Glorious Mission 1937

After formulating the two guiding strategies of the "Basic National Policy Outline" and "The Outline for Dealing with the Current Situation Adapting to the Evolution of the World Situation", the entire country of Japan suddenly seemed to be free from long-standing shackles, and the entire national machine was overloaded.However, Emperor Hirohito and high-level Japanese military and political officials knew that this was just a superficial phenomenon, and the seemingly good situation was just a product of internal compromise among the Showa warlords.

There are many domestic problems in Japan. In addition to the economic crisis, Japan's political crisis is also very serious.The contradictions between the military and the government and between the army and the navy are the most prominent.Japan is the same as all countries with a constitutional monarchy system. The government agency that exercises state power is the cabinet, and the chief executive with the highest power is the prime minister. The Secretary of the Admiralty is called the Minister of the Sea.

But after the Meiji Restoration, Japan clearly took back state power from the shogunate to the hands of the emperor, which is also a major feature of the Meiji Restoration.Outsiders know very little about this, and they only know that Japan has reformed into a constitutional monarchy.But in fact, the emperor has a dominant position in the country's strategic guiding ideology, so he can do whatever he says?The cabinet just implements his advice.This was most prominent during the Meiji period. The Emperor Meiji held a very important position in Japanese history, and his status in the hearts of the Japanese people was no less than that of Tang Zong and Song Zu in the hearts of the Chinese people. It reached its peak during the Meiji period.

After Meiji's death, the sick Taisho Emperor suffered from physical problems.Therefore, most of the power was handed over to the cabinet, which also gradually increased the power of the cabinet, and Japan gradually entered a period of political dominance by civilian politicians, and the power of the emperor was slowly weakened.

In the Showa period, Hirohito succeeded his elder brother to the throne.However, although Hirohito looks silly, but this guy's heart is extremely cunning and insidious. In order to regain the power in the cabinet, the relationship between Hirohito and the army has entered a fever. The Japanese army is called the "Imperial Army".

The consequence of this is that the ownership of the army is gradually moving away from the government and closer to the emperor.The military is also increasingly independent.Hirohito keeps getting close to young officers in the army who have radical and speculative ideas.Expect to get rid of the government through the independence of the military.At the same time, Hirohito is also constantly shaping the mythical status of the "emperor" supreme, paralyzing ordinary people.

After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan established the Kwantung Army in China. In theory, the Kwantung Army is a special unit.Not affiliated with the Cabinet Government War Department.directly under the Emperor.Become the emperor's personal army.This is also the biggest reason why the Kwantung Army dared to provoke the September [-]th Incident regardless of the government's opposition.

For a long time, the military and the cabinet have been engaged in a power game.And the emperor is the biggest leader of the army.In fact, the 9.18 Incident was not something that the Japanese government could have created, but was created by some ambitious Kwantung Army guys who figured out the emperor's intentions behind the government's back.The government just acquiesced to the development of the situation. Of course, they have no power to manage the Kwantung Army.Later, there were two mutinies in Japan, and finally the civilian politicians in the cabinet were completely cleared out of the political arena. Seishiro Itagaki, Yoshijiro Umezu and others.

Although these people are bad, they are all fanatical loyal and patriotic elements, and they have always faithfully carried out the emperor's orders.Therefore, it makes sense that many countries, including the Chinese, that suffered from Japanese aggression after the war demanded that Emperor Hirohito be severely punished, because the Emperor was actually Japan's biggest war criminal, but the United States forgave him for various reasons.

The contradiction between the Japanese army and navy is also extremely sharp. This contradiction originated during the Meiji Restoration period. At that time, the main forces supporting the Meiji Restoration were the Satsuma and Changzhou clans, such as Okubo Toshimichi, Saigo Takamori, Ito Hirobumi, Yamagata Yutomo and others are all from the Satsuma and Changzhou domains.After the Japanese Restoration began, the basis for establishing a new army was summoned from Satsuma and Changzhou. Satsuma became the navy and Changzhou became the army.In the early days of the Meiji Restoration, Japan had no parliament, no constitution, and it was completely vassal politics.The Satsuma and Changzhou domains each support their own strength and control the political situation in Japan.The army and navy became the tools of the various factions.After successfully seizing state power and eliminating the shogunate, Japan soon formed two major factions, and they continued to quarrel with each other.

Secondly, the Japanese navy learned from Britain, the Japanese army first learned from France, and changed to Germany after the Franco-Prussian War.That's why Japan's army and navy were divided, because Western teachers are like this.Before imitating Germany’s establishment of the General Staff and the establishment of the cabinet and the Ministry of Defense as the highest organ of the country’s armed forces, the army and navy of Western countries were the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Navy in the cabinet, and the monarchy was managed by the Minister of War and the Minister of the Navy. The agency is responsible, and the republic is called the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of the Navy. The Ministry of the Army and the Ministry of the Navy can be regarded as the "Minister of Defense" in charge of a service, because their level is the level of the cabinet minister.

Japan has also learned this, and since the development of the navy and the army consumes resources, and the navy and the army represent the interests of different feudal lords, there are many conflicts in the competition for development resources, such as steel and oil.As a result, weapons for the army and navy cannot be produced in the same workshop, but must be produced in separate workshops in charge of the army and in charge of the navy.But the biggest advantage of this is that even if one arm betrays the interests of warlords and chaebols, there is another army that has enough strength to suppress it.

For example, in the February [-] Incident, the army mutinied, and the Japanese Marine Corps chanted the slogan of revenge for the navy seniors, obeying the emperor's order to quickly suppress the rebellion.Even in order not to form the third largest military group, Japan does not set up an independent air force. The Japanese army and navy have separate army aviation and naval aviation. Airborne troops, Japan not only has airborne troops for the army, but also has airborne troops for the navy.

In fact, purely from the perspective of coordinated operations, any military branch of the Japanese Army and Navy is an alternative all-round military branch, which can completely complete most combat tasks within the service branch. Of course, this disadvantage is too serious.

But the Americans also have this kind of system. The reason why the Americans can win is that the U.S. Army and Navy can sit down and negotiate the interests of various services. The Japanese Army and Navy basically never sit down and talk, but always want to give back The opponent stabbed the knife.

The reason why the appearance looks pretty good now, and the form of cooperation between them is quite gratifying, is entirely because the Japanese emperor has done a lot of mediation, temporarily putting aside the conflicts between the government, the military department, and the army, and everyone is focused on development.In addition, the brilliance created by the German team in Europe has made the entire Japanese interest group envious, so the big guys have the possibility of cooperation.

After temporarily putting aside differences and contradictions, the Showa warlord group headed by the headquarters in Japan began to strengthen the management of domestic political parties and other political groups, and implemented strong politics. For a while, some anti-war groups and progressives were persecuted one after another, and even It was assassination.The public opinion in Japan is surprisingly unanimous, all praise the government and the army, and newspaper cartoons that glorify the war are all over the entire Japanese town.

At this time, the domestic media in Japan also completely abandoned their social mission and vigorously catered to the needs of the fascist war. Regardless of the huge crisis hidden under the gorgeous surface of Japan at this time, they hyped up the success of the "Great East Asian War" and added justification to the war. reason.Japan’s broadcasting is even more extreme. In order to promote its so-called “Japanese spirit” and maintain the militaristic image of the Japanese government, it completely disregards the essential requirements of news authenticity, and even publicizes the argument that spirit can overcome death in battle.

It can be seen from a series of performances that the Japanese media serve the fascist domestic and foreign policies in unison, and try their best to brag about the "constant victories" of the Japanese "imperial army". The important role has become a force that cannot be ignored when waging war.

At the same time, the Japanese government seized the opportunity to vigorously promote the Greater East Asia theory of conquering China and the government’s Asia, mobilized the Japanese people extensively, and also revised and promulgated the "National General Mobilization Law" in 38 years, which is different from the previously promulgated "Temporary Fund Adjustment Law" ", "Law on Temporary Measures for Imported and Exported Commodities, etc." are also called "Three Wartime Laws".

Among them, the "National Mobilization Law" is the core of Japan's wartime nationalist control legislation, which puts science and technology, culture and education, news reports, industry, transportation, finance and trade, etc. under the control of the government.Subsequently, the Japanese government promulgated various control laws and regulations based on this law, bringing all aspects of national life into the scope of national control.

At the same time, the Japanese government began to hoard a large number of ships and warships, and a large number of naval main warships were included in the government's military expenditure budget to actively strengthen the navy's combat effectiveness.

In addition, with the support of the cabinet and the military, the Japanese government began to actively contact the Soviet Union. After more than half a month of secret negotiations, the two sides finally signed the "Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Treaty" on May 1940, 5.

According to the content of the treaty: the signing parties promise to maintain peaceful and friendly relations and respect each other's territorial integrity and inviolability.Once one party to the treaty has a hostile conflict with one or more third party forces, the other party to the treaty will remain neutral throughout the conflict.This treaty will enter into force on the date of ratification by both parties and remain valid for five years.If both parties to the treaty fail to declare the treaty invalid one year before the treaty expires, it is deemed to be automatically extended for another five years.

With this combination of punches, the Japanese government not only quickly resolved the domestic crisis temporarily, but also concentrated all domestic forces to actively prepare for a possible larger-scale war. (To be continued..)