Various measures to gain public support of the war were adopted. The
most spectacular was a campaign for “national spiritual mobilization.”
It began on September 11, 1937 with a patriotic rally in Tokyo,
addressed by the Premier and other Cabinet Ministers and broadcast
throughout the country. In the Diet the parties expressed their support
of the war. Even Japan’s labor party, which had elected 36 Diet members
in April 1937, swung behind the war policy. The authorities were not
content, however. In December 1937, the Home Ministry carried out
large-scale police raids, in which hundreds of persons were arrested.
Two left-wing labor and party groups, both headed by Kanju Kato, were
disbanded without notice. Kato himself, who had been elected to the
Diet by a proletarian constituency in Tokyo, was jailed. The arrests
also included Baroness Ishimoto, a noted feminist leader, and a great
many liberals and pacifists.
All sections of Japan’s ruling circles were united in this program of
suppressing popular opposition to the war. There was more scope for
disagreement, however, over how the war in China should be conducted.
But in this dispute the army held all the points of vantage, and soon
reigned supreme.