Schools taught obedience and readiness to fight, and workplace controls stopped workers from organising freely.
Schools had long taught loyalty to the emperor. In the 1930s, physical training, discipline and approved lessons linked that loyalty more and more to readiness for military service. In 1937, the Ministry of Education issued an official text called Kokutai no hongi. It said obeying the emperor was a moral duty. It attacked individualism, putting your own choices and interests first, as a threat to national harmony. This shows the government's arguments, not proof that every pupil accepted them.
A trade union is an organisation through which workers act together to negotiate pay and conditions. This is called bargaining. Unions and left-wing activists were repressed, while official workplace groups urged managers and workers to cooperate. In 1938, patriotic industrial associations expanded to organise support for war production.
The government presented cooperation as managers and workers serving one national purpose. But when workers could not organise independently, they had less power to challenge pay, conditions or production demands. This was part of mobilisation, organising people and resources for war. Independent unions were removed step by step, and the process was completed in 1940.
- Kokutai no hongi, 1937
- Official text calling obedience to the emperor a duty.
- Trade union
- Workers bargaining together for pay and conditions.
- 1938
- Patriotic industrial groups expand for war production.
Worked example: A workplace called a family
An official message asks managers and workers to avoid disputes and put national production first.
- The aim is to keep production going without strikes.
- Ask whether workers can still bargain or form their own union.
- If not, the talk of harmony hides an unequal relationship.
Watch out for this
Kokutai no hongi proves students valued obedience above their own interests.
It shows what the government wanted people to believe. We need other evidence to know what students thought.
Check your understanding
What does Kokutai no hongi best show?
- What the government wanted people to believe about loyalty.
- That every student accepted obedience as their duty.
- That trade unions grew stronger in 1937.