Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (258 page)

87.
The forced conversion to emperor ideology of many imprisoned communist intellectuals—the most dynamic opponents of Japanese militarism—occurred around the same time, paving the way for the destruction of the Left. However, the most privileged group in Japanese society set the precedent of apostasy.

88.
During the secret session of the House of Peers, Akaike Atsushi, former superintendent of the Metropolitan Police, raved about a conspiracy against Japan by “the secret society called the Freemasons, or the Jews behind the scene.” Professor Yamamuro Shinichi of Kyoto University criticized the reasoning of his fellow peers who “self-righteously” insisted on believing that Japan alone was correct and the League was “one-sidedly oppressing” it. See
Asahi shinbun
, June 5, 1995; Sh
giin Jimukyoku, ed.,
Teikoku gikai sh
giin himitsukai giji sokkirokush
1
(Sh
eikai, 1996), pp. 247–55.

89.
For a helpful overview, see Waldo H. Heinrichs, Jr., “1931–1937,” in Ernest R. May and James C. Thomson, Jr., ed.,
American-East Asian Relations: A Survey
(Harvard Univ. Press, 1972).

90.
Haslam,
The Soviet Union and the Threat from the East, 1933–41
, p. 28. Citing a British military intelligence estimate, Haslam notes that “[by] June [1932]…east of Irkutsk in Siberia Soviet forces had grown to just over 200,000 men, excluding border troops.” The Soviet war preparations to counter the threat from Japan's Kwantung Army exacerbated food shortages in European Russia.

91.
Katsuno,
Sh
wa tenn
no sens
, p. 59;
KYN, dai rokkan
, p. 18. Minami's views on Manchuria were quickly challenged by Prime Minister Inukai, who opposed the creation of Manchukuo. The population of Japan in 1940 had risen to 71.4 million. See
Historical Statistics of Japan
, vol. 1 (Japan Statistical Association, 1987), p. 168.

92.
KYN, dai rokkan
, p. 25; Katsuno,
Sh
wa tenn
no sens
, pp. 59–60. Matsuoka's court sponser was Privy Seal Makino.

93.
Quoted in Sh
ji Junichir
, “Konoe Fumimaro z
no saikent
: taigai ishiki o ch
shin ni,” in Kindai Gaik
shi Kenky
kai, ed.,
Hend
ki no Nihon gaik
to gunji
(Hara Shob
, 1987), pp. 101–2.