Sankichi Takahashi Career after World War One . In the 1920s , the Japanese Navy brass was split into " administrative " Treaty Faction that accepted limitations imposed by the Washington Naval Treaty and " command " Fleet Faction that opposed them . Takahashi Sankichi , promoted by his superior Kato Kanji , was on the Fleet side headed by Prince Fushimi Hiroyasu , Kato Kanji and Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō . He held brief assignments on the high seas , commanding the cruiser ( 1923 – 1924 ) and battleship ( 1924 – 1925 ) . and headed the Operations section of Naval General Staff under vice chief Kato Kanji who actually ran the organization , overwhelming its mild - mannered chief Yamashita Gentarō . Takahashi became chief of staff of the Combined Fleet in 1927 , when Kato Kanji assumed command and subjected the fleet to the most rigorous and risky drills , attempting to compensate numeric constraints of the Washington Treaty with superior training . Ten years later , as the Commander of Combined Fleet , Takahashi upheld the same mentality : " If we are compelled to use the short sword to combat a foe brandishing the long sword , I am sure we shall win ! We have tactics to defeat the combined fleets of Great Britain and the U . S . " ; " Implant in the mind of every man and every officer that Japan will be the inevitable victor in any international conflict . " He continued to rally against Washington Treaty limitations during the Geneva Naval Conference of 1927 , supporting the faction of Mineo Ōsumi and Tōgō Heihachirō . The moderates tried to restore their influence in the late 1920s but were finally crushed by the Fleet Faction in 1932 - 1933 . In 1928 , Takahashi was appointed the first commander of the newly formed First Carrier Division , IJN ' s first air supremacy formation . Crushing the opposition . In February 1932 , Takahashi was appointed vice chief of Naval General Staff through the efforts of Kato Kanji while Prince Fushimi chaired the Staff from January 1932 to March 1941 . Asada wrote that Takahashi " virtually controlled the naval high command in this capacity " , Ian Gow argued that Prince Fushimi was an independent and capable leader in his own right . Immediately upon promotion , Takahashi revived the plans to expand the Staff authority and reduce that of Naval Ministry that he developed for Kato Kanji in 1922 . In September 1933 , Fleet Faction prevailed and Fushimi gained clear supremacy over Navy Minister Mineo Ōsumi . In 1933 - 1934 , the militarists silenced the opposition leaders and forced them to retire during the Osumi purge , thus gaining unchecked control of the Navy . After World War II , Takahashi recalled that " one of his aims [ in the 1932 struggle for power ] was to be prepared with a war with the United States " ; he feared that the Shanghai Incident of 1932 could escalate in a major Japanese - American war . In November 1934 , Takahashi was appointed commander of the Combined Fleet and held this command for two years . Contrary to the battleship mentality of old - school admiral , he spoke in favor of increasing aircraft carrier arm of the Fleet ; his opinion was rejected by both General Staff and the Navy Ministry and ultimately cost him his career ; he was cut off from any further information on the Navy ' s future . Political statements . Takahashi did not have significant naval commands during World War II ; Allied press called him " president of the East Asia Development Association " in 1942 and " commander of the big Kure naval station " in 1944 . As the former commander of Combined Fleet , well known in Japan and abroad and not involved in actual combat , Takahashi regularly spoke to the public on military and political topics , before and after the attack on Pearl Harbor . In 1936 , he spoke that " Japan ' s economic advantage must be directed southward , with either Formosa or the South Sea Islands as a foothold " ; in November 1940 he presented the Navy ' s view of the Empire ' s plans : " It will be constructed in several stages . In the first stage , the sphere that Japan demands includes Manchukuo , China , Indo - China , Burma , Straits Settlements , Netherlands Indies , New Caledonia , New Guinea , many islands in the West Pacific , Japan ' s mandated islands and the Philippines . Australia and the rest of the East Indies can be included later . . . " . Takahashi was an early adopter of Aikido and invited its founder Morihei Ueshiba to the Naval Staff College as a budō instructor ; Ueshiba trained IJN officers for ten years . Allied war - time sources connected Takahashi Sankichi with the Black Dragon Society that allegedly infiltrated the United States and silenced political opposition in Japan . ( However : The only Takahashi listed in Richard Storry ' s " The Double Patriots : A study of Japanese Nationalism " ( 1956 ) - whose sources are the IMTFE transcripts and exhibits and also the Saionji - Harada memoirs - is Takahashi Hidetomi ) . In the beginning of December 1945 , General Douglas MacArthur placed Takahashi on the list of 59 most wanted Japanese along with Prince Nashimoto Morimasa and admiral Soemu Toyoda . He was freed December 1948