ABSTRACT
Kato Shidzue had appeared on the political rostrum with Kato Kanju after his election Jo the Diet in 1937. Not only had she supported the socialists, but she had used their platform to deliver her own message about women's rights and family planning. Political cooperation was expected and Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro was pleased with the unanimous patriotic response. The special appropriations of the 71st and 72nd Diet sessions combined to almost double the budget for 1937-1938. A contemporary American political writer commented that Prime Minister Konoe's allies were the army's "young officers" and the socialists of the Social Masses' Party. He described these men as akin to the German National-Socialists, and their party as looking for a "totalitarian state with socialist slogans." In a larger sense the writings add a new dimension to public sources which focus on official Japan and on the male leaders in positions of political prominence.
