... . The Meiji Constitution dictated that the military answer only to the emperor, and so any issue concerning military action was out of the hands of the lower house. Finally, the role of the emperor himself as the ultimate source of Japanese authority meant that any action on the part of government could be overruled by recourse to an imperial prerogative. As present in the opinion of some Japanese scholarship, 'the sound and fury of the party ... battle could never be more than diversionary in the broad sweep of an absolutism ... ...

• Word Count: 2458
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: Graduate