1940. Prince Saionji’s chief political protégé, drawn from the same old court aristocracy, was Prince Konoye, who as Premier apparently attempted to keep the militarists somewhat in check but who finally stepped aside to make way for a Cabinet favoring war with the United States.
Another figure who might be classed with the moderates was the emperor himself. In 1921, he had become Prince Regent for his mentally incompetent father, and in December 1926, he had ascended the throne, with the reign title of Showa. The political views of a person so sheltered from all normal contact with the outside world as the Showa emperor cannot be described with any degree of certainty. But it seems not improbable that he was and is at least a moderate and possibly even a liberal at heart. He grew up at the time of the First World War, when democratic trends were strongest; he traveled in Europe in 1921, and was always surrounded primarily by liberals or at least moderate men. He appears to be a man of scholarly tastes, and he has a deep interest in marine biology, which would make literal belief in his own divinity seem rather improbable. However, the views of the emperor meant relatively little in practical politics. What counted was not what was in his mind, but what the people were led to believe was in his mind, and this the militarists determined with no reference to the emperor himself.
The moderates could exert a restraining influence on the militarists, but they could not control them. The army and navy had a position of semi-independence from the civil government. Moreover, they exercised