The was a Japanese military secret society of the 1920s. The ''Futabakai'' was one of many

ultranationalist Ultranationalism or extreme nationalism is an extreme form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains detrimental hegemony, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coercion) to pursue its sp ...

secret societies in Japan which had arisen within the Japanese military, from the

Meiji period The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization ...

through

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The ''Futabakai'' consisted mainly of mid-level officers (colonels and majors) who had graduated from the

Imperial Japanese Army Academy The was the principal officer's training school for the Imperial Japanese Army. The programme consisted of a junior course for graduates of local army cadet schools and for those who had completed four years of middle school, and a senior course f ...

between 1907–1916, who now found their prospects for promotion to the rank of

general A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

very slim due to domination of the upper ranks of the military by officers from the former Chōshū domain. Although initially founded to purge the "corrupt" elements out the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

, it later became associated with foreign policy issues, and influenced by the writings of

Ikki Kita was a Japanese author, intellectual and political philosopher who was active in early Shōwa period Japan. Drawing from an eclectic range of influences, Kita was a self-described socialist who has also been described as the "ideological father ...

and Okawa Shumei.Sims 2001, p. 155. This historical ''Futabakai'' has no connection with the modern ''

yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the ter ...

'' organization based in

Fukuoka is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancie ...

Notes

References

*{{cite book, last=Sims, first=Richard, year=2001, title=Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Renovation 1868–2000, publisher=Palgrave Macmillan, location=New York, isbn=0-312-23915-7

External links

Japan's dark background 1881–1945
Imperial Japanese Army Far-right politics in Japan Japanese militarism Japanese secret societies