第二次近衛内閣成立前後における陸軍と政党  [in Japanese] The Army and Political Parties before and after the Inauguration of the Second Regime of Fumimaro Konoe  [in Japanese]

The purpose of this paper is to review the political power struggle for de-veloping a totalitarian single-party system, by analyzing how Fumimamo Konoe, his fellows, and the army coped with political parties' activities to re-organize the political world utilizing Konoe's new party campaign from the late 1930s to the early 1940s, in which the conflict among the national government, the army, and political parties became more fierce. The Shino-Japanese War, which broke out in the wake of the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in July 1937, showed the sign of prolongation in 1938. Then, the first Konoe Cabinet resigned en bloc in January 1939. Later, the Hiranuma, Abe, and Yonai Cabinets were established as the national government, with the prime ministers being military personnel and bureaucrats. However, these three cabinets could not improve the situation, and Japan witnessed the deepening of political confrontation due to the prolongation of the Shino-Japanese War. On the other hand, the Japanese army aimed to back up Konoe with the purpose of unifying diplomatic measures in response to the peace overture toward China for terminating the war, and the central government aimed to reorganize the political world by organizing Konoe's New Party. Then, in July 1940, the Yonai Cabinet resigned en bloc, and the second Konoe Cabinet was established based on the supports from the army and political parties. This paper focuses on the domestic political visions and diplomatic policy visions of the army and political parties, elucidates the influences of the relation between the army and political parties on the politics before and after the inauguration of the second Konoe Cabinet, and then discusses the factors in the failure of "Konoe's New Systems" while considering the difference from the political plans of Konoe's fellows.