The rival faction was the Tosei-Ha or control school.  General Hayashi, who had once been Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army, took over office as Minister of War from Araki and came under the influence of Major General Nagata.  In 1935 he was active in opposing the Strike-North Faction and ridding those in the army that supported it.  After much intrigue, he affected the resignation of Mazaki.  In the spring and summer of that year there were plots and counter-plots to this end culminating in the assassination of Nagata on the same day that Gareth was killed.  On August 12^th 1935, [because of the virtual dismissal of Mazaki], an obscure lieutenant colonel cut Nagata down with a sword.  Hayashi then had to resign to save the government.  In August 1935 Matsuoka was appointed to the Presidency of the South Manchurian Railway.  He identified the Railway Company as the economic spearhead of Japan’s expansion into China.  This Japanese man predicted that: 

The history of the Far East following the First World War should not be seen in isolation, but should be viewed from a global context.  Japan had entered The Great War on the side of the Allies in August 1914.  She soon captured the German fortress of Tsing-tao and became firmly established in Shantung as well as Manchuria.  The ruthless German submarine campaign in the North Atlantic forced President Woodrow Wilson to join the Allied cause in April 1917.  Prior to the entry of the United States, Britain and France had secretly negotiated with Japan that she should acquire Germany’s Chinese Concession of Shantung.  President Wilson was very much against this secret agreement, though he had to concede to it despite American affiliation with China and growing anti-Japanese sentiments.  This acquisition incited Chinese students to demonstrate against the Imperialists on May 5th 1919.