When I was writing a prewar article, I came across the idea of an active military officer system of the military minister.
This word is important for learning prewar Japanese history, and it seems that it often appears in center exams. So, this time, I will write about the military minister's active military officer system.
What is the military minister active military officer system?
Aritomo Yamagata By 1900 (Meiji 33) The Minister of the Army is Minister of the Army / Minister of the Navy So, active military officer What is reserve and reserve Former soldier It does not refer to military personnel who are currently active.
So, [ Army and Navy Ministers can only be active military personnel ] Is called the military minister active military officer system.
During this period, when political party politics became active and political parties began to form cabinets, Yamagata Aritomo was worried that non-military party members would become ministers of the army and navy and would have influence over the military. Therefore, we created a system in which non-military personnel cannot be in the minister, and created an active military officer system for the military minister so that the power of political parties does not reach the military.
Problems of the military minister's active military officer system
Problems of the military minister active military officer system However, if the military does not like the personnel of other cabinets, it can interfere with the formation. In fact, this system sometimes forced me to collapse, or I couldn't form a cabinet and it flowed.
In the Constitution of the Empire of Japan, unlike the current Constitution of Japan, the power of the Prime Minister is not very strong . was. It is easy to misunderstand the Constitution of the Empire of Japan and the Constitution of Japan, so it is necessary to grasp the difference firmly.
Since each minister, including the Prime Minister, is appointed by the Emperor, the Prime Minister cannot directly appoint each minister. In particular, the Ministers of the Army and Navy were appointed by the Emperor after the nominees were decided by their respective military departments, so the Prime Minister could not decide the nominees.
In that case, if a cabinet that does not meet the intentions of the military is implemented, the army and navy will decide not to issue a minister, and the cabinet will be considered incomplete and cannot be established.
Examples of misuse of the military minister's active military service system
The trick is to have the Minister of the Army and the Minister of the Navy resign from the Cabinet, which has tried to do something that is disadvantageous to the military, so that no replacement will be given. Then, the minister will be absent, the cabinet will not be able to survive, and he will resign.
Request to add two army divisions and the collapse of the Saionji Cabinet
1912 Let's take the time of the Saionji Cabinet as an example.
1905 Although the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed with Russia, Japan was forced to pay government bonds because it could not take compensation. Even in such a situation, the Army will request two new divisions (one division =10,000 to 20,000 people).
In a financially poor situation, Saizonoji rejects this request if it is not accepted.
Then Yusaku Uehara, Minister of the Army, resigned directly to the Emperor I gave up and stopped without permission, and did not give out the official Minister of the Army.
As a result, the Saionji Cabinet was forced to resign.
The Third Katsura Cabinet, which was created with the support of the Army after that, was forced to resign in a blink of an eye, and the people were angry at such an all-you-can-eat army.
Abolition and revival of the military minister's active military service system
After the Katsura Cabinet, 1913 First Yamamoto Gonbei Cabinet Has reviewed the system and expanded the number of qualified personnel who can become military ministers from active duty only to reserve and back-up roles so that former military personnel can also become [ active military only . ] Regulations have been removed.
With this, military minister active military officer system Was abolished, but when I opened the lid, no one other than an active duty soldier served as a minister.
At one point ...
The military, also known as the Imperial Way Faction within the military, planned a coup to eliminate the government and senior military personnel and take their place. Minister of the Interior, Minoru Saito, Minister of Finance, Takahashi Korekiyo, Army Inspectorate General of Education Watanabe Lock The February 26 Incident, in which Taro was murdered, occurred.
After this incident, the Imperial Way Faction loses power and the army's initiative shifts to military personnel called Toseiha.
The Toseiha sought to put the whole of Japan into war and create a total war system.
Following Keisuke Okada, who was the Prime Minister at the time of the February 26 Incident, Hirota Hirota, a diplomat, became Prime Minister.
When Hirota formed the cabinet, the Army made demands for the selection of ministers and the expansion of armaments. One of them is the revival of the military minister's active military service system . Has been decided.
In this way, the Hirota Cabinet carried out government management that swallowed the demands of the military, but could not withstand the pressure of the Army and resigned altogether.
Therefore, he tried to build Kazushige Ugaki to build a cabinet from the Army, but Ugaki was the Minister of the Army who promoted disarmament, so the military's reputation was not good. Therefore, the military did not recommend the Minister of the Army to the Ugaki Cabinet. Then, because there were no ministers in the cabinet, it was not possible to form a cabinet, and Ugaki had to decline the recommendation of the prime minister.
Subsequent Army political intervention
The Army, which had the power to defeat the Cabinet at any time due to the revival of the active military officer system of the military minister, further deepened political intervention.
The culmination of this is the National Mobilization Law.
During World War II, a law was enacted to mobilize all the people, not just the army, into the war.
* This article also touches on a little, so please refer to it.
This bad law allowed the government to mobilize the people and things needed for the war by edict without the approval of Congress, making Congress meaningless. With this, the mechanism to reflect the voice of the people created by the Freedom and People's Rights Movement in the Meiji era in politics has completely stopped, and Japan will proceed to war.
The military minister's active military officer system was created by Yamaken so that the power of political parties would not reach the military, but that resulted in the power of political intervention by the military, and Japan went into war. ..