Sadao Araki Baron was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army before World War II . A charismatic leader and one of the principal nationalist right - wing political theorists in the late Japanese Empire , he was regarded as the leader of the radical faction within the politicized Japanese Army and served as Minister of War under Prime Minister Inukai . He later served as Minister of Education during the Konoe and Hiranuma administrations . Biography . Early career . Araki was born in Komae , Tokyo ; his father was an ex - samurai retainer of the Hitotsubashi branch of the Tokugawa family . Araki graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in November 1897 , and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in June of the following year . Promoted to lieutenant in November 1900 and promoted to captain in June 1904 , Araki served as company commander of the 1st Imperial Regiment during the Russo - Japanese War . After the war , Araki returned to graduate from the Army Staff College at the head of his class . He served on the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff in April 1908 , and served as a language officer stationed in Russia from November 1909 to May 1913 , when he was made military attaché to Saint Petersburg during World War I . He was promoted to major in November 1909 and to lieutenant colonel in August 1915 and was assigned to the Kwantung Army . Promoted colonel on 24 July 1918 , Araki served as a Staff Officer at Expeditionary Army Headquarters in Vladivostok between 1918 – 19 during the Japanese Siberian Intervention against the Bolshevik Red Army , and was commander of the IJA 23rd Infantry Regiment . During this period in Siberia , Araki carried out secret missions in the Russian Far East and Lake Baikal areas . Promoted to major general on 17 March 1923 , Araki was made commander of the IJA 8th Infantry Brigade . He served as Provost Marshal General from January 1924 until May 1925 ; whereupon he rejoined the Army General Staff as a Bureau Chief . Araki was promoted to lieutenant general in July 1927 and then became Commandant of the Army War College in August of the next year . Araki served as commander of the IJA 6th Division 1929 – 1931 , when he was appointed Deputy Inspector General of Military Training , one of the most prestigious posts within the Army . He was promoted to the rank of full general in October 1933 . As cabinet minister . Under the cabinet of Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai in December 1931 , Araki was appointed to the post of Minister of War . As Army Minister , he however supported the instigators of the May 15 Incident , calling them " irrepressible patriots " . He also supported General Shiro Ishii and his biological warfare research project Unit 731 . Prince Saionji , one of the Emperor ' s closest and strongest advisors , attempted to stop the military take - over of the government . In a compromise , a naval officer was chosen to become Prime Minister , Admiral Makoto Saitō . Araki remained as War Minister in 1932 and immediately began making demands on the new government . Later that month , the Japanese unveiled its new foreign policy , which was dubbed the Japanese Monroe Doctrine " ( Hakko Ichiu " and Amau doctrine s ) that became a blueprint for Japanese expansionism in Asia . From September 1932 onwards , Araki became more outspoken in promoting totalitarianism , militarism and expansionism . In a 23 September news conference Araki first mentioned the philosophy of " Kodoha " ( " The Imperial Way " ) , which linked the Emperor , the people , land and morality as one indivisible entity , and which emphasized State Shintoism . Araki also strongly promoted the concept of the " Seishin Kyoiku " ( spiritual training ) for the army . After serving as a member of the Supreme War Council in 1934 , Araki was ennobled with the title of baron ( " danshaku " ) in 1935 under the " kazoku " peerage system . He retired from the military in March 1936 , as part of the fallout from the February 26 Incident . After retirement , Araki was appointed Education Minister , in the cabinet of Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe in 1937 , which placed him in an ideal position to promote his militaristic ideals into the national education system and the general populace . Araki proposed the integration of the " samurai " code in the national education system , himself believing in militaristic education . He promoted the use of the official academic text " Kokutai no Hongi " ( Japan ' s Fundamentals of National Policy ) and the " moral national bible " " Shinmin no Michi " ( " The Path of Subjects " ) an effective catechism on nation , religion , cultural , social and ideological topics . Araki continued to serve as Education Minister under Prime Minister Kiichiro Hiranuma . Afterwards , he continued to serve as an advisor to the government as a State Councillor . Political career . In 1924 , Araki founded the " Kokuhonsha " ( Society for the Foundation of the State ) , a secret society containing some of the most powerful generals , admirals and civilians dedicated to his Statist ( and in practical terms fascist ) philosophy mixing totalitarianism , militarism , expansionism , and loyalty to the emperor . Araki was also theoretician of the even more radical " Sakurakai " ( Cherry Blossom Society ) which actively attempted to bring about a ' Showa Reformation ' through coups d ' état . As a colonel , Araki was the principal proponent of the " Kodaha " political faction ( Imperial Benevolent Rule or Action Group ) within the Japanese Army , together with Jinzaburo Mazaki , Heisuke Yanagawa and Hideyoshi Obata . Their opposition was the " Toseiha " ( Control Group ) led by General Kazushige Ugaki . The " Kodaha " represented the radical and ultranationalist elements within the army ; the " Toseiha " attempted to represent the more conservative moderates . These groups had a common intellectual origin in the Double Leaf Society , a 1920s military thinking group , supporting " samurai " ideals . The groups were later to merge into the Imperial Way Faction ( " Kodoha " ) and incorporated a mixture of right - wing and national socialist ideas , particularly those of Kita Ikki and the pro - fascist philosophies of Nakano Seigo , of which Araki was a leading member . In January 1939 , Araki became involved in the National Spiritual Mobilization Movement and revitalized it by having it sponsor public rallies , radio programs , printed propaganda and discussion seminars at " tonarigumi " neighborhood associations . Araki and the “ Strike North Group ” . Within the Army , Araki was a solid supporter of the " Northern Expansion Doctrine " " Hokushin - ron " which proposed attack on the Soviet Far East and Siberia . An essential first step in the " Hokushin - ron " proposal was for Japan to seize control of Manchuria . Araki was a supporter of the unauthorized studies of China and the preparation of war scenarios by radical junior officer cliques within the Army . Through his connections with the " Sakurakai " , Araki intensified efforts to take the government away from civilian control and isolate the Emperor ( Shōwa Reformation ) , and to unite the many secret societies , as well as to put a close confidant , Shigeru Honjō , in as commander of the Kwantung Army . The Kwantung Army had 12 , 000 men available for the invasion of Manchuria at the time of the Mukden Incident , but needed reinforcements . Araki arranged that another protégé , Chōsen Army commander Senjuro Hayashi was briefed to move his forces from Korea north into Manchuria without permission from Tokyo in support of the Kwantung Army . The plot to seize Manchuria proceed as planned , and when presented by the " fait accompli " , all Prime Minister Reijirō Wakatsuki could do was weakly protest and resign with his cabinet . When the new cabinet was formed , Araki , as War Minister , was the real power in Japan . After 1945 . After World War II , Baron Araki was arrested by the American Occupation authorities and brought before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East , where he was tried for Class A war crimes . He was sentenced to life imprisonment for " conspiracy to wage aggressive war " , but was subsequently released from Sugamo Prison in 1955 for health reasons . Like other Japanese peers , he was stripped of his hereditary peerage in 1947 upon the abolition of the " Kazoku " . He died in 1966 , and his grave is at Tama Cemetery , in Fuchū in Tokyo .