01 Chapter H:Master Testpages Enigma 6/6/07 15:01 Page 1
CHAPTER 1
Emperor Hirohito and the February 26 Army Uprising
‘I shall personally assume command of the Imperial Guards Division ...’
Tempered pride n 8 September 1932, accompanied by members of his staff, OLieutenant General Honjo¯ Shigeru, former commander-in- chief of the Kwantung Army, appeared before the emperor to report on military affairs in Manchuria. Arriving at Tokyo Station at 11 o’clock in the morning, Honjo¯ and his entourage were met by a horse-drawn carriage provided by the Imperial Household Ministry, and rode in style across the Niju¯bashi Bridge into the palace grounds. After a formal greeting, there was to be a luncheon in the Hall of Ceremonies (Homeiden) hosted by the emperor himself, followed by tea and an opportunity for more informal conversation. All in all, it was top-drawer treatment, the kind that would be accorded to a triumphant commander. Considering General Honjo¯’s recent achievements, such a reception was to be expected: his ten-thousand-man Kwantung Army had routed a Chinese force some ten times its strength, brought almost all of Manchuria under Japanese control in just six months, and had founded the new state of Manchukuo. But there were factors which tempered Honjo¯’s pride; he was no Scipio returning from Carthage flushed with victory. For one thing, the spark that ignited the Manchurian Incident, the demolition of a section of South Manchurian Railway track, was the result of a plot masterminded by Lt. Colonel Ishiwara Kanji and Colonel Itagaki Seishiro¯ of Honjo¯’s own staff. Honjo¯ had reacted by going ahead with ever-expanding military operations, ignoring the
1 01 Chapter H:Master Testpages Enigma 6/6/07 15:01 Page 2
Hirohito: The Sho¯wa Emperor in War and Peace
Japanese government’s international assurances that it would not expand hostilities, and brushing aside the attempts of the high command in Tokyo to limit the conflict. Moreover, the Kwantung Army had soon been joined by elements of the Japanese army in Korea, also acting independently, which had crossed the border into Manchuria on the pretext of coming to the aid of Honjo¯’s forces. All of this radically overstepped the bounds of independent initiative (dokudan senko¯ ) permitted by the Imperial Army Field Code, and could easily have been punished by court martial as criminal acts violating the emperor’s right of supreme command over the armed forces. Yet the emperor was widely seen as a remote figure – ‘above the clouds’, in the traditional phrase – unlikely to be aware of such events. At least that is what Major Katakura Tadashi, one of the staff officers who accompanied Honjo¯ to the imperial audience, thought. What he heard there startled him out of his complacency. During the informal discussion after the luncheon, the emperor turned to Honjo¯ and said quite bluntly: ‘There are rumours that the Manchurian Incident was a plot on the part of certain individuals – Is there anything to that?’ A hush fell over the room. General Honjo¯ rose to his feet, bowed deeply, and responded: ‘After the Incident, I too heard it said that a plot had been engineered by some army men and civilians, but I assure you that neither the Kwantung Army nor I were involved in any plot at the time.’l The emperor did not pursue the matter any further, much to Katakura’s relief, and no doubt to that of Lt. Colonel Ishiwara Kanji, ringleader of the plot, who was also present to hear Honjo¯ ’s smooth reply. Ishiwara, with remarkable arrogance, muttered: ‘Somebody’s certainly been whispering a lot of stuff in His Majesty’s ear.’ About six months after the audience, in April 1933, Honjo¯ was promoted to the rank of full general, and assigned to serve at the emperor’s side as his chief aide-de- camp.2 At the time, the newspapers said that ‘the incomparable integrity and loyalty of his character’ had inspired those selecting Honjo¯ for this post; how mistaken this judgement was would become glaringly obvious during the February 26 Incident two- and-a-half years later. Katakura and Itagaki would also be caughtup
2