Japanese general election, 1942
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The 21st General Election of Japan of the House of Representatives took place in Japan on April 30, 1942. It was the only election in Japan during the Pacific theater of World War II. At this time, the lower house no longer had any significant executive and legislative power, and power had increasingly gone to the military since the "Manchurian Incident", the invasion of Manchuria by the Imperial Army without regard to the (then still civilian) cabinet in 1931. Since 1932 when Admiral Viscount Saitō Makoto was appointed prime minister with the first so-called "national unity cabinet", few members of the political parties in the House of Representatives had any significant role in government.
The government of prime minister Hideki Tōjō held the election as a "General Election to Support the Greater East Asia War" at the end of April 1942, just days after the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.
In 1940, all political parties were forced to merge into the Imperial Rule Assistance Association (Taisei Yokusankai), a pro-military political organization headed by former prime minister Nobuyuki Abe. The likewise fascist Touhou Party broke away from the Taisei Yokusankai and turned against prime minister Hideki Tōjō. Among those running against the Taisei Yokunsakai, only the Touhou Party was allowed to run in the election as non-partisans. Among those anti-war and neutral politicians, the comparatively mild politicians successfully ran as non-partisans too. Some of those "independents" who failed to gain a seat were expelled. Those "independents" and expelled politicians were mainly the ruling class after the war. As communist groups, left-wing groups, and anti-war groups were illegal since 1940, they were unable to name a candidate in the election. Communists, left-wing politicians and radical anti-military politicians were arrested and not even allowed to run as independents, although anti-war politician Saito Takao who was expelled from the diet in 1941 was re-elected again.
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