Air Service in 1922. Rise to power Involvement in Army politics In 1924, Sugiyama became a protege of Army Minister Ugaki Kazushige. Subsequently, he was promoted to major general in May 1925 and appointed Director of the Bureau of Military Affairs in 1928. Within the same timeframe, he also became a leading member of the Army's Control Faction. In 1931, he participated in the March incident, a failed coup-d'etat which attempted to make Ugaki Prime Minister. Later that year, as Under Secretary of the Army, he made an official announcement defending the actions of the military in the Mukden Incident. With the rise of the rival Kōdōha faction under Sadao Araki to the post of Army Minister, Sugiyama was sidelined to the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service in March 1933. However, the failed coup d'etat of the February 26 incident in 1936 led to a purge of the Kōdōha from positions of authority and Sugiyama was promoted to full general in November 1936. Army Minister In February 1937, Sugiyama became Army Minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Senjūrō Hayashi and remained in that position under the succeeding Prime Minister, Fumimaro Konoe. During his tenure, tensions between Japanese forces and the Chinese grew more severe. When hostilities broke out near the Marco Polo Bridge, Sugiyama pushed Konoe for retaliation against China, thereby giving rise to the Second Sino-Japanese War.. Promotion to Army leadership On 3 June 1938, Sugiyama left his position as Army Minister to become a member of Japan's Supreme War Council. In December 1938, he briefly left the Council to assume command over the North China Area Army and the Mongolia Garrison Army respectively before returning in September 1939. By September 3, 1940, Hajime Sugiyama succeeded the elderly Prince Kan'in Kotohito as Chief of the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff. World War II On the eve of the Second World War's expansion into Asia and the Pacific, General Sugiyama was one of the leading Army officers lobbying for war with the West. On September 5, 1941, Emperor Hirohito challenged his confidence in a quick victory over the Western powers by berating him for erroneously predicting in 1937 that Japan's invasion of China would be completed within three months. Nonetheless, by 1 December 1941, the Emperor ultimately gave his imperial sanction for war. Following the war’s outbreak, Sugiyama was responsible for directing the Army’s ensuing military operations. In a