After the war, Araki returned to graduate from the
Imperial Japanese Army General Staff in April 1908 and served as a language officer stationed in Russia from November 1909 to May 1913, when he was made military attaché to Saint Petersburg during World War I. He was promoted to major in November 1909 and to lieutenant colonel in August 1915 and was assigned to the Kwantung Army
.
Promoted to colonel on July 24, 1918, Araki served as a Staff Officer at Expeditionary Army Headquarters in
Bolshevik Red Army, and was commander of the 23rd Infantry Regiment. During his time in Siberia, Araki carried out secret missions in the Russian Far East and in Lake Baikal
.
Promoted to
Provost Marshal General from January 1924 to May 1925, wheby he rejoined the Army General Staff as a Bureau Chief. Araki was promoted to lieutenant general
in July 1927 and became Commandant of the Army War College in August 1928.
Araki served as commander of the
IJA 6th Division from 1929 through 1931, when he was appointed Deputy Inspector General of Military Training, one of the most prestigious posts within the army. He was promoted to the rank of full general in October 1933.[1]
Cabinet minister
On 31 December 1931, Araki was appointed
Minister of War
in the cabinet of
May 15 Incident caused Inukai to be assassinated by ultranationalist navy officers for resisting the Army's war demands. Araki praised the assassins and called them "irrepressible patriots."[2] He also supported General Shirō Ishii and his biological warfare research project, Unit 731.[citation needed
In September 1932, Araki started to become more outspoken in promoting
Kodoha ("The Imperial Way"), which linked the Emperor, the people, land, and morality as one indivisible entity, and he emphasized State Shinto
. Araki also strongly promoted Seishin Kyoiku (spiritual training) for the army.
Araki became a member of the
February 26 Incident
. The rebellion failed. However, unlike with previous rebellions, there were serious consequences. Nineteen of the rebel leaders were executed, and another 40 were imprisoned. Kodoha generals were purged from the Army, including Araki, who was forced to retire in March.
Kokutai no Hongi ("Japan's Fundamentals of National Policy"), and the "moral national bible" Shinmin no Michi ("The Path of Subjects"), an effective catechism on national, religious, cultural, social, and ideological topics. Araki continued to serve as Education Minister when Konoe was succeeded as prime minister by Hiranuma Kiichirō
. He then continued to serve as an advisor to the government as a State Councillor.
Political career
Time Magazine
cover (1933)
In 1924, Araki founded the
coups d'état
.
As a colonel, Araki was the principal proponent of the
moderates. Both groups had a common intellectual origin in the Double Leaf Society, a 1920s military thinking group supporting samurai
wage aggressive war but was released from Sugamo Prison in 1955 for health reasons.[3] Like other Japanese peers, he was stripped of his hereditary peerage in 1947 upon the abolition of the Kazoku
Young, Louise (2001). Japan's Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism (Twentieth Century Japan: the Emergence of a World Power). University of California Press.
