Japanese Army Factions And Strategic Decision Making

On the process of its overseas expansion before the WWII, fierce controversies on aggressive strategy existed within Japanese high-level leadership, especially within Japanese Army. Those factions and cliques in Japanese Army deeply effected Japan’s domestic and overseas strategic decision making. It is the purpose of this paper to trace the evolution of factionalism within the Japanese Army, base on scholarly literature, and on records available, so as to reveal those strategic options made under the influence of the factionalism.At the beginning of its foundation, Japanese Army had strong character of township party. With growth and decline of power between Choshu Faction and anti-Choshu Faction, contradiction between Reformers Faction and Faith Faction intensified. The Reformers Faction quickly exhibited its capacity of dominating the situation, and turned into Cross-sectional Faction. Thereafter, with the rising of the Young Officers Renovation Movement, and with the recombination among the staff of the Renovation Faction, KōdōOfficers and Tōseiha Faction emerged. The latter two groups diverged from each other on the leadership of Japanese Army, and on domestic and overseas strategy. Finally, the Tōseiha Faction prevailed. Nevertheless, there were also intense differences on aggressive tactics among Tōseiha Faction, which led to further split within the Tōseiha faction. Those who insisted that Japan should wage a total war against China, and speed up its southward advance strategy immediately, became the Expansionist Faction or Strike the South Faction. And those who held all the opposite opinions became non-Expansionist Faction or Strike the North Faction. The former was more aggressive, so the non-Expansionist Faction lost power and influence suddenly.As the core factions in Japanese Army, Tōseiha Faction, Expansionist Faction and Strike the South Faction played main role in strategic decision making. Tōseiha Faction controlled the Imperial Army, helped the establishment of the Japanese fascist system, and promoted the total war system. Moreover, it suggested that put Strike the South and North strategy into practice synchronously. Expansionist Faction and Strike the South Faction considered the United Kingdom and the United States as the primary potential enemy, insisted on defeating China and striving for hegemony of Far East in short order, which brought on the total war against China, and the breakout of the Pacific War. In the meantime, although KōdōOfficers, non-Expansionist Faction and Strike the North Faction hold similar ideas with fractions mentioned above in terms of war objectives, they put their thoughts into action in other ways. Such issues as Nation Renovation movement, preparation for war against Soviet Union and idea of guiding China pushed by the KōdōOfficers, laid the foundation of Fascist System in Japanese Military Ministry, and of Japan’s strategic evolution thereafter. Non-Expansionist Faction sought to control China in conciliatory way. As a result,“invasion”and“negotiation”became indispensable parts of Japan’s war against China, which disintegrated China’s anti-Japanese united front to a certain extent. Furthermore, as Strike the North Faction in Tōseiha Faction, Non-Expansionist Faction stood for the construction of“Manchukuo”by all-out efforts, in order to lay a course for a successful Strike the North strategy, to subdue Soviet Union, and advance into Pacific region. However, Strike the North strategy didn’t work well. To some extent, this promoted Strike the South strategy to its full implement.It was obvious that mainstream and non-mainstream factions in Japanese Army had great differences on the way of achieving Japan’s strategic objectives. The mainstream factions predominated the strategic decision making, planned and implemented the war on China as a whole, and played crucial roles in strategic evolution. Meanwhile, although the non-mainstream factions failed to actualize their own strategic project, the conciliatory manner and step by step tactics suggested by them were even more dangerous and conspicuous. They played an irreplaceable role in Japan’s domestic and overseas strategic evolution. To sum up, different factions in Japanese Army held different strategic visions. Nevertheless, they all sought to establish the leadership of Japanese Military Ministry, and to win the war against China, which collectively influenced Japan’s strategic decision making, and general strategic evolution in different ways.