Imperial Way Faction

The Imperial Way Faction (皇道派, Kōdōha^?) was a political faction in the Imperial Japanese Army, active in the 1920s and 1930s and largely supported by junior officers aiming to establish a military government that promoted totalitarian, militarist, and expansionist ideals. It was never an organized political party and had no official standing within the Army.

The economic growth Japan had enjoyed during World War I ended in the early 1920s with the Shōwa financial crisis. Social unrest increased with the increasing polarization of society, with the labor unions increasingly influenced by socialism, communism and anarchism, but the industrial and financial leaders of Japan continued to get wealthier through their inside connections with politicians and bureaucrats. The military was considered "clean" in terms of political corruption, and elements within the army were determined to take direct action to eliminate the perceived threats to Japan created by the weaknesses of liberal democracy and political corruption.

The founders of the Kōdōha were Sadao Araki and his protégé Jinzaburō Masaki. Araki was a noted political philosopher within the army, who linked the ancient bushido code of the samurai with ideas similar to European fascism to form the ideological basis of his philosophy, which linked the Emperor, the people, land and morality as one and indivisible.

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