著者

加藤 陽子

出版者

公益財団法人史学会

雑誌

史學雜誌 (ISSN:00182478)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.99, no.9, pp.1507-1546, 1655-1656, 1990-09-20

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What does the February 26th Incident mean in the history of modern Japan? Masao Maruyama calls it the epoch-making event that distinguished the maturity of the Fascism movement from its infancy in his "Thought and Movement for Fascism in Japan". Following the February 26th incident, power shifted quickly towards the civilian and military bureaucracies. Historians have therefore made much of the administrative decision that Hirota's Cabinet made in May 1936. In 1899 Yamagata Aritomo had arranged the issue of an imperial decree, to the effect that only generals and admirals on active duty could be appointed to hold military ministerial portfolios. In 1913, under strong pressure from parties in the Lower House, the decree was amended to permit the appointment of retired of officers. The new Cabinet organized by career diplomat Hirota accepted the Army's demands and revised the decree (gen-eki bukan sei fukkatsu) without strong opposition. Among historians it has been the popular view that the revised decree allowed the Army to control the life and death of Cabinets. Between 1913 and 1936, in fact, no retired officer was ever called upon to hold a service ministry portfolio. Did the revised decree in 1936 make much difference ? The purpose of this article is to examine (1)the reason why young officers in the Army (rikugun chukenso) sought to revise the decree; (2)their eagerness to reform the conventional council system of the Army; and (3)the struggle between the Army and political parties during the 70th Diet session. The author suggests the following. (1)The young officers under the direction of Colonel Ishiwara Kanji, insisted that the decree be restored to its original form. It was to restore the Army ministerial portfolio's authority to personnel changes. Between 1913 and 1936, the authority was shared with the Chief of General Staff (sanbo socho) and the Chief of Military Education (kyoiku sokan). The newly designated Army minister had to purge many rebellious officers and the "Imperial Way" faction of senior officers from the Army. (2)The Army persuaded the members of the Cabinet and Privy Council under a promise to abolish the council-one of the Army's institutional prerogatives-putting up a candidate for the Army ministerial portfolio.