Kazushige Ugaki - Almost Prime Minister

Almost Prime Minister

Recalled to Japan after the fall of the Hirota administration, Ugaki was named Prime Minister in February 1937, but was unable to form a Cabinet due to strong opposition from his political enemies within the Army. After the February 26 Incident in 1936, the Japanese military had obtained a restoration of the requirement that the Army and Navy Ministers must be selected only from active duty officers. Ugaki, although Prime Minister-designate (and a retired full general in his own right) was persona non grata with the Army leadership over his previous terms as Minister of War and the March Incident, along with his alleged ties to the zaibatsu businesses over the Korean industrialization program, so they refused to provide him with a Minister of War. As a consequence, although officially appointed, Ugaki could never take office. The post prime minister then went to Senjuro Hayashi, another ex-general and member of the Tōseiha faction.

The Imperial Japanese Army's ability to control the formation of a government by means of withholding nomination of a cabinet minister was a staggering blow to the evolution of parliamentary government and democracy in Japan and unquestionably, the decisive factor in the military supremacy over civilian authority before and during World War II.