Japan, Nakano would also forge ties with military men such as Kanji Ishiwara and advocate heavily for the recognition of Manchukuo. Nakano's time in the Kokumin Dōmei would be limited, however. As 1932 passed, so did the sense of impending crisis which had convinced him to break away from the hopefully soon-to-be irrelevant establishment parties, and tensions which Adachi increased. Of particular frustration to Nakano was Adachi's refusal to wear the blackshirt, the party uniform, because he thought it looked silly, and his support of the Okada cabinet. In May 1936, Nakano broke off to form the Tōhōkai ("Far East Society"), his final attempt at forging a mass-based party. Tragedy also struck Nakano's family in the early 30s. His wife perished of tuberculosis in 1934, his son died in a skiing accident in 1931, and his second eldest son died of blood poisoning in 1935. On the national scale, the fading sense of crisis came to convince Nakano that a national reconstruction of Japan could be spurred on through international action, as with the Manchurian Incident. Meeting with Hitler and Time in the IRAA During the February 26th Incident, Nakano excitedly took his sons to see the rebels from afar, believing the incident could spark a renovation, but as the revolt was crushed, so were Nakano's hopes. With the start of the China War, however, he believed the conflict would be the chance needed to restructure Japan. Nakano enthusiastically supported the war, claiming that Chiang Kai-Shek was a puppet of the West. In December 1937, he had a personal audience with Benito Mussolini. In the next month, Nakano met with Adolf Hitler and Joachim Ribbentrop, where he told the German dictator that China's Nationalist Government was on its deathbed. He also urged close cooperation with the Axis powers against the Anglo-American bloc. By this point, Nakano's pro-Nazi and pro-military rhetoric was beginning to earn him enemies in the diet. In 1939, Nakano would attempt to expand the Tōhōkai through a merger with the socialist Shakai Taishūtō. In recent years, the latter party had increasingly come to support the military and bureaucracy against the zaibatsus, making common cause through shared opposition to capitalism and supporting the China War. In the end, however, the merger would fail due to disagreements over the distribution of power and the two parties would simply agree to maintain friendly relations. On a visit to China that