An incredible incident occurred on February 26, 1936.
February 26 Incident , where part of the army of the capital, Tokyo, was occupied Happened.
February 26 Incident, Cause and Background
1936 (Showa 11) It is a coup d'etat that the Imperial Way Faction youth officers of the Army led 1483 officers from February 26th to 29th.
After this incident, the Okada Cabinet at that time resigned, and the subsequent Thought Criminal Protection Observation Law It became an opportunity to establish.
Catastrophic Showa Depression and Rural Depression
The Great Depression from 1929 affected Japan, and from 1930 the Japanese economy was in such a serious state that it was called the Showa Depression.
Due to the Great Depression, exports will not grow, imports will increase, gold will flow out, corporate bankruptcies will occur one after another, and unemployed people will flood the city. The decline in exports had a major impact on raw silk exports, hitting rural areas directly and making them extremely distressed.
In this rural crisis, [children who are short of food] and [selling] have become social problems.
Cohesion between politicians and the business world
Cohesion between politicians and the business world, which was rarely seen in the Meiji era, became active from the Taisho era to the early Showa era. The Constitutional Democratic Party has a close relationship with the Mitsui Zaibatsu and the Constitutional Democratic Party has a close relationship with the Mitsubishi Zaibatsu, and the depth of the relationship between Takaaki Kato and Mitsubishi was particularly famous.
Repeated terrorist attacks and attempted coups
Kensei no Jodo while people are suffering from depression The idea spread that the government should kill politicians and business people who do not adhere to goods and do not take effective measures.
1930 Prime Minister Hamaguchi's sniper case (Prime Minister died), 1931 March Incident , 1932 League of Blood Incident (Assassination of Minister of Finance and President Mitsui), May 15 Incident There were terrorist attacks and assassinations that could not be thought of as (Tsuyoshi Inukai assassination).
National remodeling movement
Military radicals and right-wing national socialists are trying to change the current state of Japan [ Showa Restoration ], And the officials also engaged in a campaign.
Various incidents of the Meiji Restoration were caused by the movement to create a new nation by military dictatorship and actively advance to the continent, but most of the contents are [subjugation] and [Tenchu] However, it was a feature that it lacked what to do after assassinating the target person.
Shumei Okawa and Ikki Kita , which were previously published by the leaders of that idea. was.
What kind of person is Ikki Kita?
Ikki Kita Advocated nationalism, and thought that the bad points of capitalism would be adjusted by state power. In Japan, there is a movement to create a country centered on the emperor with the power of the army and make it militaristic.
This idea had a great influence on the Imperial Way officers who participated in the February 26 Incident.
Conflict between the Imperial Way Faction and the Toseiha
The Imperial Way Faction is a coup d'etat national remodeling, military dictatorship, emperor junta With the aim of (direct politics), the Toseiha sought to legally gain national power by connecting with bureaucrats and the political and business world, and to establish a total war system.
1935 , Lieutenant Colonel Aizawa of the Imperial Way Faction murdered the Chief of the Military Affairs Bureau of the Toseiha, as the Aizawa Incident happened, the conflict between the two factions was inevitable.
Occurrence and progress of the February 26 Incident
February 26, 1936 Before dawn, the Imperial Way Faction youth officers took about 1,500 soldiers and called them the Showa Restoration, killing important people and occupying the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of the Army, and the Metropolitan Police Department.
In this case, Minister of Finance Korekiyo Takahashi , Minister of the Interior Makoto Saito , Army Inspectorate General of Education, Jōtaro Watanabe Was murdered and an important target Prime Minister Okada Escaped the difficulty of hiding in the closet.
Since the mastermind was a relative, there were many negative opinions within the Army who knew the situation, and there were even sympathetic opinions in some military departments, and the Army did not agree.
Therefore, I thought that the situation would work as the masterminds expected, but the situation suddenly changed.
The reason for this was that the intention of Emperor Showa to respond rigorously to the situation was conveyed to the upper army.
The Emperor himself announced his intention to lead the Imperial Guard division to suppress the rebels, and the upper army members set out to suppress the rebels with the Navy, saying that no generous treatment could be expected.
On February 28, an order was given to make the coup-participating unit a rebel army, and the Emperor ordered the soldiers to return to the original unit.
The next day, the troops were disbanded, most of the mastermind's youth officers surrendered, and the coup ended.
After and the influence of the masterminds of the February 26 Incident
Nineteen youth officers, the masterminds of the case, were executed by firing squad, and their ethical leader, Ikki Kita, was executed by firing squad, although not involved in the case.
After the incident, the government took the following measures.
Strengthening Toseiha
It was the Toseiha who made the best use of this case, and after the incident, the Imperial Way Faction was removed from important positions one after another in the personnel affairs of the army, and the Toseiha took control of the army.
Establishment of Hirota Hirota Cabinet
Prime Minister Okada, who survived his life, resigned and diplomat Koki Hirota Became Prime Minister.
The Hirota Cabinet was finally born by accepting military demands such as personnel affairs and arms race. This is the first time the military has publicly intervened in politics, resulting in a triple budget for the military and a reinstatement of the once relaxed military minister's active military system.
It seems that the center test often asks questions about the military minister's active military officer system, so I would like to write an article at another time.
Continued military intervention
When the Hirota Cabinet was forced to resign in conflict with the military, Kazushige Ugaki, who was from the Army, was nominated as Prime Minister. However, the Army took the revived military minister's active military officer system as a shield, and said that if Ugaki became prime minister, the army would not issue a minister.
If the Army did not issue a minister, the cabinet could not be established because it could not be formed.
In this state, political interference by the military continued, and military dictatorship Japan entered.