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Great Japan Youth Party (Japan)

Dai Nippon Seinen-tō

image by Tomislav Todorović, 02 May 2014

Overview
The Flag

See also:

Overview

Great Japan Youth Party (Dai Nippon Seinen-tō, later renamed Great Japan Sincerity Association (Dai Nippon Sekisei-kai), was founded in 1937 by Colonel Kingoro Hashimoto during his temporary forced retirement from military service because of the involvement in February 26 Incident, attempted coup d'etat of 1936. The organization was modeled after the Hitler Youth and its goal was turning japan into a single-party totalitarian state modeled after the Third Reich. In 1940, it was grouped with other nationalist movements into the Imperial Rule Assistance Association (Taisei Yokusankai), where it served as the youth wing, albeit largely defunct due to mass mobilization of its would-be members into the military. The organization was dissolved in 1945 after the capitulation of Japan and Hashimoto was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Sources:
- Great Japan Youth Party at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Japan_Youth_Party
- Biography of Kingoro Hashimoto at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingoro_Hashimoto
- Biography of Kingoro Hashimoto (in Japanese), including photos related to the Great Japan Youth Party: http://voicejapan2.heteml.jp/janjan/living/0610/0610152767/1.php (Image 1), (Image 2), (Image 3)
- Photos of the Great Japan Youth Party membership card and other documents: http://cb1100f.b10.coreserver.jp/collection_1n.html (Image 1), (Image 2), (Image 3)
Tomislav Todorović, 02 May 2014

The organization was modeled after the Hitler Youth, shared a number of ideas with the Nazis, and was founded in the time when such a qualification undoubtedly did have sense.
Tomislav Todorović, 03 May 2014

If we don't know the exact shade of red, then I'd say FF0000 is indeed appropriate as generic red. Is there anything that can be said about the size of the circle, compared to that on the national flags of the Third Reich and Japan?
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 04 May 2014

Nothing precisely, but the size shown in photos looked to me like that on the Japanese flag, so I thought it is the safest to use, just like using R as the generic red. BTW, once I read that, according to some opinions, the Nazi flag was partly inspired by that of Japan, unfortunately retrieving that source is virtually impossible for me now (cannot remember even where to look for), and I just cannot form any opinion on its correctness.
Tomislav Todorović, 04 May 2014

It also looks like the "Cavalry flag of Inner Mongolian Army supported by Japanese Army.", <cn_j_im.html>. That flag suggests this design is from the same year. That makes you wonder whether Colonel Kingoro Hashimoto had been connected to the actions in Mongolia.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 02 June 2014

The Flag

The flag of Great Japan Youth Party was derived either from that of the Third Reich, by omitting the swastika, or from the Japanese national flag, by reversing the colors, or possibly from both of these flags. The pattern was also used on the armbands of the Nazi-style uniforms, as well as the decoration on the official documents of the party.
Note: Regarding the shade of red, while Wikipedia uses a dark shade, resembling the present shade which appears on the surviving documents (and is also used for the Japanese national flag), the shade used here is the same as in the FOTW image of Japanese national flag, as well as in most of the FOTW images of Japanese ultra-rightist flags.
Tomislav Todorović, 02 May 2014