Even though Nosaka and four other party members were elected to the Diet in the general elections of April 1946, the Communist Party’s greatest influence lay not in parliamentary politics but in organizing labor and mobilizing mass protest. Fierce struggles took place among the Communists and the radical and moderate Socialists before the party succeeded in asserting its control over roughly two-thirds of organized labor. This was a signal accomplishment, given the rapid growth of the union movement. By the end of 1945, unions claimed some 380,000 members. A month later, over one million
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