Amakasu incident
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The Amakasu incident ( Japanese 甘 粕 事件 Amakasu jiken ) occurred on September 16, 1923 in the chaos that followed the great Kanto earthquake .
meaning
As has often been observed in Japan, strong fires broke out after the earthquake, which killed more people than the natural disaster itself. Over 140,000 people died. As a result, there were numerous government-fed rumors that marginalized groups had started the fires. As a result of these suspicions, Korean and Chinese workers were attacked and the police took the opportunity to murder socialist and anarchist activists. Among them were Ōsugi Sakae , Itō Noe and Sakae's six-year-old nephew. They were arrested by a group of military police led by Lieutenant Amakasu Masahiko , beaten up in the Kempeitai cells , murdered and wrapped in straw mats thrown into a well to rot. In 1931 Amakasu was involved in the preparation of the Mukden incident , a fact which gives rise to the belief that the widespread claim that he acted on higher orders.
The killing of anarchists of this high profile, along with a young child, sparked surprise and anger across Japan.
The person responsible was sentenced by a military tribunal to ten years in prison, after three years he was given amnesty and transferred to the military police in Manchuria.
further reading
- Beverley Buehrer: Eros Plus Massacre ( Erosu purasu gyakusatsu , 1969). Japanese Films: A Filmography and Commentary, 1921–1989 . Jefferson, North Carolina and London, McFarland. ISBN 0-89950-458-2 , pp. 210-211.
- David Desser: Three Men Who Left Their Will on Film. Eros Plus Massacre: An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave Cinema . Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 1988. ISBN 0-253-31961-7 , pp. 200-209.
Movie
Yoshishige Yoshida filmed the incident in 1969 under the title Eros + Gyakusatsu ( エ ロ ス
Web links
- 甘 粕 （あ ま か す） 事件 ( Memento from April 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (Japanese)
- 日本 ペ ン ク ラ ブ 電子 文藝 館 招待 席 ・ 主 権 在 民 史料 「関 東 大 震災」 (今井 清 一) (Japanese)
- 関 東 大 震災 と 新聞 (池 見 哲 司) (Japanese) ( Memento from October 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive )