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Concept
1942 Japanese general election
Summary
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 the Pacific theater of World War II. By this time, the House of Representatives had lost all power to the military dictatorship, a process that started 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 with the first so-called "national unity cabinet", few members of the political parties in the House of Representatives had any significant role in government. Additionally, the military had at this point transformed Japan into a totalitarian one-party state.
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 have 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.
Official source
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