ABSTRACT
The source of the army's political rise can be found in two legacies of the First World War. The first of these was the tremendous improvement in military technology and the development of a system for total war. The 1920s were the only period between the Bakumatsu and the Second World War in which disarmament was advocated for and made progress. Another criticism was aimed at the very concept of military modernization. When the Saito Cabinet resigned in July 1934 due to the Teijin Incident, Okada Keisuke, another member of the moderate naval faction, formed the new government. The Kwantung and Tientsin Armies used Umezu-He Yingqin and Doihara-Qin Dechun agreements to move forward with their operations aimed at achieving the autonomy of northern China, however, and established the East Heibei Autonomous Council in November and the Hebei-Chahar Political Council in December. The embattled Imperial Way faction struck back in a number of ways.
