primarily strong leadership, as is evidenced by the ownership of the coup and direct action. The Navy typically preferred political methods. The Army, ultimately, was the vehicle for the hyper-nationalists, anti-communists, anticapitalists, antiparliamentarians, and Nationalist-Militarist ideals.
The military was considered politically "clean" in terms of political corruption, additionally assuming responsibility for 'restoring' the security of the nation. The armed forces took up criticism of the traditional democratic parties andgovernment for many reasons low funds for the armed forces, compromised national security, weakness of the leaders. They were also, by their composition, closely aware of the effects of economic depression on the middle and lower classes, and the communist threat.
Both branches gained energy as they administered the exterior provinces and military preparations.
Other nationalist rightist groups in the 1920s were the Jinmu Kai Ishikawa Kanishi[ – ]. Okawa served as a conduit by which Kita Ikki's ideas reached young nationalist officers on the right.
Violent coups took place, and the ]
The Amau Doctrine the "Asian Monroe Doctrine" stated that Japan assumed the total responsibility for peace in Asia. Minister Kōki Hirota proclaimed "a special zone, anti-communist, pro-Japanese and pro-Manchukuo" and that Northern China was a "fundamental part" of Japanese national existence, in announcing a "holy war" against the Soviet Union and China as the "national mission".
During 1940 Prince Konoe proclaimed the Shintaisei New National Structure, making Japan into an "advanced state of National Defense", and the creation of the Taisei Yokusankai Imperial Authority guide Association, for organizing a centralized "consensus state". Associated are the government creation of the Tonarigumi residents' committees. Other ideological creations of the time were the book "Shinmin no Michi" 臣民の道, the "Imperial Way" or "War Party" Kodoha Army party, the "Yamato spirit" Yamato-damashii, and the idea of hakko ichiu which directly translates to "8 corners under one roof", that means, "one group in which every people can live" or "everyone is family", "Religion and Government Unity" Saisei itchi, and Kokka Sodoin Ho General Mobilization Right.
The official academic texts noted Kokutai no Hongi and Shinmin no Michi. Both presented a view of Japan's history and the Japanese ideal to unite East and West.
The economic doctrines of the "Yen block" were in 1941 transformed to the "Great Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" Plan, as a basis for the Japanese national finances, and conquest plans. There was a history of perhaps two decades late these moves.
The Japanese theorists, such as Saneshige Komaki, concerned with Mainland Asia, knew the geostrategic theory of Halford Mackinder, expressed in the book Democratic Ideas and Reality. He discussed why the 'World Island' of Eurasia and Africa was dominant, and why the key to this was the 'Central Land' in Central Asia. This is protected from sea attack, by deserts and mountains, and is vulnerable only on its west side, and to advanced engineering science from Europe.
Mackinder declared that: "Who rules East Europe commands the Heartland; Who rules the heartland commands the World-Island; Who rules the World-Island commands the World". These central Asiatic lands included: all of the Soviet Union, except the Pacific coast, west of the Volga River; all Mongolia, Sinkiang, Tibet and Iran. This zone is vast and possesses natural resources and raw materials, does not possess major farming possibilities, and has a very little population. Mackinder thought in terms of land and sea power: the latter can outflank the former, and carry out distant logistical operations, but needs adequate bases.
These geopolitical ideas coincided with the theories of Lieutenant Colonel Kanji Ishiwara, spoke in 1928 to Manchuria to spy. The Army adopted them, in the form of the Strike North Group. The Navy, on the other hand, was interested in the southerly direction of expansion. An extended debate ensued, resolved in the end by the stern experience of Japan's armed conflicts with the Soviet Union in 1938-39. This tipped the balance towards the 'South' schedule and the Pearl Harbor attack that precipitated the Pacific War in 1941.
The Showa Studies Society was another "think tank" for future leaders of a radical totalitarian Japan, led by Count Yoriyasu Arima. He was a supporter of radical political experiments. He read Karl Marx and Max Stirner, and other radical philosophers. With Fumimaro Konoe and Fusanosuke Kuhara, they created a revolutionary radical-right policy.
These revolutionary groups later had the help of several important personages, devloping reality to someideas of the nationalist-militarist policy with practical work in Manchukuo. They included General Hideki Tōjō, chief of Kempeitai and leader of Kwantung Army; Yosuke Matsuoka, who served as president of the South Manchuria Railway agency and Foreign Affairs Minister; and Naoki Hoshino, an army ideologist who organized the government and political positioning of Manchukuo. Tojo later became War Minister and Prime Minister in the Konoe cabinet, Matsuoka Foreign Minister, and Hoshino chief of Project departments charged with establishing a new economic profile for Japan. Some industrialists lesson of this ideological strand were Ichizō Kobayashi, President of Tokio Gasu Denki, setting the structure for the Industry and Commerce ministry, and Shōzō Murata, representing the Sumitomo Group becoming Communication Minister.