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1942 Japanese general election

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FieldValue
countryEmpire of Japan
typeparliamentary
previous_election1937 Japanese general election
previous_year1937
next_election1946 Japanese general election
next_year1946
seats_for_electionAll 466 seats in the House of Representatives
majority_seats234
election_date30 April 1942
image1Hideki Tojo 2 (3x4 cropped).jpg
leader1Hideki Tojo
party1Imperial Rule Assistance Association
last_election1421
image23x4.svg
leader2–
party2Not endorsed
color2DDDDDD
leader_since2–
seats285
seats1381
map_imageFile:1942 JAPAN GENERAL ELECTION, combined vote share.svg
titlePrime Minister
posttitlePrime Minister after election
before_electionHideki Tojo
before_partyTaisei Yokusankai
after_electionHideki Tojo
after_partyTaisei Yokusankai

General elections were held in Japan on 30 April 1942 to elect members of the House of Representatives. They were the only elections held in Japan during World War II. By this time, the House of Representatives had lost much of its power to the military dictatorship, a process that had begun with the "Manchurian Incident" when the Imperial Army invaded Manchuria without approval from the (then still civilian) cabinet in 1931. Since 1932 when Admiral Viscount Saitō Makoto was appointed prime minister of the first so-called "national unity cabinet", fewer members of the political parties in the House of Representatives had held any significant role in government. Additionally, the military had by this point sought to transform Japan into a one-party state.

Background

The government of prime minister Hideki Tojo held the election as a "General Election to Support the Greater East Asia War" at the end of April 1942, just days after the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo.

In 1940, all political parties were forced to merge into the Imperial Rule Assistance Association (Taisei Yokusankai), a pro-military political organization headed by former prime minister Nobuyuki Abe. The likewise fascist Tōhōkai broke away from the Taisei Yokusankai and turned against prime minister Tojo. Among those running against the Taisei Yokunsakai, only the Tōhōkai was allowed to run in the election as non-partisans. Among those anti-war and neutral politicians, the comparatively mild politicians also ran as non-partisans. Some "independents" who failed to gain a seat were expelled. After the war, those "independents" and ousted politicians were mainly the ruling class. As communist, left-wing, and anti-war groups had been illegal since 1940, they could not name a candidate in the election. Communists, left-wing politicians and radical anti-military politicians were arrested and not even allowed to run as independents, although anti-war politician Saitō Takao who was expelled from the diet in 1941 was re-elected again.

Notwithstanding the Tojo government's efforts, 613 candidates stood without endorsement while only 466 were endorsed. Several non-endorsed candidates managed to win seats in the election, including Ichiro Hatoyama (who later served as prime minister and was the grandfather of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama), Takeo Miki (who later served as prime minister), Kan Abe (the grandfather of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe) and Bukichi Miki. The Tojo Cabinet marked those representatives elected who were not Taisei Yokusankai members as "not endorsed" in the official result. Several of them, such as Hatoyama, were subject to the purge by the Allied authorities following the war although they were not cooperating with the Tojo government.

The turnout of the election was unusually high at 83.1%, partly reflecting the fierceness of the electoral battle.

Results

The government won 381 seats out of the total 466; in some districts, its candidates won uncontested. The Imperial Army had gained a victory in almost every battle as of the election, public support for the war was still quite high, which was the main reason for the landslide victory of the Taisei Yokusankai. Although Japan nominally became a one-party state as a result of the election, the group of Yokusankai-endorsed candidates soon split into numerous factions, some of which became critical of the government as the war dragged on.

By prefecture

PrefectureTotal
seatsSeats wonIRAANot endorsedImperial Rule Assistance Association}};"Independent}};"Aichi17Akita7Aomori6Chiba11Ehime9Fukui5Fukuoka18Fukushima11Gifu9Gunma9Hiroshima13Hokkaido20Hyōgo19Ibaraki11Ishikawa6Iwate7Kagawa6Kagoshima12Kanagawa11Kōchi6Kumamoto10Kyoto11Mie9Miyagi8Miyazaki5Nagano13Nagasaki9Nara5Niigata15Ōita7Okayama10Okinawa5Osaka21Saga6Saitama11Shiga5Shimane6Shizuoka13Tochigi9Tokushima6Tokyo31Tottori4Toyama6Wakayama6Yamagata8Yamaguchi9Yamanashi5Total46638185
143
52
33
92
81
41
153
92
72
9
94
173
145
92
6
7
33
12
101
51
10
83
54
62
5
13
9
41
123
7
73
32
174
42
11
5
42
103
81
51
2110
4
51
51
62
81
41

References

References

  1. Tsuzuki, Chushichi. (2000). "The Pursuit of Power in Modern Japan 1825-1995". Oxford University Press.
  2. (28 October 2013). "Japanese prime minister's another DNA". Dong-A Ilbo.
  3. Saunavaara, Juha. (28 September 2009). "Occupation Authorities, the Hatoyama Purge and the Making of Japan's Postwar Political Order". Japan Focus.
  4. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130201135140/https://www.stat.go.jp/data/chouki/zuhyou/27-07.xls Statistics Bureau of Japan]
Info: Wikipedia Source

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