Dainihon_Seinento; Wikimedia Commons

Dainihon_Seinento; Wikimedia Commons

The Great Japan Youth Party (大日本青年党), later known as the Great Japan Sincerity Association (大日本赤誠会), was founded in 1937 with a structure similar to Nazi Germany’s Hitler Youth.

The stated aim of the organization was to teach Japanese youth basic survival skills, first aid, life skills, cultural lessons, traditions and basic weapons training. However, the group’s founder, ultranationalist activist Colonel Kingoro Hashimoto, also intended to create an idealistic young cadre of supporters for the Army’s Imperial Way Faction and its nationalist and militarist doctrines.