Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (27 page)

In early February 1921, with the forty-fourth Diet still in session and the problem of the
kokutai
threatening to surface as a weapon in the hands of the opposition parties, Prime Minister Hara withdrew his support for Yamagata. Fearful of losing control of the situation and of being labeled a “national traitor,” Yamagata, one of
the most powerful figures in the Japanese political world, yielded to the forces centered in the civilian right wing. Imperial Household Minister Nakamura also submitted to Sugiura, as did another Yamagata backer, the high court official Hirata T
suke. Faced with all these losses, and sharing Hara's deep concern about the growing politicization of the crown prince's engagement (not to mention the activities of the R
ninkai and the threat to his own life), Yamagata gave up the struggle.

On the evening of February 10, 1921, officials of the Imperial Household Ministry and Home Ministry informed the Tokyo newspapers that the crown prince's engagement would go ahead as planned and that Nakamura and his vice minister, Ishihara Kenz
, had both resigned.
²⁶
On February 12, the
Yomiuri shinbun
published a scathing editorial against Yamagata, for having precipitated “a certain grave incident at court.” Ten days later Yamagata offered to resign as
genr
and president of the privy council and to return his many medals and renounce his titles. He noted in his diary that “Today's Home Ministry and Metropolitan Police Board seem unable to control [the forces of the far right]…. I would like to borrow about fifty stalwarts from the army minister and wipe them all out.”
²⁷
Hara and the court declined to accept his resignation, but Yamagata had clearly fallen from power. The positions of
genr
Matsukata and Saionji, who had sided with Yamagata in his opposition to the marriage, had also been slightly weakened. To help calm the situation at court, the
genr
recommended that Makino step in and assume a prominent role in managing court affairs.

On February 15, 1921, the Hara cabinet had the Imperial Household Ministry formally announce that the crown prince would depart on a Western tour. The right wing (represented by Sugiura and T
yama), having won on the issue of Hirohito's marriage, lost on the issue of his Western tour, which had arisen at the onset of the engagement dispute. Hara, the imperial princes, and all the
genr
supported the tour, seeing it, in part, as a way of coping
with the postwar enthusiasm for democratic reform; the ultranationalists opposed it as “a rash act of worshipping foreign thought.”

The “grave incident at court” shows how easily problems involving the imperial house could engender heated partisan political controversy. From this seemingly minor episode in the history of the imperial house emerges the prototype of 1930s-style right-wing terrorism. On the issue of Hirohito's marriage, the forces of the right succeeded in frustrating the will of the
genr
and the president of the strongest political party, creating a situation in which the legitimate leaders of the Meiji state were called national traitors.
²⁸

On another level this incident reveals the delicate competition between the current of Taish
democracy on one side and the imperial house and civilian right-wing groups on the other. It also illuminates the entire lineup of political actors in late Taish
politics. These were the Seiy
kai and its Diet opponents, the
genr
and the younger members of the political class, Satsuma and Ch
sh
(or the fief-based political cliques), and the pro-and anti-Yamagata camps. Other protagonists were the Europeanists and pan-Asianists, advocates of continued Westernization and reform of the imperial throne; and advocates of the traditional concept of the
kokutai
, based on myths credulously accepted as fact. All made their appearance just as the
genr
receded from the scene and new political alliances began to form.