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TheNational Spiritual Mobilization Movement (国民精神総動員運動,Kokumin Seishin Sōdōin Undō) was an organization established in theEmpire of Japan as part of the controls on civilian organizations under theNational General Mobilization Law byPrime MinisterFumimaro Konoe.
Representatives from 74nationalist organizations were assembled at the Prime Minister's residence in October 1937, and were told that their organizations were now part of the "Central League of the Spiritual Mobilization Movement", headed by AdmiralRyokitsu Arima and under the joint supervision of theMinistry of Home Affairs andMinistry of Education. The purpose of the Movement would be to rally the nation for atotal war effort againstChina in theSecond Sino-Japanese War.
Konoe later ordered another 19 nationalist organizations to join the League. This movement and other policies were part of "New Order" (Shintaisei) which was promulgated on 3 November 1938, a holiday markingemperor Meiji's birthday.[1]
Apart from public calls for increasedpatriotism, the National Spiritual Mobilization Movement spanned some concrete programs likeBoosting Production service to the Nation,Increasing Crops Service to the Nation andStudent Volunteers Corps Service to the Nation. It was moreover part of a general move made by theShōwa regime to closely control the information which had begun in 1936 with the establishment of theCabinet Information Committee which launched two official magazines: theShūhō (Weekly Report) in November 1936 and theShashin Shūhō (Photographic Weekly Report). The purpose of these was "to ensure that the content and purport of the policies inaugurated by the Government are widely disseminated to the general citizenry and correctly understood by them".[2]
Konoe's successor, Prime MinisterHiranuma Kiichirō, turned the movement over to GeneralSadao Araki in January 1939, who revitalized it by having it sponsorpublic rallies,radio programs, printedpropaganda and discussion seminars attonarigumi neighborhood associations. Famous public figures were recruited to provide lectures on the virtues of thrift, hygiene and hard work, and to disseminate a sense of national pride in the Japanesekokutai.
The League was abolished on 20 December 1945 by theAmerican occupation authorities after thesurrender of Japan.
