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Imperial Valley Press
El Centro, Imperial County, California
What is this article about?
In Tokyo, liberal leader Yukio Ozaki addressed Japan's Diet on Feb. 18, criticizing Japan's inability to compete with major powers and denouncing the army's push for aggressive policies toward China. His speech reignited tensions between the army and parliament, following the recent cabinet change from Hirota to Gen. Senjuro Hayashi. War Minister Sugiyama responded, blaming past political corruption for the 1936 uprising.
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TOKYO, Feb. 18. (U.P.)—Yukio Ozaki, aged liberal leader, declared in The Diet today that Japan has neither the population nor wealth to compete with such powers as the United States, Britain, Soviet Russia or China, with their great resources and millions of inhabitants.
(Japan has a population of 69,254,148 according to census taken in 1935. China's population is roughly estimated at 400,000,000. Populations of the other powers Ozaki mentioned are: United States, 122,775,000; British Empire, approximately 450,000,000; and Soviet Russia, 147,000,000.)
The 79 year old "god of constitutional politics," in an address lasting nearly two hours, denounced the army's attitude in seeking to control Japan and make effective a "strong policy" toward China and the rest of the world.
Ozaki's address threw the crisis between the army and parliamentarian leaders into the open again.
This dispute caused the overthrow of the Hirota recently, and the Diet has just reconvened after the formation of a new cabinet headed by Premier Gen. Senjuro Hayashi.
War Minister General Sugiyama answered Ozaki's attack. Sugiyama charged that the so-called February 26 "incident" a year ago—when several statesmen and cabinet members were assassinated in an army uprising of younger officers—was caused "by corruption and the degradation of politics."
Ozaki, during his diatribe against the war office, questioned the newly signed accord against the spread of Communism. He said that 6,000,000 German Communists voted in the Reich's last election in 1932 before the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, adding that Japan should suppress Communism without foreign assistance.
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Foreign News Details
Primary Location
Tokyo
Event Date
Feb. 18
Key Persons
Outcome
ozaki's speech reignited army-parliament crisis; prior dispute led to hirota's overthrow and new cabinet under hayashi; sugiyama blamed 1936 uprising on political corruption.
Event Details
Yukio Ozaki, 79-year-old liberal leader, spoke in Japan's Diet for nearly two hours, stating Japan lacks population and wealth to compete with the US, Britain, Soviet Russia, and China. He denounced the army's control-seeking and aggressive policy toward China. The address reopened the army-parliament crisis, linked to Hirota's recent overthrow and the new Hayashi cabinet. War Minister Sugiyama retorted, attributing the February 26, 1936, uprising (which assassinated statesmen) to political corruption. Ozaki questioned the new anti-Communism accord, citing German Communists' 1932 votes and advocating independent suppression.