Papers

Peer-reviewed
Mar 20, 2020

Saito Takao and Ishibashi Tanzan: The Possibilities of Cooperation on the Advocacy of Political Party System

Ishibashi Tanzan Studies
  • Yusuke Suzumura

Volume
Number
3
First page
85
Last page
108
Language
Japanese
Publishing type
Research paper (bulletin of university, research institution)
Publisher
Rissho University Research Center for Ishibashi Tanzan Studies

Saito Takao (斎藤隆夫, 1870-1949), who is a well-known statesperson from the Taisho Period to 1949, made two remarkable speeches at the Diet: “An Interpellation on the Purge of the Army” (粛軍に関する質問演説) in 1936 and “An Interpellation on Handling the Second Sino-Japanese War” (支那事変処理に関する質問演説) in 1940. However, there is no study of Saito’s three articles contributed to the special issue “The Right Way of Parliamentary Politics” (議会政治の本道) published in the Jiji Shimpo in November 1936.
In this paper, we examined the three discourses published in “The Right Way of Parliamentary Politics” and discussed Saito's comment on military intervention in politics and his trust of the people. Further we focused on Ishibashi Tanzan (石橋湛山, 1884-1973) and his arguments concerning Saito’s speeches, and discussed relationships between Saito and Ishibashi, who was a journalist and advocator of parliamentary politics and political parties. In this way, we demonstrated that Saito defended parliamentary politics in terms of the provisions and practical use of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan, and that he believed it was each one of the people who would most effectively prevent military intervention in politics. Additionally, this implied that there was de facto cooperation between Saito and Ishibashi who had had no direct interaction.

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