The fifth chapter discusses the ten months in 1936 in which Hirota served as prime minister. His government was formed in the immediate aftermath of the February 26th Incident, an attempted military coup d’etat, and one of his major goals was the re-establishment of discipline within the army. His time in office was thus largely defined by the relationship between the army and the civilian government. But while Hirota was able to put up some resistance to the extensive army interference in his selection of cabinet officers and arrange for some public imperial criticism of the state of the army, it would be difficult to argue that he held the line against army pressure. He agreed to the restoration of the rule limiting the positions of war and naval minister to active-duty officers, effectively granting the military veto power over the formation of governments, and the major domestic and foreign policy documents adopted during his government heavily reflected the military’s views. Given little time to prepare himself for the office, Hirota had few accomplishments as prime minister. Both the aforementioned restoration of the active-duty rule and the conclusion of the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany would have far-reaching implications for Japan moving forward, however.