Meanwhile, Japan’s conflict with China was growing. And in 1936, over 1,400 soldiers mutinied in Tokyo, seizing the army ministry and murdering several high-ranking politicians. More political violence occurred in 1935, when a lieutenant colonel slashed a general to death with a samurai sword. From then on, almost all prime ministers came from the military rather than from the political parties, which were disbanded altogether in 1940. The next prime minister was shot and mortally wounded, and in 1932 yet another prime minister was assassinated by naval officers upset about a treaty limiting the number of Japanese warships. Hirohito, who as emperor was the nation’s highest spiritual authority and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, essentially fired the prime minister in 1929. However, a plunging economy, rising militarism and a series of political assassinations soon caused a crisis for the pro-democracy movement. When Hirohito assumed the throne, a universal male suffrage law had just passed, and political parties were near the height of their prewar powers. Hirohito as Emperor and the Rise of Japanese Militarism He chose Showa, which roughly translates to “enlightened harmony,” as his reign name. Hirohito officially became emperor when his father died in December 1926. At around the same time, he ended the practice of imperial concubinage. That December, Hirohito survived an assassination attempt, and the following month he married Princess Nagako, with whom he would have seven children. Rampaging Japanese mobs subsequently murdered several thousand ethnic Koreans and leftists, who were accused of setting fires and looting in the quake’s aftermath. In September 1923, an earthquake struck the Tokyo area, killing about 100,000 people and destroying 63 percent of the city’s houses. Upon his return to Japan, Hirohito became regent for his chronically ill father and assumed the duties of emperor. Did you know? Hirohito’s son Akihito, the current emperor of Japan, broke with 1,500 years of tradition by marrying a commoner in 1959.
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