Sadao Araki

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"War Minister Sadao Araki," Time, 1933
Born	May 26, 1877
Died	November 2, 1966
Occupation	Military, Politics

Sadao Araki (Japanese: 荒木 貞夫 Araki Sadao, May 26, 1877–November 2, 1966) was a Japanese soldier, member of nobility (Baron), politician, and political philosopher born in Tokyo. He was probably the most important of the Japanese Empire's nationalist right-wing thinkers; possibly as equal to German Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg.

Araki was the principal proponent of totalitarianism, militarism, expansionism, and loyalty to the emperor. He developed the right-wing (and in practical terms fascist) ideas of the Kodoha nationalist group.

He was on active military service during 1918-19 during the Japanese intervention in Siberia against the Soviet Communists). He was also War Minister for two periods, when he represented the real power in government, and the Education Minister, where he promoted militaristic education. His works related to the Japanese Army and government, and he was an expert on Russian/Soviet topics.

Contents 1 Military career 2 Political and thinking career 2.1 Political and ideological works 2.2 Araki and the Mukden Incident 2.3 Araki, Totalitarianism, Militarism and Expansionism 2.4 Other political actions 3 Summary of influence 4 After 1945

[edit] Military career

Araki graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in November 1897; he attained the rank of 2nd Lt. in June of the following year.

Promoted to a 1st Lt in November of 1900, Araki served as Company Commander of the 1st Infantry Regiment, Imperial Guard Division during the Russo-Japanese War. He was promoted to Captain in June of 1904. He was posted to the Army General Staff in April of 1908, and served as a Language Officer stationed in Russia from November 1909 to May 1913, when he was made Military Attaché to the same.

Araki was made a Adjutant attached to the War Ministry in March 1914, and oversaw the Kwantung army as its Governor-General, after recieving a promotion to Major in July, 1918. He served as a Staff Officer at Expeditionary Army Headquarters in Vladivostok beginning that November, and the following July, he was made Regimental Commander of the 23d Infantry. During this period in Siberia, Araki carried out secret missions in the Russian Far East and Lake Baikal areas.

Continuing his rise up the career ladder, now-Major General Araki was made commander of the 8th Infantry Brigade in March 1923. He served as Provost Marshal General from January 1924 until May 1925; this is when he rejoined the Army General Staff as Bureau Chief. Araki was promoted to Lt. General in July of 1927 and was then made Commandant of the Army War College in August of the next year. He served as the 6th Division Commander from 1929-1931, when he was appointed Inspector General of Military Training.

His rise to power was complete with the receipt of his portfolio as Minister of War in December, 1931 as a member of the Inukai Cabinet, and from 1932, the Saito Cabinet.

He was promoted to the rank of full General in October, 1933.^{[citations needed]}

[edit] Political and thinking career

[edit] Political and ideological works

As a colonel, Araki led the Kodaha faction (Imperial Benevolent Rule or Action Group), with Jinzaburo Mazaki, Heisuke Yanagawa and Hideyoshi Obata. Their opposition was the Toseiha (Control Group) led by General Kazushige Ugaki. The Kodaha represented the radical and ultranationalist elements within the army; the Toseiha attempted to represent the more conservative moderates. These groups had a common intellectual origin in the Double Leaf Society, a 1920s military thinking group, supporting samurai ideals. The groups were later to merge, and to incorporate a mixture of right-wing and socialist ideas, particularly those of Kita Ikki and the fascist thinking of Nakano Seigo.

Araki then became a leading member of the Imperial Way Faction (Kodoha) supporting Showa nationalism. He was put on the reserve list as a result of the February 26 Incident. He was the Minister of Education from 1938 to 1939. As a military theorist for the Imperial Japanese Army, he worked on integrating militaristic ideals into the national education system. Araki took his lead from the German education system and Bushido code. He sought to adapt "Seishin Kyoiku" (spiritual training) to the support of military training. Araki was a solid supporter of the Japanese Army's Strike North Group, and its intention to fight against Communism in Soviet Far East and Siberia, during the 1929-39 period; he was also a fervent opponent of communism and Bolshevism in Japan itself.

[edit] Araki and the Mukden Incident

General Araki had become commandant of the Army War College in 1928, and was an important proponent of Kwantung Army intervention, in the Mukden Incident. In Manchuria, the three main conspirators of the Kwantung Army had essentially seized control, putting one of their own, Shigeru Honjo, in as commander of the Kwantung Army. Honjo made sure there was no interference with the plotters.

From that position, he had been working with the younger officers to further the aims of the ultranationalists. The radical army cliques begin unauthorized studies of China and the preparation of war scenarios. They begin their new round of plots which included the aims of taking the government away from the civilians to remove imperial advisors and isolate the Emperor (the so-called Shōwa Reformation), starting agitation amongst the radical Japanese civilians in Manchuria and uniting the many secret societies. By 1929 the conspiracy was fully formed, consisting mainly of colonels and lieutenant-colonels, and preparations to finally seize Manchuria began. The officers knew they would need another "incident" to justify their actions. Eventually 24 officers were pulled together to create just such an incident. By September 20th, the radicals had control of the army and the Prime Minister was weakening. The Kwantung Army had 12,000 men on the attack but needed the reinforcements from Korea. The reinforcements would have been held up by government confusion and lack of approval, but the Chosen Army commander Senjuro Hayashi ordered the reinforcements moved from Korea without permission and the Kwantung Army continued its attacks.

In October, the Kwantung Army intensified its actions and was beyond the control of Tokyo. The Cherry Blossom Society decided to act with yet another coup attempt in Tokyo to completely eliminate the civilian government. Overconfidence after the success of the Kwantung Army and let the plan slip out early. Quietly, the main conspirators, including Kingoro Hashimoto and General Araki, were arrested. The harshest sentence was 20 days confinement, with most given 10 days, to be served at local geisha houses, and two resignations. Shortly afterwards, another coup attempt was defused, causing more chaos for the Japanese government. The Kwantung Army ignored warnings from the League of Nations to stop its aggression. An investigation was planned but by the time it prepared to leave Manchuria had already fallen. Prime Minister Reiijiro Wakatsuki resigned in December and when the new cabinet was formed, General Araki was War Minister and the real power in Japan. The Kwantung Army forced the last member of the ManchuDynasty, Henry Puyi, to head the Japanese colony of Manchuria. In February, 1932, Manchuria changed its name to Manchukuo and became the kingdom of the Kwantung Army, why would continue its quest to swallow up Manchuria, Mongolia and Northern China through the next several years.

[edit] Araki, Totalitarianism, Militarism and Expansionism

Prince Saionji, one of the Emperor's closest and strongest advisors, attempted to stop the military take-over of the government. In a compromise, a naval officer was chosen to become Prime Minister, Admiral Makoto Saito. Araki remained as War Minister and immediately began making demands on the new government. Later that month, the Japanese unveiled its new foreign policy, which they dubbed the Japanese Monroe Doctrine (Hakko Ichiu and Amau doctrines) that was a blueprint for Japanese expansionism in Asia.

From September 1932 onwards, the Japanese were becoming more locked into the course that would lead them into the Pacific War and Araki was leading the way. Totalitarianism, militarism and expansionism were to become the rule and few voices would be able even to speak out in opposition. In a September 23rd 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 was the mastermind of the Seishin Kyoiku (spiritual training) in the army.

The state was being transformed into a creation that served the Army and the Emperor, while the Army transformed into a fanatical force ready to die for their leaders and Emperor. Araki proposed the integration of the samurai code in the national education system, himself believing in militaristic education. To support this, a massive armaments campaign was undertaken and the military, especially officers and NCOs, were expanded. They believed that the faith of the Japanese military was enough to defeat any enemy, no matter their size and strength. Samurai swords (katana) came back into fashion as the martial embodiment of these beliefs. General Araki founded the Kokuhonsha (Society for the Foundation of the State), a secret society containing some of the most powerful generals, admirals and civilians dedicated to the Imperial Way. A number of officers were, however, revitalizing the Toseiha (Control Faction) of the military to oppose them, looking to Hitler's Germany for the kind of controlled state they sought. The Toseiha scored a victory in January 1934 when Araki was forced to step down due to the excesses of the Kwantung Army and his replacement was one of their own, General Senjuro Hayashi. The struggle between the two groups, Toseiha and Kodaha, would continue quietly throughout the government and the war in North China would continue apace until February of 1936.

[edit] Other political actions

The founder of Unit 731, General Ishii Shiro, had Araki Sadao when Minister of the Army as patron. Araki was Military Councillor, January 1934; baron, 1935; retired, March 1936 (after the 2-26 Incident); Education Minister in the Konoye Cabinet of 1937-. Until August 1945 he remained involved in the creation of the Japanese Doctrines in Showa Period.

Araki, with Shinto theologians and philosophers, organized doctrine to conform with "State Shinto" thinking structure, the Showa period expression ofthe Meiji period's "Emperor Worship".

[edit] Summary of influence

• He formed a syncretic nationalist right-socialist basic political doctrine. His ideas was served to form the Militarism-Socialism national doctrine, of Japanese Empire from the early Showa period to August 1945.
• Proposer of the Kodoha (Imperial Way) ideology.
• He was possibly considered the principal Army ideologist and outstanding fascist or physical-force thinker (see Japanese fascism) of the Japanese Empire, during the Showa period.
• He was an important supporter of fervent loyalty to the Emperor and the formation of new Shinto national religious beliefs.
• He was an ardent advocate of militaristic education.
• He possibly promoted the creation of the official academic text Kokutai no Hongi (Japan's Fundamentals of National Policy).
• He supported some measures and laws on eugenics.
• He introduced Seishin Kyoiku (Spiritual Training), to support military training.
• A founder and leader of the Kodaha (Action Group), the radical inner Army faction, then founder and important member in the Kodoha nationalist party.
• Involvement in the "moral national bible" "Shinmin no Michi" ("The Path of Subjects") an effective catechism on nation, religion, cultural, social and ideological topics. All citizens needed to have it.
• Founder and prominent active member of the Kokuhonsha.
• Theoretician of the Sakura Kai (Cherry Blossom Society).
• Active conspirator and theorist of the 'Showa Reformation', and linked coups d'état.
• He was a leading Japanese expert on Russia and the Soviet Union, fanatically opposed to communism, and supporter of Japanese military action in Siberia and the Soviet Far East.
• He possibly contributed to the Yamato Damashii (Yamato Spirit) political doctrine.
• As an Army thinker, he proposed and supported totalitarianism and militarism at home, along with Japanese expansionism abroad. He was an important supporter of the Hakko Ichiu (eight squares of the World) and Amau Doctrines.
• He was not the immediate creator of, but was a solid supporter of, the Shintaisen (New National Structure) and Saisei itchi (Religion and Government Unity) political doctrines.
• He was a prominent supporter of the Kwantung Army and its actions, a conspirator in the Mukden incident, and an Army supporter during the China incident.
• He partially inspired Kikosaku, the Kempeitai security doctrine.

[edit] After 1945

Araki was tried as a Class A war criminal and sentenced to life imprisonment but was released in 1955 for health reasons. He died 11 years later.

The article incorporates text from OpenHistory.