Public Safety Maintenance Act (Japan)

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Basic data
Title: 治安 維持 法
chian iji hō
"Law to Maintain Public Security"
English Peace Preservation Law
Type: hōritsu
Number: 大 正 14 年 4 月 22 日 法律 第 46 号
Law No. 46 of April 22, Taishō 14 (1925)
Expiry: New version as [eponymous] Law No. 54 of March 10th Shōwa 16 (1941)
Abolished by k. Decree ( chokurei ) No. 575 of October 15 Shōwa 20 (1945) [implementation of the Potsdam Declaration ]
Legal text on the Internet: digital.archives.go.jp (1925) , digital.archives.go.jp (1941)
Please note the note on the applicable legal version . Only the Japanese legal texts have legal effect, not translations into English or other languages.

The Japanese Law to Maintain Public Security ( Japanese 治安 維持 法 , chian iji hō , English Peace Preservation Law , " Peace Preservation Law ") was enacted on April 22, 1925 and came into force on May 12. The law also applied in the Japanese colonies , i.e. in Chosen and Taiwan .

history

The law was introduced by representatives of the ruling elite, under the leadership of Justice Minister Hiranuma Kiichirō , who were concerned about left-wing radical movements in Japanese territory (particularly the 1923 assassination attempt on the Crown Prince). It became the basis of political repression and persecution by the Japanese state for the next two decades.

In 1928 the maximum penalty of the law was extended to the death penalty and was extended again in 1941 to simplify implementation and indictment.

The main content of the law was that members of "organizations that reject the Japanese nationality ( kokutai ) or private property " would be punished with imprisonment or penal service of up to 10 years. Initially only anarchists , communists and socialists were persecuted under the law, later extremists of all possible currents. The Justice Department even set up a "Thought Department" for this purpose; the Kyōtos District Court founded its own department for " thought crimes" in mid-1927 . Under the Tanaka Giichi government , this system was expanded to include several measures, including the recruitment of informal staff from the student community to keep campuses under control.

Application, effects

A total of just under 66,000 people were arrested between 1928 and 1941 on the basis of the law (although fewer than 6,000 were also indicted and only one person sentenced to death) and the communist parties were driven underground. After the capitulation of Japan on October 15, 1945 , the law was repealed by imperial decree.

literature

  • Richard H. Mitchell: Thought Control in Prewar Japan . Cornell University Press, Ithaca 1976, ISBN 0-8014-1002-9 .