SNA (Tokyo) — With the selection in early 1937 of General Senjuro Hayashi to become prime minister, the Imperial Japanese Army was excited to have one of its own in charge of the nation for the first time in decades; but his first political moves alienated almost everyone and he was out within a few months.

Transcript

On February 2, 1937, Senjuro Hayashi became prime minister of Japan. He was a career military man, a General of the Imperial Japanese Army. Many army officers hoped that having one of their own in the top political office might allow them to push through many of their own economic and policy ideas.

As opposed to his three immediate predecessors, Hayashi did not seriously attempt to form a national unity government, but instead went forward without any Cabinet ministers from the two major political parties. It was structured like administrations which hadn’t been seen in Japan for the past two decades, and it invited confrontation.

He allied only with two very small pro-military parties, hoping that, with his support, they might leap ahead in influence and help him pass his program.

Immediately after a compromise national budget was passed in the House of Representatives, Hayashi dissolved the chamber and went straight for very early general elections, expecting that he could bulldozer his way through.

The results of this gamble were disastrous for the prime minister: the two major parties maintained their strength, Hayashi’s small rightwing allies actually lost some ground, and a small leftwing party made impressive gains.

In short, the Japanese public clearly rejected Hayashi’s blunt attempt to smash the remaining power of the civilian political parties.

Hit by this major defeat, Hayashi’s inclination was to dig in and to try again, possibly by calling another general election.

However, watching this debacle unfold, most conservatives lost faith in Hayashi’s political skills. He discovered that his support had quickly melted away.

Senjuro Hayashi thus resigned on June 4, 1937, after a term of only 123 days. His administration was derided as having accomplished nothing. Hayashi never returned to a major political role and died of natural causes in 1943.

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