Editing Tanaka Giichi (section)

==Political career==
[[File:Giichi Tanaka posing.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Tanaka, before 1929]]
Tanaka returned as Army Minister in the 2nd [[Yamamoto Gonnohyōe|Yamamoto]] administration from September 1923 to January 1924. After retiring from the army, Tanaka was invited to accept the post of party president of the ''[[Rikken Seiyūkai]]'' political party in 1925 and was made a member of the [[House of Peers (Japan)|House of Peers]] in January 1926. He had been scheduled to be promoted to the rank of [[Field Marshal (Japan)|Field Marshal]] at the time of his retirement. However, when news reached the ears of the Army Ministry of a 3 million Yen bonus that Tanaka received on agreeing to join the ''Rikken Seiyukai'', the promotion was denied.

Tanaka became [[Prime Minister of Japan]] on 20 April 1927, during the [[Shōwa financial crisis]], serving simultaneously as the [[Minister for Foreign Affairs (Japan)|Foreign Affairs Minister]]. He later added the posts of [[Home Ministry (Japan)|Home Minister]] (4 May 1928 to 23 May 1928), and [[Ministry of Colonial Affairs (Japan)|Colonial Affairs Minister]] (10 June 1929 to 2 July 1929) to his portfolio.

On the domestic front, Tanaka attempted to suppress leftists, [[Japanese Communist Party|Communists]] and suspected Communist sympathizers through widespread arrests (the [[15 March incident]] of 1928, and the [[19 April incident]] of 1929).

On foreign policy, Tanaka differed from his predecessor Shidehara both tactically and strategically. Whereas Shidehara preferred to evacuate Japanese residents where conflicts occurred with local people, Tanaka preferred using military force. While Shidehara theoretically respected China's sovereignty, Tanaka openly pursued a {{nihongo|"separation of Manchuria and Inner Mongolia policy"|満蒙分離政策|Man-Mō bunri seisaku}} to [[Manchuria-Mongolia problem|create a sense of difference]] between those areas and the rest of China.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Cambridge History of Japan|volume=6|first=John Whitney|last=Hall|year=1988|pages=286–287}}</ref> On three separate occasions in 1927 and 1928 he sent troops to intervene militarily in [[Shandong]] Province to block [[Chiang Kai-shek]]'s [[Northern Expedition]] to unify China under [[Kuomintang]] rule, in what became known as the [[Jinan Incident]].

Tanaka came into office even as forces were already beginning to converge that would draw Japan into [[World War II]]. In 1928, however, the machinations of the ultranationalist secret societies and the [[Kwantung Army]] resulted in a crisis: the [[Huanggutun incident|assassination]] of the Manchurian warlord [[Zhang Zuolin]] and the failed attempt to seize [[Manchuria]]. Tanaka himself was taken by surprise by the assassination plot and argued that the officers responsible should be publicly [[court-martial]]ed for homicide. The military establishment, from which Tanaka was by now estranged, insisted on covering up the facts of the incident, which remained an official secret. Bereft of support, and under mounting criticism in the [[Diet of Japan|Diet]] and even from emperor [[Hirohito]] himself, Tanaka and his cabinet resigned en masse on 2 July 1929.

[[File:Takahashi Korekiyo.jpg|thumb|Prime Ministers [[Korekiyo Takahashi]] (1854–1936, in office 1921–22, left) and [[Giichi Tanaka]] (1864–1929, in office 1927–29)]]

Tanaka was succeeded by [[Hamaguchi Osachi]], and died a few months after his resignation. He was awarded the [[Order of the Paulownia Flowers]] on his death. His grave is at the [[Tama Cemetery]] in [[Fuchū, Tokyo]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.tokyo-park.or.jp/announcement/077/pdf/TOKYO%20METROPOLITAN%20TAMA%20CEMETERY%20.pdf |title=Tama Cemetery |access-date=14 November 2019 |archive-date=24 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624203032/https://www.tokyo-park.or.jp/announcement/077/pdf/TOKYO%20METROPOLITAN%20TAMA%20CEMETERY%20.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>