A militarist leader of Japan's Imperial Way faction
Sadao Araki was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army and a leading figure of the Imperial Way faction, advocating a militarism that joined emperor-centered national reconstruction to external expansion. As Army Minister after the 1931 Manchurian Incident, he helped consolidate the Kwantung Army's fait accompli into state policy and supported the Northern Expansion Doctrine aimed at the Soviet Far East. Yet the young officers he had cultivated escaped his control and erupted in the February 26 Incident, after which he left active service. Convicted of Class A war crimes at the postwar International Military Tribunal for the Far East, he received a life sentence and was released in 1955.
Career Timeline
- 1897Graduated from Army Academy and commissioned
- 1907Graduated first in class from Army Staff College
- 1915–1918Military observer with Russian forces; took part in Siberian Intervention
- 1924–1925Provost Marshal General
- 1928–1930Commandant of the Army Staff College
- 1931–1934Army Minister; advanced consolidation of the Kwantung Army's occupation of Manchuria and recognition of Manchukuo
- 1938–1939Education Minister; promoted Imperial Way education and wartime mobilization
- 1946–1955Convicted at the IMTFE, imprisoned, and released