Chapter 10 Chapter 2 "Down and Up" (3)

3 At the beginning of the Showa thirteenth year (1938), on the eve of the start of the Xuzhou Battle, the Japanese cabinet held a meeting to study the strategy toward China.What is different from before is that Emperor Hirohito, who was not easy to show up, decided to preside over the meeting in person, thus creating a precedent for the imperial meeting in the base camp.Since then, all major decisions related to the "jihad" process and domestic and foreign affairs must be submitted to the Imperial Council for discussion, and the emperor himself will make a decision. It should be pointed out that the Japanese constitutional monarchy is fundamentally different from the European constitutionalism. The European royal family is a nominal monarchy, that is, it has only symbolic meaning but no real power. For example, the British Constitution clearly stipulates that the highest power belongs to Parliament. No right to interfere in politics.However, the Japanese constitution stipulates that the emperor is not only a symbol of the state, but also the commander-in-chief of the land, sea and air forces, and holds the final adjudication power in wars.In other words, the Emperor of Japan is not in vain. His personal will plays a decisive role in the fate of the country. History has proved that it is the full support of the Emperor that accelerated the pace of expansion of Japanese militarism. , Sending troops to Southeast Asia all received the emperor's personal approval.Therefore, in any sense, the so-called "parliamentary democratic country" by the Japanese is just a name, and its essence is still the imperial rule of feudal emperors.

At this time, the sky over Europe was full of battle clouds, and the Second World War was imminent. The Chinese battlefield did not "solve the battle in three months" as the Japanese expected, but showed a slow and long-lasting stalemate.The emperor was deeply anxious about this.The ministers were told that His Majesty often could not sleep at night because of the worries of the war, which made all the ministers feel guilty and fearful.Of course, the "Amaterasu" worshiped by the Japanese people (the Japanese believe that the emperor is the incarnation of Amaterasu) is of course worried about how Japan can realize its aggressive ambitions as soon as possible.

In the view of some cabinet ministers, the consequences of the rapid expansion of the war have exceeded the original assumptions of the war, because war is only a means, not an end.They believe that the key to solving the China (China) issue is not a full-scale occupation, but a gradual division. China's territory is too large, and Japan's annexation of China is no different from a snake swallowing an elephant. Therefore, the purpose of every military strike against China is not superficial occupation — Occupation is futile, but dismemberment.To achieve the long-term goal of "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity" by repeatedly dismembering China into several independent suzerain states controlled by Japan, just like Japan annexed Taiwan, North Korea and Northeast China.Achieving this strategic goal requires enough time and patience, maybe decades, maybe several generations. For this reason, they proposed to strengthen secret negotiations with the Chiang Kai-shek government while conducting military strikes, and force the other party to accept "North China Autonomy" and other harsh measures. condition.

But the Japanese general was impatient. The stage for soldiers is on the battlefield, and they can't wait for decades, or even a few years. They can't wait, because tomorrow's glory and meritorious service will not belong to today's soldiers.Generations of Japanese have longed to expand their territory and coveted the vast continent across the East China Sea. This is the ambitious dream of the Eastern Empire of the Yamato nation.The Japanese generals, headed by the land and navy ministers, firmly opposed the peace talks. They tried their best to exaggerate that the ancient elephant of China was dying, and it only needed a heavy hammer to send it to the grave.With the occupation of Nanjing, the capital of China, the ambitions of the Japanese generals swelled unprecedentedly, as if the dream of the "Paradise of Kings" was about to come true.Since the soldiers at the front fought bloody battles and marched forward triumphantly, and the people at the rear unanimously embraced "jihad", why does the cabinet have any reason to be hesitant to move forward?The generals threatened to resign en masse if the cabinet tried to negotiate.

The sharp confrontation between "war" and "and" seriously hindered the emperor's judgment. At the imperial meeting, civil servants and military generals accused each other, making Emperor Hirohito tense and silent.At that time, there was a saying that His Majesty the Emperor was suffering from a syndrome of neurological disorders, which made the Japanese monarchs who ruled all over the world look sluggish and dull-eyed, like a lifeless wooden man.Of course, the emperor could not speak casually in front of his officials. His voice was called "Yuyin", which was recorded by the ministers of the palace and passed on as an imperial decree to the world.Until the end of the imperial meeting, when the Minister of Seals announced that the emperor would withdraw from the court, Hirohito still did not say anything, which inevitably made the civil and military officials deeply exhausted and disappointed.But the emperor spoke unexpectedly when he was about to leave the house. His Majesty's "Yuyin" was not aimed at someone, and it had nothing to do with the imperial meeting. Instead, he casually recited a haiku poem from his grandfather, Emperor Meiji: Within the four seas, we are all brothers.

In the vast sea, why fight?Yin Bi left, leaving behind those puzzled officials and looking at each other in blank dismay. Emperor Hirohito is said to have quoted his grandfather's haiku poems many times at the Imperial Council.Emperor Meiji was an idol in Hirohito's mind, and his recitation of his grandfather's poems was tantamount to expressing his inner dissatisfaction in twists and turns.The cabinet ministers held meetings all night in fear and trepidation, and finally reached a compromise with the general, forming a plan and submitting it to the emperor for approval. .The release of this document shows that the civilian cabinet no longer opposes the overall expansion and escalation of the war, while the military department assured the cabinet that "after the Xuzhou battle, the two major (Chinese) dispatched armies maintained their respective postures, and the general policy was not to expand the battle area for the time being. The operation may be launched in the spring of next year (1939)." ("The Army Department of the Base Camp", Sichuan People's Publishing House, 1987 edition)

However, the driving of military chariots is often not based on the will of politicians. The sound of artillery in the Xuzhou battle has not yet stopped, and the ban of "not expanding the battle area for the time being" in the base camp was broken by the North China Dispatch Army. 4 At the time of the fierce battle in Xuzhou, Lianyungang, the outlet of the Longhai Railway, was suddenly attacked by the Japanese fleet. Originally, once Xuzhou was lost, Lianyungang became an isolated city. It was only a matter of time before the fall, so most of the local defenders and residents had already evacuated.The Japanese fleet suddenly appeared on the sea, but formed a powerful formation including aircraft carriers and carrier-based aircraft. In just a few hours, it announced the occupation of Lianyungang, seized a large number of marine supplies and civilian ships, and sent a victory telegram to the base camp that day.

But this "brilliant victory" of the navy greatly angered the army.Originally, the army fought for several months to finally get through the Jinpu Railway, turning the isolated and helpless Lianyungang into a bag. The reason why the North China Dispatch Army was not in a hurry to attack the city was because Lianyungang looked like a duck in a pot to the commander-in-chief of the temple. , it won't fly away even if you put it there.Unfortunately, the cooked duck flew away, and the one who stole the fruits of the Commander-in-Chief's victory was none other than the army's deadly enemy, the naval fleet that claimed to be the boss of the empire.

In fact, the navy has repeatedly created incidents similar to ultra vires attacks, which seriously violated the interests of the army.At the beginning of the year, North China sent troops to attack Shandong, and the navy sent ships to take a shortcut to seize Qingdao, announcing that it would take this important coastal city as its own.This incident once triggered a conflict between the two armies, which almost led to bloodshed. In ancient Japan, "Xiakeshang" specifically refers to a party with a low status who offends the powerful and shows off its prestige, which means rebellion.But in modern times, the meaning of "down to overcome above" has quietly evolved, and it has become an important spiritual slogan and reason for Japanese military groups to interfere in politics and act on their own.

In the fifth year of Showa (1930), the Japanese cabinet decided to compromise with Britain and the United States to reduce naval ships.Prime Minister Yuyuki Hamaguchi was assassinated by a soldier.The assassin was sentenced to death and delivered an impassioned patriotic speech before his execution, becoming a well-known national hero in Japan for a while.After watching the drama adapted from the assassin's story, the emperor publicly expressed his affection for the assassin who was "down to the top". Shortly after Hamaguchi was assassinated, right-wing soldiers planned an armed coup in Tokyo, attempting to establish a military cabinet to achieve a full-scale invasion of China (China), known as the "March Incident" in history.The authorities arrested a large number of coupists, but the strange thing is that the coupists were not severely punished, and even exempted from military discipline.It turned out that the order to pardon the coup elements came from the Japanese imperial palace, and Emperor Hirohito became the biggest umbrella for the soldiers to "undertake the upper hand".

Before the incident in March had subsided, the Japanese army launched the "September 18th Incident" in Northeast China that shocked the world.On the second day of the incident, the cabinet rejected the army's emergency dispatch of troops and established a policy of "no expansion".But the soldiers ignored it at all. The Japanese Kwantung Army and the Korean Army jointly dispatched, and in less than a hundred days they occupied the entire territory of Northeast China, which was twice and a half times the size of Japan's territory. Some far-sighted Japanese politicians deeply felt that the crisis was approaching. The then Prime Minister Reijiro Wakaki said in a cabinet meeting: Once this war breaks out, there will be no peace for Japan.It can be seen that he has foreseen that war against China is a road of no return and will bring disaster to the island nation.Reluctantly, the Japanese soldiers at this time are like the devil released from the bottle in Arabic mythology, and it is too late to stop it. Since then, the political situation in Japan has continued to be turbulent, and the soldiers have done whatever they want, wantonly creating a series of armed and bloody incidents aimed at promoting the fascist junta to power, such as the "October Incident", the "Blood League Incident", and the "May 15 Incident". ", "Teijin Incident", "Shenbing Corps Incident", "November Incident", "Aizawa Incident" and so on.In Showa 7 (1932), hundreds of young Japanese military officers launched a coup d'état, attacking the prime minister's residence, the Metropolitan Police Department, the Bank of Japan, and the headquarters of political parties in Tokyo, and shot and killed the Prime Minister Inukai Takeshi.In the eleventh year of the Showa era (1936), the Japanese Konoe 1st Division stationed in Tokyo staged a mutiny, openly killing former Prime Minister Minoru Saito and Shiki Takahashi, Minister of Education Watanabe and many others, creating a military It was the first of its kind to intervene in politics by force, known as the "February 26 Incident" in history.