Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (257 page)

82.
Although Japan contributed financially to the League on a reduced basis until 1938, Matsuoka's walkout ended its thirteen-year political relationship with the international body.

83.
Harada nikki, dai sankan
, p. 46. Honj
Shigeru, in his diary entry of Feb. 8, 1934 (pp. 185–86) claims that the emperor told him that “[a]t the time of our withdrawal from the League, groups such as the Imperial Military Reservists Association sent telegrams directly to the League of Nations,
or forcefully conveyed their opinions to the chief aide-de-camp and the grand chamberlain. Worried that they were exceeding their spheres of authority, I cautioned that everyone should fulfill their own duties.”

84.
Inoue,
Tenn
no sens
sekinin
, p. 58;
Harada nikki, dai sankan
, p. 46.

85.
MNN
, p. 546.

86.
On Sept. 19, 1931, Sasagawa Ry
ichi, leader of the right-wing Kokusui Taish
t
[National Essence Mass Party] visited the Osaka
Asahi shinbun
to complain about the
Asahi
's “lukewarm” editorials about the army in Manchuria. A few days later Uchida Ry
hei, president of the Kokury
kai, threatened the
Asahi
for not doing a properly patriotic job. Such pressure, applied early, easily turned the major dailies into avid supporters of militarism. See Arai Naoyuki, “Tenn
h
d
no naniga kawari, nani ga kawaranakatta no ka,” in Nihon Jyânarisuto Kaigi, ed.,
Yameru masu komi to Nihon
(K
bunky
, 1995), pp. 181–82.