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84-664: Since its formation, the Kyushu Seido-kai has been known for its blatant armed conflicts with its former parent syndicate, the Dojin-kai , involving various hazardous weapons such as automatic firearms (especially the AK-47 ), petrol bombs and hand grenades . While violently feuding with the Dojin-kai, the Kyushu Seido-kai has caused deaths among several innocent civilians as well as numerous yakuza members, and because of that, despite being

168-710: A designated yakuza group under the Organized Crime Countermeasures Law on February 28, 2008. In 2011, the Seido-kai's feud with the Dojin-kai escalated, and many Seido members were killed by the Dojin-kai; two Seido seniors were killed by alleged Dojin-kai's grenades in Omuta (April), one Seido member was stabbed to death in Ogi, Saga (April), and one Seido senior was shot to death in Imari, Saga (April). The Kyushu Seido-kai

252-468: A boundary between private and public matters and, thus, demanded loyalty in all spheres of society. Subsequently, any ideological attack, such as a proposal for socialist reforms, was seen as an attack on the very existence of the state. The meaning of the law was gradually stretched to academic spheres. After the passage of the Peace Preservation Law and related legislation, kokutai emerged as

336-492: A cease-fire on December 18 and on February 5, 2008, the war reportedly ended. The Fukuoka Prefectural Police discovered that the Seido-kai built a cenotaph in July 2009 in Omuta to pay tribute to their casualties. The names inscribed on its surface not only included those of Seido-kai members but also included those of Dojin-kai members. This cenotaph, however, disappeared by early 2011. The Dojin-Seido war has been escalating since

420-539: A complete coup d'état, but it effectively ended rule by political parties in Japan. From 1932 to 1936, the country was governed by admirals. Mounting nationalist sympathies led to chronic instability in government. Moderate policies were difficult to enforce. The crisis culminated on February 26, 1936. In what became known as the February 26 Incident , about 1,500 ultranationalist army troops marched on central Tokyo . Their mission

504-564: A global period of social upheavals and conflicts such as the Great Depression and the Pacific War . Defeat in the Pacific War brought about radical change in Japan. For the first and only time in its history, Japan was occupied by foreign powers , an American-led occupation which lasted for six years and eight months. Allied occupation brought forth sweeping democratic reforms. It led to

588-566: A military presence in Manchuria . On September 18, 1931, the Mukden Incident occurred. There was a small explosion on the tracks of a Japanese railway, north of Mukden . Japan invaded Manchuria in the aftermath. The Imperial Japanese Army mobilized the Kwantung Army and attacked Chinese troops. The Minseito government, headed by Hamaguchi's successor Wakatsuki Reijirō , was unable to curb

672-550: A powerful force in society. Mass education and conscription served as a means to indoctrinate the coming generation with "the idea of Japan" as a nation state instead of a series of daimyōs . In this way, loyalty to feudal domains was supplanted with loyalty to the central government. Industrialization and centralization gave the Japanese a strong sense that their country could once more rival and dominate Western powers technologically and socially. Moreover, successful foreign wars gave

756-561: A relatively recently established group, the Kyushu Seido-kai has been a designated yakuza group since 2008. The Kyushu Seido-kai launched in 2006 as the Dojin-kai 's splinter group led by the Omuta -based Murakami-ikka clan, after the long-time Dojin-kai boss Seijiro Matsuo announced his resignation, sparking a war of succession. In 2007 a Dojin-kai member attempted to murder a Seido-kai member, but ended up killing an innocent bystander. The Kyushu Seido-kai ended up receiving official registration as

840-551: A small island located in Kagoshima Prefecture as a smuggling base, and for example in 1986, this group smuggled approximately 570 kg (1,260 lb) of methamphetamine—estimated retail price of nearly US$ 1 billion—from Taiwan. The Dojin-kai has been known for its strong anti-authority, anti-police stance since the 20th century, however at the same time the Dojin-kai has allegedly developed some relationship with local authorities, and it has actually been uncovered, as, in

924-463: A threat to all Asians and that Asia could only survive by following the Japanese example. Japan had been the only Asian and non-Western power to industrialize itself successfully and rival great Western empires. While largely described by contemporary Western observers as a front for the expansion of the Japanese army, the idea behind the Co-Prosperity Sphere was that Asia would be united against

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1008-510: Is a yakuza organization headquartered in Kurume, Fukuoka , on the Kyushu island of Japan , a designated yakuza syndicate , with approximately 320 members. As well as being known as a militant yakuza organization, the Dojin-kai has also been known as a de facto drug cartel , as its activities have allegedly included large-scale drug trafficking , specifically methamphetamine trafficking, which

1092-678: Is a brief conflict that occurred in 1983, with the Kanto -based large yakuza syndicate Sumiyoshi Union , in which a majority of Dojin members moved to Tokyo and had been hiding out around Tokyo with the plan of slaying all of the Union's 76 senior bosses until the Union made a conceding offer of peaceful resolution ( teuchi ). The Dojin-kai is noted for having been isolated in the yakuza world in an uncanny way, in contrast to most other yakuza organizations which usually have at least one ally ( sakazuki -shared "brother" organization). In one notable anecdote, during

1176-509: Is an issue of fierce debate between Chinese and Japanese historians. By 1939, the Japanese war effort had become a stalemate. The Japanese Army had seized most of the vital cities in China, including Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing, and Wuhan . The Nationalists and the Communists, however, fought on from Chongqing and Yenan , respectively. Negotiations for a German-Japanese alliance began in 1937 with

1260-633: Is one of the five independent Fukuoka-based designated yakuza syndicates , along with the Kudo-kai , the Taishu-kai , the Fukuhaku-kai , and the Dojin-kai . The Kyushu Seido-kai maintains its offices in six prefectures; Fukuoka , Saga , Nagasaki , Kumamoto , Yamagata , and Tokyo . In 2008, the Kudo-kai 's third-generation president Hideo Mizoshita died and his funeral was attended by many yakuza magnates representing their respective syndicates from all over

1344-469: Is said to have avoided getting deeply involved in the Dojin-kai. The Dojin-kai again started a blatantly vicious conflict with its splinter group, Kyushu Seido-kai , in 2006. When the long-time boss Seijiro Matsuo suddenly announced his resignation in May 2006, a war broke out between the headquarters and a splinter group in Omuta who, naming themselves the " Kyushu Seido-kai ," allegedly aligned themselves with

1428-509: Is traditionally shunned in the yakuza world. With its activities of drug trafficking, the Dojin-kai has allegedly been Japan's largest wholesale dealer in drugs since the late 20th century, after the disbanding of three other yakuza groups based in northern Kyushu; Tagawa -based Sadaoka-gumi, known as "[Japan's] Methlord in the Showa era" which was crushed by the Taishu-kai , Okawa -based Hamada-kai, and Kumamoto -based Yamano-kai . The Dojin-kai

1512-751: The Dutch East Indies ( Indonesia ). Thailand managed to stay independent by becoming a satellite state of Japan. On 13 April 1941, the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact was signed. In December 1941 to May 1942, Japan sank major elements of the American, British and Dutch fleets, captured Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies, and reached the borders of India and Australia. Japan suddenly had achieved its goal of ruling

1596-586: The Great War in France . In the presence of such devastation, I understand the blessing of peace and the necessity of concord among nations. The election of Katō Takaaki as the Prime Minister of Japan continued democratic reforms that had been advocated by influential individuals on the left. This culminated in the passage of universal adult male suffrage in May 1925. General Election Law gave all male subjects over

1680-576: The Imperial General Headquarters tolerated many atrocities against local populations , such as the experimentations of Unit 731 , the sankō sakusen , the use of chemical and biological weapons , and civilian massacres such as those in Nanjing , Singapore and Manila . Some of the atrocities were motivated by racism. For instance, Japanese soldiers were taught to think of captured Chinese as not worthy of mercy. On July 7, 1937, at

1764-600: The Russian Revolution were subsequently crushed and scattered. This was in part due to the Peace Preservation Act, but also due to the general fragmentation of the left. Conservatives forced the passage of the Peace Preservation Law because the party leaders and politicians of the Taishō era had felt that, after World War I , the state was in danger from revolutionary movements. The Japanese state never clearly defined

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1848-598: The Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers ; he and his staff exerted wide but indirect power, for the decisions were carried out by Japanese officials. A War Crimes Tribunal , similar to that at Nuremberg , was set up in Tokyo. On 3 May 1946, the prosecution began of Japanese military leaders for war crimes. Several prominent members of the Japanese cabinet were executed, most notably former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo . But

1932-638: The Western powers under the auspices of the Japanese. The idea drew influence in the paternalistic aspects of Confucianism and Koshitsu Shinto . Thus, the main goal of the Sphere was the hakkō ichiu , the unification of the eight corners of the world under the rule ( kōdō ) of the Emperor. The reality during this period differed from the propaganda. Some nationalities and ethnic groups were marginalized, and during rapid military expansion into foreign countries,

2016-693: The Yamaguchi-gumi , the Dojin-kai's rival and the largest yakuza syndicate in Japan. Seven people were killed during the beginning of the war. In one incident, a gangster walked into a hospital and shot an innocent man twice, mistaking him for a rival. In another, the Dojin-kai's headquarters was sprayed with an AK-47 assault rifle. More than five Dojin offices in Kurume and Fukuoka were attacked with bombs and firearms on May 21 of that year, and soon after that, on 24th, Seido-kai's Jinsei group headquarters office in Chikugo

2100-560: The economic collapse brought new hardship to the people of Japan. Silk and rice prices plummeted and exports decreased 50%. Unemployment in both the cities and the countryside skyrocketed and social agitation came to a head. Meanwhile, the London Naval Treaty was ratified in 1930. Its purpose was to extend the Washington Treaty System. The Japanese government had desired to raise their ratio to 10:10:7, but this proposal

2184-487: The "Drug Criminal Organization" section in the National Police Agency 's 1991 Police White Paper, a Fukuoka-based 20-member small Dojin-affiliate had managed a systematic trafficking ring, selling methamphetamine to various drug-dealing yakuza organizations throughout the country. This group had also smuggled methamphetamine from Taiwan where it had a connection with a local Taiwanese drug ring. This group had used

2268-458: The "crass" materialism of the West. In practice, however, the Japanese installed organizationally-minded bureaucrats and engineers to run their annexed territories, and they believed in ideals of efficiency, modernization, and engineering solutions to social problems. It was fascism based on technology and rejected Western norms of democracy. After 1945, the engineers and bureaucrats took over and turned

2352-501: The American demands. ...we cannot let the present situation continue. If we miss the present opportunity to go to war, we will have to submit to American dictation. Therefore, I recognize that it is inevitable that we must decide to start a war against the United States. I will put my trust in what I have been told: namely, that things will go well in the early part of the war; and that although we will experience increasing difficulties as

2436-658: The Americans. Finally, the death agony of the Empire of Japan came in August 1945. On August 6, an atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima , instantly killing approximately 70,000 people when the attack took place (plus another estimated 130,000 by 1960 due to after-effects). On August 8, the Soviet invasion of Manchuria began. The following day, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki , killing approximately 40,000 people. These attacks with

2520-657: The Emperor Hirohito was neither tried at the Tokyo trials nor dethroned, nor any members of the imperial family . Instead, under the Post-war Constitution , the Japanese Emperor was reduced to a figurehead nominal monarch without divine characteristics and is forbidden to play a role in politics. Douglas MacArthur sought to break the power of the zaibatsu ; Japan was democratized and liberalized along American " New Deal " liberal lines. Parliamentary party politics

2604-648: The Empire of Japan. One solution was war. During the first part of the Shōwa era, racial discrimination against other Asians was habitual in Imperial Japan, having begun with the start of Japanese colonialism. The Shōwa regime thus preached racial superiority and racialist theories, based on sacred nature of the Yamato-damashii . One of Emperor Shōwa's teachers, historian Kurakichi Shiratori, remarked, "Therefore nothing in

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2688-572: The Great Powers met to set limits on naval armament. The Five Power Naval Limitation Agreement worked out in Washington limited competition in battleships and aircraft carriers to a ratio of 5:5:3 (in terms of tonnage) for the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan respectively. Japanese ultra-nationalists viewed this as an attempt by Western powers to curb Japanese expansionism in an area of

2772-628: The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The ideology of Japan's colonial empire, as it expanded dramatically during the war, contained two somewhat contradictory impulses. On the one hand, it preached the unity of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere , a coalition of Asian nations, directed by Japan, against Western imperialism . This approach celebrated the spiritual values of the East in opposition to

2856-762: The Marco Polo Bridge, the Japanese Kwantung army stationed there used explosions heard on the Chinese side of Manchuria as a pretext for invasion. The invasion led to a large-scale war known as the Second Sino-Japanese War approved by the Emperor that was called a "holy war" ( Seisen ) in Imperial propaganda . At the time, China was divided internally between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which

2940-534: The Nations for his actions. The withdrawal from the League of Nations meant that Japan was politically isolated. Japan had no strong allies and its actions had been internationally condemned , whilst internally popular nationalism was booming. Local leaders, such as mayors, teachers, and Shinto priests were recruited by the various movements to indoctrinate the populace with ultra-nationalist ideals. They had little time for

3024-748: The Netherlands, threatening to restrict the supply of vital materials to the Japanese war machine, especially oil, steel and money. The Japanese army, after sharp defeats by the Russians in Mongolia , wanted to avoid war with the Soviet Union, even though it would have aided the German war against the USSR . The Emperor became fatalistic about going to war, as the military assumed more and more control. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe

3108-434: The Philippines, Malaysia , Papua New Guinea , French Indochina , Burma and many Pacific islands . The decisive naval/aerial Battle of Midway took place in early June 1942. That changed the momentum of the war. Japan was put on the defensive as the Americans pursued their policy of island hopping . Tokyo was repeatedly firebombed in 1945 and in the early spring and summer of 1945, Iwo Jima and Okinawa were seized by

3192-488: The Philippines, and 50 percent of military fatalities in China. The aerial bombing of a total of 69 Japanese cities appears to have taken a minimum of 400,000 and possibly closer to 600,000 civilian lives (over 100,000 in Tokyo alone, over 200,000 in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, and 80,000–150,000 civilian deaths in the battle of Okinawa). Civilian deaths among settlers who died attempting to return to Japan from Manchuria in

3276-486: The United States and dropped Japanese immigrants to the level of other Asians (who were already excluded). The overwhelming reaction in Japan, both at the highest levels and in mass rallies that reflected angry public opinion, was hostile and sustained. Commentators suggested the opening guns of a race war and called for a new buildup of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces . The Shōwa financial crisis

3360-405: The age of 25 the right to vote, provided they had lived in their electoral districts for at least one year and were not homeless. The electorate thereby nearly quadrupled in size, from 3.3 million to 12.5 million. However the forces of reaction grew more powerful and steadily; after 1925 there was a retreat from reform, liberal policies and democracy. Pressure from the conservative right forced

3444-451: The army's offensive. The Kwantung Army conquered all of Manchuria and set up the puppet state of Manchukuo on March 1, 1932. The last Emperor of China , Puyi , was installed as the puppet ruler of Manchukuo. The Diet, now dominated by army officials, voted to withdraw from the League of Nations . The first seeds of the coming conflict had been sown. Prior to 1868, most Japanese more readily identified with their feudal domain rather than

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3528-449: The country. The Seido-kai was the only designated yakuza syndicate absent from this event. The second president Namikawa has allegedly maintained a close relationship with Kunio Inoue. Inoue is the president of the fourth-generation Yamaken-gumi , an affiliate of the largest-known Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate. The Kyushu Seido-kai's illegal activities have allegedly included loansharking and methamphetamine trafficking . The Seido-kai

3612-512: The creation of a Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere . Indeed, the Second Sino-Japanese War fueled the need for oil that could be found in the Dutch East Indies . After the Imperial General Headquarters refused to remove its troops from China (excluding Manchukuo ) and French Indochina , U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced in July 1941 an oil embargo on Japan. The Imperial Japanese Navy , increasingly threatened by

3696-569: The early 2000s, the Fukuoka Prefectural Police headquarters disclosed that its classified information had leaked out to the Dojin-kai via its branch police departments based in the Chikugo region including Kurume . Sh%C5%8Dwa period The Shōwa era ( 昭和時代 , Shōwa jidai , [ɕoːwadʑidai] ) is a historical period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) from December 25, 1926, until his death on January 7, 1989 . It

3780-454: The era name Meiwa ( 明和 ) during the Edo period in the late-18th century. There were two other candidates at the time – Dōwa ( 同和 ) and Genka ( 元化 ). The term could be roughly understood as meaning "enlightened peace" or in some interpretations "radiant Japan". In his enthronement address which was read to the people, the Emperor referenced this era name : I have visited the battlefields of

3864-620: The focus of the nationalist movement in Japan. Japanese nationalism was buoyed by a romantic concept of Bushidō and driven by a modern concern for rapid industrial development and strategic dominance in East Asia . It saw the Triple Intervention of 1895 as a threat to Japanese success in East Asia and warned that the " ABCD Powers " (America, Britain , China , and the Dutch ), were threatening

3948-412: The formal end of the emperor's status as a demigod and the transformation of Japan from a form of mixed constitutional and absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary system with a liberal democracy . In 1952, with the Treaty of San Francisco , Japan became a sovereign state again. The postwar Shōwa period was characterized by the Japanese economic miracle . The Shōwa era

4032-424: The globe over which they had no interest. However, those in power in Japan readily agreed to the disarmament, realizing that the global taste for war had been soured after the First World War and knowing that, the ratio was sufficient to maintain hegemony in the Pacific. In 1924, however, friendly U.S.–Japanese relations were torpedoed by the Immigration Act of 1924 . The act closed off Japanese immigration to

4116-418: The idea of "Japan" as a whole. When the Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown, the leaders of the revolt, Satsuma and Chōshū , were ideologically opposed to the house of Tokugawa since the Battle of Sekigahara . The Meiji era changed all of that. With the introduction of mass education , conscription , industrialization , centralization , and successful foreign wars, Japanese nationalism began to foment as

4200-411: The late 2000s, especially in 2011, when they started using military machine guns and tossing grenades at each other. Many Seido members have escaped from Kyushu since the late 2000s, building an eight-story bulletproof building in Taito, Tokyo as their new base. The first Seido president, Chojiro Murakami, was arrested in Ibaraki Prefecture . Kazuma Umeki, one of the top underbosses in the Seido-kai,

4284-431: The loss of its oil supplies, insisted on a decision, warning the alternatives were a high risk war, that Japan might lose, or a certain descent into third class status and a loss of China and Manchuria. Officially the Emperor made the decision, but he was told by a key civilian official on 5 November 1941: it is impossible, from the standpoint of our domestic political situation and of our self-preservation, to accept all of

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4368-485: The new atomic weapons were a surprise. Japan lacked any atomic bomb technology and could not counter it. The government of the Empire of Japan (Prime Minister Kantarō Suzuki ) surrendered on August 14. The official surrender ceremony was held on September 2. Total Japanese military fatalities between 1937 and 1945 were 2.1 million; most came in the last year of the war. Starvation or malnutrition-related illness accounted for roughly 80 percent of Japanese military deaths in

4452-399: The next six months, the Japanese had the initiative and went on the offensive. Hong Kong was overrun on December 8, 1941. By the summer of 1942, the Japanese had conquered Burma , Siam , the Dutch East Indies , and the Philippines . The Empire of Japan was one of the largest in history. In 1942 the Empire of Japan was at its greatest extent with colonies in Manchuria, China, Indonesia ,

4536-404: The northern Kyushu region such as the Taishu-kai and Kudo-kai , the Dojin-kai has been noted for its aggressive and violent nature, causing numerous bloody conflicts with other yakuza groups. Notable ones include the Yama-Michi War ( 山道抗争 , 1986–1987 ), where the organization substantially expelled the largest known Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate from the northern Kyushu area. Another notable one

4620-417: The onset of hostilities between Japan and China. On September 27, 1940, the Tripartite Pact was signed, creating the Rome-Tokyo-Berlin Axis . The alliance was shallow, with very little coordination or mutual help until the last two years of the war, when it was too late to make much difference. By 1938, the United States increasingly was committed to supporting China and, with the cooperation of Britain and

4704-438: The passage of the Peace Preservation Law of 1925 along with other anti- left-wing legislation, only ten days before the passage of universal manhood suffrage. The Peace Preservation Act curtailed activism on the left—which was not extensive—and the screws were steadily tightened. It outlawed groups that sought to alter the system of government or to abolish private ownership. The small leftist movements that had been galvanized by

4788-513: The populace a sense of martial pride in their country. The rise of Japanese nationalism paralleled the growth of nationalism within the West. Certain conservatives such as Gondō Seikei and Asahi Heigo saw the rapid industrialization of Japan as something that had to be tempered. During the Meiji era, such nationalists railed against the unequal treaties , but in the years following the First World War , Western criticism of Japanese imperial ambitions and restrictions on Japanese immigration changed

4872-451: The pragmatic ideas of the business elite and party politicians. Their loyalty lay to the Emperor and the military. In March 1932 the " League of Blood " assassination plot and the chaos surrounding the trial of its conspirators further eroded the rule of democratic law in Shōwa Japan. In May of the same year a group of right-wing Army and Navy officers succeeded in assassinating the Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi . The plot fell short of staging

4956-590: The superior Japanese army. By October, Chiang Kai-shek 's best armies had been defeated at Shanghai . By the end of the year, the Chinese capital at Nanjing had also been seized . The use of brutal scorched earth tactics by both sides, the Chinese as in 1938 Yellow River flood and later by the Japanese with the Three Alls Policy , "kill all, burn all, loot all", initiated in 1940, claimed millions of lives. The Chinese nationalists resorted to massive civilian guerrilla tactics, which fatigued and frustrated Japanese forces. Countless Chinese civilians were executed on

5040-462: The suspicion of being resistance fighters. Japanese war crimes at Nanking and other sites in China and Manchukuo have been well documented. On December 13, 1937, the Imperial Japanese Army , following the capture of Nanjing, began the Nanjing Massacre (sometimes called the "Rape of Nanking"), which resulted in a massive number of civilian deaths including infants and elderly, and the large-scale rape of Chinese women. The exact number of casualties

5124-410: The symbol of the state. Kokutai was seen as the barrier against communist and socialist movements in Japan. With the challenge of the Great Depression on the horizon, this would be the death knell for parliamentary democracy in Japan. After World War I , the Western Powers, influenced by Wilsonian ideology, attempted an effort at general disarmament. At the Washington Naval Conference of 1921–1922,

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5208-417: The tankers taking oil to Japan were sunk by American submarines, so Japan's oil shortage became increasingly acute. Japan sponsored an Indonesian nationalist movement under Sukarno . Sukarno finally came to power in the late 1940s after several years of battling the Dutch. With the defeat of the Empire of Japan , the Allied Powers dissolved it and placed the territories under occupation. The Soviet Union

5292-405: The time of the Yama-Michi War , there were several offers of help from other organizations but the Dojin-kai reportedly rejected all of them. The Dojin-kai is a member of an anti- Yamaguchi fraternal federation, the Yonsha-kai, formed with three other northern-Kyushu based independent yakuza syndicates, the Kudo-kai , Taishu-kai and Kumamoto-kai, however even the Kudo-kai, the principal member,

5376-399: The war progresses, there is some prospect of success. With the Emperor's approval, Imperial General Headquarters launched the Greater East Asia War . It began with a surprise attack on the U.S. naval base in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Japan declared war to the United States, Dutch and British. This marked the start of the Pacific War theatre of World War II . For

5460-448: The wartime techno-fascism into entrepreneurial management skills. The Japanese government established puppet regimes in Manchuria and China; they were dismantled at the end of the war. The Army operated ruthless governments in most of the conquered areas but paid more favorable attention to the Dutch East Indies. The main goal was to obtain oil. The Dutch sabotaged their oil wells but the Japanese were able to reopen them. However most of

5544-409: The winter of 1945 were probably around 100,000. Japan launched multiple attacks in East Asia. In 1937, the Japanese Army invaded and captured most of the coastal Chinese cities such as Shanghai. On 22 September 1940, the Japanese invasion of French Indochina began. Japan took over French Indochina ( Vietnam , Laos and Cambodia ), British Malaya ( Brunei , Malaysia and Singapore ) as well as

5628-421: The world compares to the divine nature (shinsei) of the imperial house and likewise the majesty of our national polity ( kokutai ). Here is one great reason for Japan's superiority." The Anti-Comintern Pact brought Nazi ideologues to Japan who attempted but ultimately failed to inject Nazi-style anti-Semitic arguments into mainstream public discussion. Where the government presented the popular image of Jews, it

5712-462: The world." Imperial Japanese Army General Kiichiro Higuchi and Colonel Norihiro Yasue allowed 20,000 Jews to enter Manchukuo in 1938. Higuchi and Yasue were well regarded for their actions and were subsequently invited to the independence ceremonies of the State of Israel. Diplomat Chiune Sugihara wrote travel visas for over 6,000 Lithuanian Jews to flee the German occupation and travel to Japan. In 1985, Israel honored him as Righteous Among

5796-402: Was a financial panic in 1927, during the first year of the reign of Emperor Hirohito. It was a precursor of the Great Depression . It brought down the government of Prime Minister Wakatsuki Reijirō and led to the domination of the zaibatsu over the Japanese banking industry . From 1928 to 1932, a domestic crisis could no longer be avoided. As the left was vigorously put down by the state,

5880-438: Was allegedly the largest drug trading division of the Dojin-kai, as rumored by some local Omuta in-the-know men, hence the informal dub name of the "Seido Pharmacy". Even the 55-year-old founding president Murakami was arrested for methamphetamine possession. On June 11, 2013, Kyushu Seido-kai announced the end of its gang war with Dojin-kai as well as its dissolution. Dojin-kai The Dojin-kai ( 道仁会 , Dōjin-kai )

5964-494: Was attacked with a 10-ton dump truck driven by a Dojin yakuza, and in April 2011, two Seido seniors were shot with a revolver in Imari by a Dojin hitman, and Sueharu Matsunaga, the head of the Seido's Matsunaga group, was killed with a bomb. Sometimes informally and mockingly dubbed the "Dojin Pharmacy" ( Dōjin Yakkyoku ), the Dojin-kai's activities, just same as its splinter group Seido-kai 's, allegedly largely consist of drug trafficking . In one notable case, as introduced in

6048-420: Was far ahead of China in this respect, and was also in command of the world's third largest navy with 2,700 watercraft at its disposal. By the end of July 1937, the Japanese had slaughtered the elite 29th Army at Kupeikou and soon captured Beijing . From there, the Japanese advanced down south through the major railway lines (Peiping-Suiyan, Peiping-Hankow, and Tientsin-Pukow). These were easily conquered by

6132-478: Was formed in 1971 from four old yakuza groups united by the first president, Isoji Koga (former bakuto yakuza born 1934 ). Seijiro Matsuo, the Secretary General of the first-generation Dojin-kai, succeeded as the president in 1992. In the same year, 1992, the Dojin-kai was registered as a designated boryokudan group under the Organized Crime Countermeasures Law. Very much like other yakuza groups based in

6216-522: Was longer than the reign of any previous Japanese emperor . Emperor Shōwa was both the longest-lived and longest-reigning historical Japanese emperor as well as the longest-reigning monarch in the world at the time. On 7 January 1989, Crown Prince Akihito succeeded to the Chrysanthemum Throne upon the death of his father, Emperor Shōwa, which marked the start of the Heisei era . Emperor Hirohito

6300-643: Was made responsible for North Korea , and annexed the Kuril Islands and the southern portion of the island of Sakhalin . The United States took responsibility for the rest of Japan's possessions in Oceania and took over South Korea . China, meanwhile, plunged back into its civil war , with the Communists in control by 1949. General Douglas MacArthur , from the US, was put in charge of the Allied Occupation of Japan as

6384-422: Was not so much to persecute but to strengthen domestic ideological uniformity. The anti-Semitic policies of Adolf Hitler 's Nazi Germany were refused when foreign minister of Japan Yōsuke Matsuoka stated that: "Nowhere have I promised that we would carry out his anti-Semitic policies in Japan. This is not simply my personal opinion, it is the opinion of Japan, and I have no compunction about announcing it to

6468-479: Was preceded by the Taishō era and succeeded by the Heisei era . The pre-1945 and post-war Shōwa periods are almost completely different states: the pre-1945 Shōwa era (1926–1945) concerns the Empire of Japan , and post-1945 Shōwa era (1945–1989) concerns the State of Japan . Before 1945, Japan moved into political totalitarianism, ultranationalism and statism , culminating in Japan's invasion of China in 1937, part of

6552-491: Was replaced by the war cabinet of General Hideki Tojo (1884–1948), who demanded war. Tōjō had his way and the attack was made on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, as well as British and Dutch strong points. The main American battle fleet was disabled, and in the next 90 days Japan made remarkable advances including the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, Malaya and Singapore. The quagmire in China did not stall imperial ambitions for

6636-465: Was served by total of 33 prime ministers , beginning with Wakatsuki Reijiro and ending with Noboru Takeshita . The two kanji characters in Shōwa ( 昭和 ) were from a passage of the Chinese Book of Documents : 百姓昭明，協和萬邦 (Translated: "[T]he people (of his domain), ... all became brightly intelligent. (Finally), he united and harmonized the myriad states.") From this same quotation, Japan also adopted

6720-499: Was shot on November 14, 1930, by an ultranationalist and died in 1931. By this time, the civilian government had lost control of the populace. A New York Times correspondent called Japan a country ruled by "government by assassination". The army, moving independently of the proper government of Japan, took the opportunity to invade Manchuria in the summer of 1931. Since the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, Japan had maintained

6804-557: Was swiftly countered by the United States . Thanks to back-room dealing and other intrigues, though, Japan walked away with a 5:4 advantage in heavy cruisers, but this small gesture would not satisfy the populace of Japan, which was gradually falling under the spell of the various ultra-nationalist groups spawning throughout the country. As a result of his failings regarding the London Naval Treaty, Prime Minister Hamaguchi Osachi

6888-428: Was to assassinate the government and promote a "Shōwa Restoration". Prime Minister Okada survived the attempted coup by hiding in a storage shed in his house, but the coup only ended when the Emperor personally ordered an end to the bloodshed. Within the state, the idea of a Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere began to foment. The nationalists believed that the "ABCD powers" (Americans, British, Chinese, Dutch) were

6972-460: Was totally destroyed, apparently by Dojin-kai's bombs. On June 13, 2007, Zenji Tsurumaru was killed. On June 19, Hidenori Irie was killed. On August 18, the leader of Dojin-kai, Yoshihisa Onaka was killed. On November 8, a civilian Hiroshi Miyamoto was killed by mistake while receiving treatment at a hospital. On November 12, Shigeki Koga was killed. On November 27, Yoshikazu Matsuo, one of the chairmen, and his driver were killed. Both groups announced

7056-508: Was under the leadership of Mao Zedong , and the Nationalist government of China, the Kuomintang (KMT), which was under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek . The years of 1937–38 were a time of rapid and remarkable success by the Japanese, who had a number of advantages over the Chinese army. While the Japanese army possessed a smaller force of armour and artillery than many Western powers, it

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