At the beginning of the last century, a secret gathering was held in the aristocratic castle area of the Black Forest in the upper Rhine in Germany, at a mineral spa called Baden-Baden. Japanese military attachés with all three ranks, all of whom were shōsa, gathered to discuss their superiors, discuss major state affairs, and prepare to end domestic corruption.
All three were the best in the army and later became known as "Three Feathers", which means three crows in Japanese. These three men will appear in any post-World War II book on Japanese military history. At this point, it is necessary to mention their names: Nagata Tetsuyama, Toshishiro Obata, Ninji Okamura.
The three were good friends when they were at the Tokyo Army Elementary School. But many of the school's students come from prestigious or wealthy families, and because of their superior origins, they regard themselves as noble and often gang up to bully others.
In order to protect themselves, the three Nagata Tieshan formed a group to help each other. Once, while practicing on a Trojan horse, Okamura got into a fight with Kameda from a family of senior military attachés in Cheung chau. This Kameda family has a strong background, always calling the wind and rain in school, and there is always a group of minions around to follow. Seeing that Okamura Ninji was about to suffer a loss, Nagata Tetsuyama and Toshishiro Ohata joined in to save Okamura Ninji.
Of the three, Nagata Tetsuyama and Okamura Ninji were the best, affectionately calling each other "Iron" and "Nin"; Toshishiro Obata was in the same cadet group as Okamura Ninji. The three of them have been playing together a lot since then and have become close friends.
Later, the three were admitted to the Army Non-Commissioned Officer University and the Army University. By the time they graduated, all three had excellent grades and were among the best. Okamura even received an award from Emperor Taisho because of his good grades. These three army petite sons later became the symbol of the Showa Group in Japan.
But when they met at the spa in Baden-Baden in the upper Rhine, the three old classmates did not have much appetite, and they only focused on domestic corruption, and other ideas of expansion gradually occurred later.
As for domestic corruption, in their view, it is first and foremost political corruption, and political corruption is first manifested in the army's personnel corruption. Because at that time, the Japanese domain was extremely strong, after the Meiji Restoration, the army was controlled by the Choshu domain, and the backbone of the army such as Yamagata Aritomo and Tanaka Yoshiichi were all born in Cheung chau, and non-Cheung Chau people did not have to think about being promoted to high positions in the army.
The "Three Feathers" were indignant about this and were determined to change this phenomenon. These three young officers, determined to take the Cheung Chau Domain, still adhered to the strong sense of generational division of the Japanese army. And there were 4 people in the Baden-Baden party, and the fourth person was Hideki Tojo. Although he later held a high position, he could only stand outside the door and keep a guard at this gathering because he was one grade lower than the "Three Feathers" in the non-commissioned officer school. They can neither be included in the "Three Feathers" nor can they participate in their discussions.
Although the number of people in Baden-Baden was small and the content was relatively shallow, it was highly regarded by modern history. Moreover, in addition to the four people in Baden-Baden, the "Three Feathers" selected 7 people from their capable colleagues who did not belong to the Cheung Chau Domain, forming the Baden-Baden Group, a total of 11 people. These 11 people are also the core backbone of Japan's daring to launch World War II. The day of the Baden-Baden gathering, October 27, 1921, is considered the first day of the birth of the Showa warlords.
Why did these three young officers who were not in the mainstream of the Japanese Army have such great power? Can a group of military attaches stationed abroad form a huge group of warlords that shock the world? This is related to both Japanese history and national conditions.
Throughout modern history, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, who completed Japan's great cause of reunification, were all warlords who supported the army and respected themselves. In modern Japan, if you want to become a high official, you must first become a soldier. This was the case with Yamatoshi, Katsura Taro, Saigo Takamori and others in the Meiji period, as well as Yoshiichi Tanaka and Tetsuyama Nagata during the Showa period. History is always strikingly similar.
After the 1920s, there was a unique phenomenon of "lower kagura" in Japan, where low-ranking officers could influence high-level politics through violent means, which was related to Hirohito.
In March 1921, Hirohito visited Europe and inadvertently did two things that had a great impact on him: first, the East Jiuyuan Palace led a large number of military attaches and observers stationed in Europe to meet him, and Hirohito also specially held a feast for these young officers; second, in France, Hirohito personally purchased a bust of Napoleon during his first and only micro-clothing outing.
In these two cases, the military attaché and observer in Europe who met with Hirohito were basically on the list of 11 people in Baden-Baden, and the bust of Napoleon was always placed in Hirohito's study, constantly deepening Hirohito's impression of military conquest.
After Hirohito's return to China, the leader of the Young Officers Group in Europe, "Sanyu Wu", held the above-mentioned Baden-Baden gathering, and by this time they had made up their minds to support Hirohito.
The 11 people of Baden-Baden did not lack ambition and courage, but lacked ideological and theoretical support. They were unable to frame the future of the country, so Hirohito selected Shumei Okawa for these officers.
Since Hirohito came to power in November 1921, the first major event was to gather the "young people who dedicated themselves to their ideals" based on the Baden-Baden group to the imperial meteorological station on the east side of the imperial palace to listen to the lectures of Shumei Okawa.
The observatory was a place of play for Hirohito as a child, where he used to look at sextants, constellation maps and 18th-century Dutch telescopes. Now, he has given the weather station a new name: University Liao, which means a place for college students to stay. Later, most of the backbone members of the Showa clique listened here to Shumei Okawa, a doctor of law, talk about fascism and greater Asianism.
These young officers, who possessed the spirit of sacrifice and the spirit of Bushido, constantly absorbed the fascism that had been transformed by Shumei Okawa, and used it to enrich their minds and make up for the lack of theoretical knowledge.
In this way, under the banner of "revolution" and "liberation", a monster with four evils came out on the eastern island. And the "Three Feathers" have gradually grown, and their black wings will bring endless disasters to the East.