Ideals
Prior to creation of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, Konoe had already passed the National Mobilization Law, which effectively nationalized strategic industries, the news media, and labor unions, in preparation for total war with China.
Labor unions were replaced by the Nation Service Draft Ordinance, which empowered the government to draft civilian workers into critical war industries. Society was mobilized and indoctrinated through the National Spiritual Mobilization Movement, which organized patriotic events and mass rallies, and promoted slogans such as "Yamato-damashii" and "HakkÅ ichiu" to support Japanese militarism. This was urged to "restore the spirit and virtues of old Japan".
Some objections to it came on the grounds that kokutai, imperial polity, already required all imperial subjects to support imperial rule.
In addition to drumming up support for the ongoing wars in China and in the Pacific, the Imperial Rule Assistance Association helped maintain public order and provided certain public services via the tonarigumi neighborhood association program. It also played a role in increasing productivity, monitoring rationing, and organizing civil defense.
The Imperial Rule Assistance Association was also militarized, with its members donning khaki-colored uniforms. In the last period of the conflict, the membership received military training and was projected to integrate with civil militia in case of the anticipated American invasion.
Read more about this topic: Taisei Yokusankai
Famous quotes containing the word ideals:
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—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Institutional psychiatry is a continuation of the Inquisition. All that has really changed is the vocabulary and the social style. The vocabulary conforms to the intellectual expectations of our age: it is a pseudo-medical jargon that parodies the concepts of science. The social style conforms to the political expectations of our age: it is a pseudo-liberal social movement that parodies the ideals of freedom and rationality.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“Let the will embrace the highest ideals freely and with infinite strength, but let action first take hold of what lies closest.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)