Toseiha

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Toseiha, or Control Faction (統制派, Toseiha^?) was a faction in the Imperial Japanese Army, active in the 1920s and 1930s.

Led by General Kazushige Ugaki, along with Hajime Sugiyama, Koiso Kuniaki, Yoshijiro Umezu, Tetsuzan Nagata and Hideki Tojo, the Toseiha was a grouping of officers united primarily by their opposition to the Kodaha faction led by General Araki Sadao. The name “Toseiha” was actually a pejorative coined by (and only used by) Kodoha members and sympathizers.

The Toseiha attempted to represent the more politically conservative (moderate) elements within the army, as opposed to the radical and ultranationalist Kodoha. The Toseiha was a non-regional coalition, as opposed to Araki's reintroduction of regional politics into army promotions and policy decisions. Many members were promising graduates of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and War Collage, and were concerned Araki's efforts to resist the modernization and mechanization of the army.

Fundamental to both factions, however, was the common belief that national defense must be strengthened through a reform of national politics. Both factions adopted some ideas from totalitarian, fascist and state socialist political philosophies, and espoused a strong skepticism for political party politics and representative democracy.

After the Manchurian Incident, these two cliques struggled against each other for dominance over the military. After Araki’s resignation in 1934 and the failure of the February 26 Incident in 1936, with its subsequent purge of the Kodaha leadership from the military, the Toseiha lost most of its raison-d’etre. Under Hideki Tojo and Muto Akira , the two factions merged into the Imperial Way Faction nationalist party.