Glorious Mission 1937

The government did not dare to neglect the opinions put forward by the navy and army. Fumma Konoe immediately called a meeting of all important ministers to study and discuss the matter.

It can't be blamed for Konoe Fummo's lack of opinion, it's entirely because at this time in Japan, the headquarters of the military headquarters is the country's highest authority. The power of these two departments is frighteningly large. In name, they require the dispatch and orders of the cabinet government, but they can actually suppress the government and encourage the emperor to withdraw the cabinet.

The base camp is the military command hub for Japan to launch wars abroad. It is the most important military institution that is independent of the government and parliament and directly responsible to the emperor.The Japanese Army was modeled after Prussia, the predecessor of Germany. Therefore, during the Meiji period, Japan imitated Prussia and established the Army Staff Headquarters directly under the Emperor in charge of military orders, and the Navy also separated corresponding military orders.The power of military orders was separated, and only the military and administrative powers belonged to the cabinet.

The "Constitution of the Empire of Japan" promulgated in 1889 established this new military-political relationship in the form of law.The constitution stipulates that the emperor assumes the commanding power, and grants the chief of the military command "the right to act from the top", that is, all matters related to military orders can be directly reported to the emperor without going through the cabinet, and the emperor will make a decision.This is the "principle of independence of commanders" that prevailed in Japan before the war.

From a legal point of view, only the emperor can govern the military. However, the modern emperor system is characterized by "separation of court and government".Therefore, the army and navy are directly under the emperor in name, but they are actually restrained.Self-contained, in the holy aura of the emperor's authority, the military became the "power core" of the Meiji constitutional government.

But to really make the Japanese military department the center of waging war and the giant that kidnaps the government, it depends on one person, a person who is not a soldier.This person is none other than the former Japanese Prime Minister Koki Hirota, who should be no stranger to him, and was designated as one of the 28 Class A war criminals after the war.

The fact that the Japanese military has the power it has today has an important relationship with this person. Hirota Hiroshi was not as simple as an elite diplomat as people know. He originally wanted to apply for the Army Non-commissioned Officer Academy to become a professional soldier.After the Sino-Japanese War.The joint intervention of Russia, France and Germany.Forcing Japan to redeem the Liaodong Peninsula at a price of 3000 million taels of silver, this made Hirota Hongyi feel that being a diplomat is more beneficial to the country than simply wielding knives and guns, so he applied for Tokyo Imperial University and became a A career diplomat.

Although Hirota did not directly join the army.But has maintained close ties with the Army.According to information discovered from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the war.1903, before the Russo-Japanese War.Hirota, who was still a student at Imperial University at the time, used to collect intelligence in the name of "study trips" in places such as the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria as an army intelligence officer.

Originally, Hirota Koki’s tuition fees during his studies at Imperial University were paid by the right-wing group Genyosha. In addition, Mrs. Hirota is the daughter of a cadre of Genyosha, so Hirota Koki’s performance after entering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a mixture of pro-military and extreme right-wing body.When Okuma Shigenobu's cabinet proposed the infamous "21 Articles on China".Hirota Koki is the head of the first section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Bureau.Hirota did not agree with the 21 articles at the time, because in Hirota's view, the "dredging right" of the Yellow River should be added, so that in addition to guaranteeing the navigation rights of the Japanese Empire on the Yellow River, it can provide Japanese companies with access to the Central Plains of China. to offer comfort. [

After the war, Hirota Koki's most deadly crime was that he proposed the "Hirota Three Principles" when he was the foreign minister of the Okada cabinet, and restored the principles that had been abolished by the Yamamoto Gonbei cabinet in 1913 when he was the prime minister. "Military minister active military attache system" - the latter gave the military the weapon to kidnap the government.

What exactly is this "Military Minister Active Military Attaché System" that has such a function that it can allow the Japanese military to kidnap the government?In fact, this "Military Minister Active Military Attache System" is a system proposed by Hirota Koki to allow soldiers to take power and participate in politics.

When the economic crisis broke out in 1929, Japan’s domestic economy was difficult and class contradictions were sharp. Fascist forces took advantage of the opportunity. They violently attacked bourgeois party politics, strongly advocated fascist dictatorship and centralization, and created a series of terrorist incidents such as assassinations and coups, forming a momentum. The raging army is fascist.

After the "February 1936 Mutiny" in [-], the cabinet of the puppet regime Hirota Koniki was supported to come to power, and the Hirota cabinet established policy policies and reorganized state institutions in accordance with the will of the military.First of all, it is stipulated that the Minister of Army and Navy in the cabinet must be served by an active lieutenant general or above, which strengthens the strength of the military department, makes the cabinet a tool of the military department, and strengthens the autocratic rule of the domestic people.At the same time, the policy of foreign aggression was established, and the cabinet convened a meeting of the five ministers of the capital, land, sea, foreign countries, and Tibet to formulate "national policy benchmarks."

Its main goal is: "In view of the internal and external situation of the empire, the fundamental national policy that the empire should determine is to rely on diplomacy and national defense to ensure the empire's position in the East Asian continent, while developing towards the southern ocean." This is the legal confirmation of Japan's foreign policy of aggression and expansion .

In the past, the military department intervened in the government, often expressing opinions on a certain policy or cabinet members. When it came to the Hirota cabinet, the military department could fully reorganize and control the government, and implement its own political program. The power of the country and domestic and foreign policies have been subordinated to In the military fascist.The military department took control of the government, initially ending the long-split "dual government" situation, reuniting the long-split state affairs and military power under the condition of obeying the military department, and achieving a new fascist political unity.

According to this system, as long as the military department does not send active-duty soldiers to serve as ministers of the army and navy, the cabinet will be legally established.What is particularly ironic is that the cabinet of Hirota Koni collapsed because the Minister of the Army Shouichi Terauchi insisted on resigning.

Although Hirota Koki stepped down, this system was completely preserved and gradually strengthened. By the time of Konoe Bunma, the headquarters of the Japanese military headquarters had completely kidnapped the government and became a government under the control of the military. Therefore, how dare the government ignore the opinions put forward by the army and navy.

The cabinet meeting chaired by Fumma Konoe began at 1 am on January 6 and ended at 11 pm.In addition to Prime Minister Fumma Konoe, Minister Tanabe Haramichi also attended the meeting.At the beginning of the meeting, Chief of the Nagano Military Command explained the reasons for the proposal.

Nagano Slim is the main figure of the Japanese Navy Fleet faction, the vanguard of the war against the United States. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1900 and served as the squadron leader of the Naval Heavy Artillery Squadron during the Russo-Japanese War.In a battle against Lushun, he commanded the artillery to hit a Russian ship anchored in Lushun Port. This became his "fame and fame". headmaster.

Not long ago, he succeeded King Fushimi Gong Hiroshi as the head of the military command and became the supreme commander of the naval forces.If he doesn't do it, Gengo Hyakutake and Mitsumasa Minai, two war advocates who avoid war with the United States, will come to power.So he must continue to work. At this time, the Vice Admiral of the Navy is also Ito Seiichi, who is a hardliner against the United States.At the beginning of his tenure, he stood on the side of the navy and actively advocated Japan's "southward" expansion and marching into Southeast Asia.

At the cabinet meeting, Nagano Xiushen said loudly: "Under the current dangerous situation, the Great Japanese Empire has difficulties in all aspects, especially the supplies are decreasing, that is to say, they are weakening. On the contrary, the Chinese and The Americans are gradually getting stronger. As time goes by, they will become weaker and weaker. We have to endure it as we can through diplomacy, but we must make an estimate at the right time."

"If there is finally no hope in diplomacy, you have to do it quickly. If you fight now, I am sure there is still a chance of victory, but I am afraid that this chance will disappear with time."

When Konoe Fummo and others mentioned whether the navy has a detailed combat plan, Nagano Shoshin said: "The navy has two views on war estimation, short-term and long-term. I think it will probably become a long-term war, so there must be a long-term war. We want the enemy to fight quickly. If that is the case, if we engage in a decisive battle in our coastal waters, we may be quite sure of victory. However, I don’t think the war will end here, and it may turn into a long-term war.”

"Even if this happens, it will be beneficial to use the results of the victory to deal with the long-term war. Conversely, if the war is switched to a long-term war without a decisive battle, it will be painful. Especially because of the lack of supplies, if we get Protracted war cannot proceed without supplies. So it is very important to prepare by acquiring supplies and capturing strategic points in order to be invincible.”[

Yong Ye made a very vivid analogy, he said: "This is like the Chinese playing chess, the enemy has no tricks to checkmate us. Even if there are checkmate tricks, with the evolution of the international situation, there will still be people who can come. In short, the war must be started before we are in a desperate situation, and we must decide when to start the war.

Obviously, Nagano's self-cultivation analysis has conquered most people.Prime Minister Konoe and Toyoda did not express any particular objection to the original proposal. Of course, Fumma Konoe still disagrees with the United States, Britain and other countries in his heart. The reason why he did not object to the proposal proposed by the Army and Navy is because He can't influence the decision of the base camp.

On the other hand, it was because Prime Minister Konoe did not consider deeply at all to determine the impact of this national policy, but still pinned his hopes on opening up the situation through diplomacy.Therefore, at the meeting, a group of important ministers of the Japanese cabinet passed the original bill with only minor revisions based on the proposal of Oikawa Kai. (to be continued...)