15. The formation of the Great Japan Youth Party
In 1937 former Japanese Army Colonel Kingoro Hashimoto, who had been forced to retire from his post following the February 26 attempted coup, founded the Great Japan Youth Party. It was based directly on the Nazi Hitler Youth organization, with uniforms modeled after the Germans’. Although its announced intention was to provide training in survival skills, life skills, and other areas leading to healthy young men in Japan, it was instead organized to rebuild the Imperial Way faction and its goals. Members were taught the benefits of a single-party system of government in Japan, with the Emperor performing the duties of an absolute monarch.
The formation of the Japanese version of the Hitler Youth took place too late for it to be as much of a factor as similar organizations in Germany and Italy. By the time it was formed Japan was mired in the ongoing war in China, and its membership never exceeded a few thousand. Most of the young men targeted by the Youth Party were already subject to conscription. Hashimoto later went to China to attempt to create another Youth Party among the Japanese population there, with little success.
