The Mouse That Roared: Saito Takao, Conservative Critic of Japan's "Holy War" in China

Abstract

On March 7, 1940, Saito Takao, a conservative Diet member repre- senting a rural constituency, was expelled from the Diet as punishment for a speech he had given in the Diet on February 2, 1940, criticizing Japan's holy war in China. Leading the push for Saito's expulsion were numerous figures who later held top positions in the Nihon Shakaito (Japan Socialist Party). By analyzing Saito's speech and the movement to expel him, this essay attempts to provide a new perspective on 1930s militarism and the questions of who profited from it and who supported it. On February 2, 1940, Saito Takao, longtime Minseito Diet member from Hyogo Prefecture, gave a one and one-half hour speech in the seventy-fifth session of the Diet. He sharply questioned the prosecution and justification of Japan's holy war (seisen) in China. For the next month, Saito's criti- cisms and how he was to be punished for making them dominated domestic headlines and attracted international attention. Despite substantial evidence of popular support for Saito, a coalition of reformist and leftist forces pushed for his expulsion. This came on March 7, 1940. In the rancor that came with the expulsion, Shadait6 (Social Masses Party), the third largest party, split. All parties dissolved themselves in the weeks that followed. Saito's speech effectively marked the end of the Diet as a forum for even the most limited criticism of militarism and fascism in Japan. Nevertheless, despite the apparent importance of the incident, neither Saito nor his speech has been given much attention in postwar Japanese writing. Mention is com- monly the limit of coverage. None, or at most a fragment of the specific content, of his criticism is given. More important, postwar histories gener- ally fail to note, let alone explain, why Saito was expelled from the Diet by forces identified at the time as progressive or reformist. Throughout this essay, I use terms such as progressive, leftist, renova- tionist, reformist, and conservative without direct definition. Essentially my