March incident

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Lieutenant Colonel Hashimoto, ringleader of the March incident.

The March Incident ( Japanese 三月 事件 , sangatsu jiken ) was the failed attempt at a military coup in the Japanese Empire in March 1931. It was carried out by the radical Sakurakai , a secret society within the Imperial Japanese Army and supported by various civil, ultra-nationalist groups .

history

The planning of the March incident can be traced back to the fall of 1930, when Lieutenant Colonel Hashimoto Kingoro and Captain Chō Isamu of the Imperial Japanese Army founded the Sakurakai (Cherry Blossom Society ). The cherry blossom symbolized self-sacrifice and was used by the military to symbolize the ephemeral life of a soldier. The declared aim of the Sakurakai were political reforms to eliminate what they saw as corrupt party politics and to introduce a totalitarian, state-socialist military government. The new government should redeploy the unfair distribution of wealth of the Zaibatsu's profits and eliminate the corrosive influences on Japanese public morals.

After the attempted assassination of Prime Minister Hamaguchi Osachi , Prince Saionji Kimmochi and Lord Seal Keeper Makino Nobuaki considered General Ugaki Kazushige as the new Prime Minister, but later decided that a civilian was best for Japan at the time. This decision caused great turmoil within the militarist faction of the Imperial Japanese Army and several leading generals approached Hashimoto and his Sakurakai and reassured him that he was planning a military coup to bring Ugaki to power.

Hashimoto's plan was a three-phase program:

  1. Massive unrest would be instigated in Tokyo, forcing the government to impose martial law .
  2. The Imperial Japanese Army would carry out a coup and take power.
  3. A new cabinet would be formed under the direction of the then Minister of War, General Ugaki Kazushige.

The plan was supported by a 200,000 yen donation from Tokugawa Yoshichika, a far-right member of the Kizokuin , son of the last daimyo of Nagoya and second cousin of Emperor Hirohito .

From the end of February 1931, extreme right-wing civil organizations under the leadership of Kamei Kan'ichirō and Ōkawa Shūmei stirred up tumults in front of the Japanese parliament in Tokyo. Poor planning, however, resulted in the hoped-for masses not participating in the riots, which prevented the uprising. Hashimoto wrote to General Ugaki on March 3, demanding that he mobilize the troops and take the initiative. Ugaki, who, as a potential leader of the Rikken Minseito party , saw a chance to become prime minister legally, refused to support the attempted coup.

On March 17, 1931, two days before the planned date for the coup, the conspirators attempted to rekindle an uprising. However, once again they failed to mobilize enough people. After this attempt, the main planners were arrested and the entire conspiracy crushed.

Effects

Ugaki intervened personally to cover up the coup attempt as well as possible, and ensured that the planners received only very mild sentences. This led to several further coup attempts by the military, which saw its position confirmed, and was an obstacle in Ugaki's further efforts to become prime minister. Hashimoto's failure had not deterred Hashimoto, and seven months later, in October 1931, he tried again to overthrow the government in the October incident .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Kiernan, Blood and Soil. P. 466
  2. ^ A b Harries, Soldiers of the Sun: The Rise and Fall of the Imperial Japanese Army , p. 147
  3. ^ Sims, Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Renovation 1868-2000 , 155
  4. ↑ Samuels, Machiavelli's Children: Leaders And Their Legacies In Italy And Japan , 155

literature

  • Meirion Harries, Susie Harries: Soldiers of the Sun. The Rise and Fall of Imperial Japanese Army . Random House, New York NY 1994, ISBN 0-679753-03-6 .
  • Ben Kiernan : Blood and Soil. A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur. Yale University Press, New Haven CT et al. 2007, ISBN 978-0-300-10098-3 .
  • Richard J. Samuels: Machiavelli's Children. Leaders and their Legacies in Italy and Japan . Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY et al. 2005, ISBN 0-801489-82-2 .
  • Richard Sims: Japanese Political History since the Meiji Renovation, 1868-2000 . Palgrave Macmillan, New York NY 2001, ISBN 0-312239-15-7 .