Background
Sadao Araki was born on 26 May 1877 in Tokyo.
Sadao Araki was born on 26 May 1877 in Tokyo.
He graduated from the Military Academy and the Military Staff College.
He served as a captain in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. In 1907 he was attached to the Russia section of the General Staff and in 1909 was assigned to duty in Russia. In 1914 he became an instructor in the Military Staff College. During the First World War he was attached to the Russian Army and soon came to be known in military circles as an expert on Russian affairs. He served as a staff officer for the Japanese forces dispatched to Siberia in 1918, in 1923 advanced to the rank of major general, in 1924 became commander of the gendarmerie, and in 1927 became a lieutenant general.
After serving as head of the Military Staff College, divisional commander in Kumamoto, and head of the Department of Military Education, he was appointed War Minister in the Inukai Tsuyoki cabinet in 1931. During this time he began emphasizing the period of crisis that Japan faced, calling for spiritual rearmament and gathering about him a group of young officers dedicated to radical reform. The plans for a coup d’état, which came to light in October, 1931, before they could be put into effect, called for Araki to be made prime minister. Araki, along with General Masaki Jinzaburo, was a key figure in the Kodo, or Imperial Way, faction in the Army, and even after the May 15 incident in 1932, when Prime Minister Inukai was assassinated, Araki remained on as war minister, working to support the members of his faction. When the young officers of the Imperial Way attacked and killed a number of government officials on February 26, 1936, Araki took a sympathetic view of their action and as a result was obliged to retire from active duty and enter the reserve.
In 1938, he became minister of education in the first Konoe cabinet, working to promote militaristic education throughout the country. After the Pacific War he was tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East as a first-class war criminal and was sentenced to life imprisonment, but was released from prison in 1955 because of illness and later pardoned.
He held the title of baron.