Kingoro Hashimoto

Kingoro Hashimoto (橋本欣五郎 Hashimoto Kingorō, 1890-1957) was a Japanese soldier and politician. He was born in Okayama City.

Political involvement

He was a right-wing military politician, with active participation in various attempts at "coup d'états". He was a founder of radical secret societies.

Hashimoto actively participated in the March incident of 1931. The Sakura Kai (Cherry Blossom Society) was formed secretly by him and Captain Isamu Cho. The Sakura Kai group sought political reform: the elimination of party government by a coup d'état and the establishment of a new cabinet based upon state socialism, in order to stamp out Japan's allegedly corrupt politics, economy, and thought. The attempt failed, but Hashimoto, along with Isamu Cho and Shumei Okawa, organized a further "coup", the Imperial Colors Incident, also known as the October Incident, with Sadao Araki. All the conspirators were arrested and transferred to other posts. There were also suspicions of the instigation of himself and Araki in the final attempt, the Military Academy Incident. Despite these failures, Hashimoto continued as an active radical thinker during World War II. He was involved in the Taisei Yokusankai (Imperial Rule Assistance Association). He proposed a nationalist single party dictatorship, based on socialism. The militarists had strong industrial support, but also socialist-nationalist sentiments on the part of radical officers, aware of poor farmers and workers who wanted social justice. He represented the extreme left-wing of the militarists. Supporters of Fumimaro Konoye's "Right-Socialist" revolution (socialist and populist ideas, rooted in the poorest farmers, fishermen, and industrial workers), opposed the "right-wing" militarists represented by Senjuro Hayashi, in the same "revolutionary grouping". Later receiving political patronage by Kiichiro Hiranuma another right-wing politician with Japanese Navy links in the official establishment.

Hashimoto later was elected to the House of Representatives, and became vice-president of the Diet of Japan. The Imperial Youth Federation under his leadership had a mission of guiding the nationalist and militarist indoctrination of young people during war time, in a similar post to Baldur von Schirach and Arthur Axmann, leaders in the Hitler Youth German youth political organization in wartime.

He was involved in the Panay incident and was a fervent supporter of aggressive policies during the Second Chinese-Japanese War period. He was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.