Tanaka and the Kokuchūkai endorsed war in a “righteous” cause— extending the sacred Japanese kokutai to all peoples. There were also individuals, not necessarily affiliated with religious bodies, for whom imperialist aspirations, inflated to the proportion of millennial visions, inspired and legitimated violence. This was especially evident in the 1930s, a time of economic depression, affecting especially agrarian workers, and of a perceived inability of bureaucrats to deal with problems at home and abroad. This period saw a number of political assassinations and attempted coups d’état led by disaffected military officers and other right-wing elements seeking to remove “corrupt” officials intervening between the emperor and his people and “restore” direct imperial rule. Ultimately unsuccessful, their actions nonetheless had the effect of increasing the political power of the military and of right-wing influence in government. Some of these insurrectionists drew selective inspiration from the new Nichirenist millennialism, such as Tanaka’s equation of shakubuku with territorial conquest, as well as from Nichiren’s own emphasis on readiness to sacrifice one’s life if needed for the spread of Dharma (on Nichirenist-inspired terrorism, see Tokoro 1972, 174-88).