Japanese general election, 1942

Japanese general election, 1942
All 466 seats to the House of Representatives of Japan ; 234 seats needed for a majority
	Taisei Yokusankai: 381 seats Other: 85 seats
Prime Minister before election; Hideki Tōjō ; Taisei Yokusankai	Prime Minister ; Hideki Tōjō ; Taisei Yokusankai

Last updated April 11, 2019

The 21st General Election of Japan of the House of Representatives took place in Japan on April 30, 1942. It was the only election in Japan during the Pacific theater of World War II. At this time, the lower house no longer had any significant executive and legislative power, and power had increasingly gone to the military dictatorship since the "Manchurian Incident", the invasion of Manchuria by the Imperial Army without regard to the (then still civilian) cabinet in 1931. Since 1932 when Admiral Viscount Saitō Makoto was appointed prime minister with the first so-called "national unity cabinet", few members of the political parties in the House of Representatives had any significant role in government.

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

A military dictatorship is a dictatorship wherein the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority.

Viscount Saitō Makoto, GCB was a Japanese naval officer and politician.

Overview

The government of prime minister Hideki Tōjō held the election as a "General Election to Support the Greater East Asia War" at the end of April 1942, just days after the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.^[1]

The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, on Saturday, April 18, 1942, was an air raid by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on the island of Honshu during World War II, the first air operation to strike the Japanese Home Islands. It demonstrated that the Japanese mainland was vulnerable to American air attack, served as retaliation for the attack on Pearl Harbor, and provided an important boost to American morale. The raid was planned and led by Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle of the United States Army Air Forces.

In 1940, all political parties were forced to merge into the Imperial Rule Assistance Association (Taisei Yokusankai), a pro-military political organization headed by former prime minister Nobuyuki Abe. The likewise fascist Touhou Party broke away from the Taisei Yokusankai and turned against prime minister Hideki Tōjō. Among those running against the Taisei Yokunsakai, only the Touhou Party was allowed to run in the election as non-partisans. Among those anti-war and neutral politicians, the comparatively mild politicians successfully ran as non-partisans too. Some of those "independents" who failed to gain a seat were expelled. Those "independents" and expelled politicians were mainly the ruling class after the war. As communist groups, left-wing groups, and anti-war groups were illegal since 1940, they were unable to name a candidate in the election. Communists, left-wing politicians and radical anti-military politicians were arrested and not even allowed to run as independents, although anti-war politician Saito Takao who was expelled from the diet in 1941 was re-elected again.^{[ citation needed ]}

A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of state in which one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties are either outlawed or allowed to take only a limited and controlled participation in elections. Sometimes the term de facto one-party state is used to describe a dominant-party system that, unlike the one-party state, allows democratic multiparty elections, but the existing practices or balance of political power effectively prevent the opposition from winning the elections.

The Imperial Rule Assistance Association, or Imperial Aid Association, was Japan's wartime organization created by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe on October 12, 1940, to promote the goals of his Shintaisei movement. It evolved into a "statist" ruling political party which aimed at removing the sectionalism in the politics and economics in the Empire of Japan to create a totalitarian one-party state, in order to maximize the efficiency of Japan's total war effort in China. When the organization was launched officially, Konoe was hailed as a "political savior" of a nation in chaos; however, internal divisions soon appeared.

General Nobuyuki Abe was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, Governor-General of Korea, and 36th Prime Minister of Japan from 30 August 1939 to 16 January 1940.

Notwithstanding the Tojo government's efforts, 613 candidates stood without endorsement while only 466 were endorsed.^[1] Several non-endorsed candidates managed to win seats in the election, including Ichiro Hatoyama (who later served as prime minister and was the grandfather of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama), Takeo Miki (who later served as prime minister), Kan Abe (the grandfather of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe) and Bukichi Miki.^[2]^[3] The Tojo Cabinet marked those independent congressmen elected who were not Taisei Yokusankai members as "not endorsed" in the official result. Several of them, such as Hatoyama, were subject to the purge by the Allied authorities following the war despite the fact that they were not cooperating with the Tojo government.^[3]

Yukio Hatoyama is a former Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 16 September 2009 to 8 June 2010. He was the first Prime Minister from the modern Democratic Party of Japan.

Takeo Miki was a Japanese politician who served as the 41st Prime Minister of Japan from 1974 until 1976.

Kan Abe was a Japanese politician who served in the House of Representatives from 1937 to 1946. He is the father of former Foreign Minister Shintaro Abe and the grandfather of Prime Minister Shinzō Abe.

The turnout of the election was unusually high at 83.1%, partly reflecting the fierceness of the electoral battle.^[1]

Results

The government won 381 seats out of the total 466; in some districts, its candidates won uncontested. However, while the Imperial Army had gained a victory in almost every battle as of the election, public support for the war was still quite high, which was the main reason for the landslide victory of the Taisei Yokusankai. Although Japan nominally became a one-party state as a result of the election, the group of Yokusankai-endorsed candidates soon split into numerous factions, some of which became critical of the government as the war dragged on.^[1]

Party	Total
Imperial Rule Assistance Association endorsed	381
Not endorsed	85

Related Research Articles

Shōwa Day is a Japanese annual holiday held on April 29. It honors the birthday of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito), the reigning emperor from 1926 to 1989. Shō (昭) means “shining” or “bright”, and wa (和) means “peace”, signifying the "enlightened peace" that citizens receive. According to the now defunct Democratic Party of Japan, the purpose of the holiday is to encourage public reflection on the turbulent 63 years of Hirohito's reign.

The League of Diet Members Supporting the Prosecution of the Holy War was a political party coalition in the lower house of the Diet of Japan formed on March 25, 1940, with the backing of the Imperial Japanese Army as a reaction against a speech made by Saitō Takao, of the Rikken Minseitō critical of the government’s aggressive policies in the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Events in the year 1946 in Japan.

Kokumin Dōmei was a Japanese fascist political party in Japan active in the 1930s.

Fumio Gotō was a Japanese politician and bureaucrat, and briefly served as interim Prime Minister of Japan in 1936.

Takeru Inukai was a Japanese politician and novelist active in Shōwa period Japan. Also known as "Inukai Ken", he was the third son of Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi.

The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan is the ruling party of Japan, with Party President Shinzō Abe being the Prime Minister of Japan. The Liberal Democratic Party is characterized by factionalism, where factions are sub-groups within a larger organisation. While factions characterize other political parties in Pacific Asia, Japanese factionalism is distinguished by its stability and institutionalization. Since the genesis of the Liberal Democratic Party in 1955, factions have existed, but they have changed over time. Despite this change, factions in the party today can be traced back to their 1955 roots, a testament to the stability and institutionalized nature of Liberal Democratic Party factions.

Ryūtarō Nagai, was a politician and cabinet minister in the Empire of Japan, serving a member of the Lower House of the Diet of Japan eight times, and four as a cabinet minister. He was noted in his early political career as a champion of universal suffrage, social welfare, labor unions, women's rights and Pan-Asianism.

Tsuneo Kanemitsu, was an entrepreneur, politician and cabinet minister in the Empire of Japan, serving eight terms as a member of the Lower House of the Diet of Japan, and twice times as a cabinet minister. He also served twice in the post-war Lower House of the Diet.

Hiroya Ino, was a politician and cabinet minister in Japan, serving once as a member of the Lower House of the pre-war Diet of Japan, and three times as a member of the post-war House of Councillors. He also held cabinet-level posts three times.

The Imperial Rule Assistance Political Association, abbreviated to Yokuseikai or IRAPA, was the political wing of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association and a joint caucus of both the House of Representatives and the House of Peers that existed between 20 May 1942 to 30 March 1945.

Bukichi Miki was a Japanese politician. He was a close friend and ally of Ichiro Hatoyama, and was the key figure in carrying out the "conservative merger" that resulted in the formation of the Liberal Democratic Party.

Kisaburō Andō was a career officer and lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army, who served as a politician and cabinet minister in the government of the Empire of Japan during World War II.

Michio Yuzawa was a bureaucrat and cabinet minister in early Shōwa period Japan.

Hideki Tojo Former Prime Minister of Japan and Minister of War during World War II

Hideki Tojo was a Japanese politician and general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) who concurrently served as the Imperial Rules Assistance Association's leader and 27th Prime Minister of Japan during much of World War II. He was among the most outspoken proponents for preventive war against the United States before the attack on Pearl Harbor and one of the leading perpetrators behind Japanese war crimes against prisoners of war and civilians during the Pacific conflict. After the end of the war, Tojo was arrested, condemned and sentenced to death by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and hanged on December 23, 1948.

Etsujirō Uehara was a politician and bureaucrat in the early Shōwa period Japan, who subsequently was a politician and cabinet minister in the immediate post-war era.

Tatsunosuke Yamazaki was a Japanese was a politician and cabinet minister in the Taishō and early Shōwa periods of the Japan. His brother, Iwao Yamazaki was also a politician and cabinet minister, and his nephew Heihachiro Yamazaki was later a prominent member of the post-war Liberal-Democratic Party.

References

1 2 3 4 Tsuzuki, Chushichi (2000). The Pursuit of Power in Modern Japan 1825-1995. Oxford University Press.
↑ "Japanese prime minister`s another DNA". Dong-A Ilbo. 28 October 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2014.
1 2 Saunavaara, Juha (28 September 2009). "Occupation Authorities, the Hatoyama Purge and the Making of Japan's Postwar Political Order". Japan Focus. Retrieved 15 January 2014.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[Suzuki-1] 1 2 3 4 Tsuzuki, Chushichi (2000). The Pursuit of Power in Modern Japan 1825-1995. Oxford University Press.

[2] "Japanese prime minister`s another DNA". Dong-A Ilbo. 28 October 2013. Retrieved 15 January 2014.

[japanfocus-3] 1 2 Saunavaara, Juha (28 September 2009). "Occupation Authorities, the Hatoyama Purge and the Making of Japan's Postwar Political Order". Japan Focus. Retrieved 15 January 2014.

v t e Elections in Japan
General elections	1890 1892 1894 (Mar) 1894 (Sep) 1898 (Mar) 1898 (Sep) 1902 1903 1904 1908 1912 1915 1917 1920 1924 1928 1930 1932 1936 1937 1942 1946 1947 1949 1952 1953 1955 1958 1960 1963 1967 1969 1972 1976 1979 1980 1983 1986 1990 1993 1996 2000 2003 2005 2009 2012 2014 2017 Next
Councillors elections	1947 1950 1953 1956 1959 1962 1965 1968 1971 1974 1977 1980 1983 1986 1989 1992 1995 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 2016 2019
Unified local elections	1947 1951 1955 1959 1963 1967 1971 1975 1979 1983 1987 1991 1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015

Japanese general election, 1942

Contents

Overview

Results

Related Research Articles

References