Siemens scandal

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The Siemens scandal ( Japanese シ ー メ ン ス 事件 , Shīmensu jiken , German "Siemens incident"; also Shīmensu-Bikkasu jiken - "Siemens-Vickers incident") and the Siemens-Schuckert affair in January 1914 were one of the most spectacular political scandals of the late Meiji and Taishō periods in Japanese politics. It included secret armaments agreements between high-ranking members of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the European industrial groups Siemens and Vickers and led to the overthrow of the cabinet of Yamamoto Gonnohyōe .

The Imperial Japanese Navy made massive armaments and imported modern warships and weapons from Europe. With a 15% bribe to those responsible for the tender in the Navy, Siemens practically secured a monopoly on armaments contracts for electrical equipment.

The battle cruiser Kongo, which triggered the scandal

The British company Vickers had offered a more lucrative deal through Mitsui Bussan as an intermediary for the Japanese navy, with a bribe of 25% and 40,000 yen for the former head of the main department responsible for warships Kansei Hombu ( 艦 政 本部 ) Vice Admiral Matsumoto Kazu ( 松本和 ) to get the contract to build the battle cruiser Kongō . When the German headquarters of Siemens learned of this deal in 1911, a telegram was sent to the Tokyo branch asking for clarification. The Karl Richter branch stenographer stole incriminating documents attesting that Siemens had paid a bribe of £ 1,000 to the Navy, sold the Navy along with a copy of the telegram to Reuters in 1914 and fled to Germany. On January 21, 1914, news reached Japan via Reuters that Karl Richter had been sentenced to two years in prison for stealing the incriminating papers and attempting to blackmail his employer in Germany. The notice indicated that Siemens employees had bribed Japanese naval officers.

Japanese newspapers, particularly the Asahi Shimbun , immediately reported the details of the corruption scandal on the morning of January 23, and the matter was brought before the Japanese parliament by members of the Rikken Dōshikai party . The army and navy intelligence services and the Kempeitai ( military police ) launched investigations.

The Japan Weekly Chronicle reported that Rear Admiral Fujii Mitsugorō ( 藤井 光 五郎 ), head of the Kansei Hombu's 4th Division (Shipbuilding) , confessed to receiving 210,000 yen from Vickers in 1911 and 1912, and reminded her readers that they did - regardless of whether this was legal under Japanese law or not - is definitely illegal under the British Corrupt Practices Act of 1906.

In the New York Times of February 8, 1914, the comparatively mild sentence for judges (the prosecution had demanded eight years) was explained by the fact that the court saw in the "manipulations" of Siemens an opportunity structure for the act.

Large demonstrations formed in February 1914, which turned into violence on February 10 and 14. Public opinion rose further when it was revealed that massive armaments spending on the Navy left little room for other budget expenditures and that the government was planning to raise taxes as a result. Although Prime Minister Yamamoto was not directly linked and fired officers in charge, public discontent grew and Yamamoto was asked to explain what was going on in front of the mansion .

After both Houses of Parliament refused to approve the Navy's 1914 budget, Yamamoto resigned on March 24, and with him his cabinet was overthrown. A military court demoted ex-Prime Minister Admiral Yamamoto and Minister of the Navy Admiral Saitō Makoto ( 斎 藤 実 ), sentenced leading officers to prison and fines, imposed heavy fines on Siemens and Vickers and forbade them to participate in future tenders.

The incident was brought up for debate in the German Reichstag on May 11 and 15, 1914 by Karl Liebknecht .

literature

  • John Bowman: Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture . Columbia University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-231-11004-9 .
  • John Owen Haley: The Spirit of Japanese Law . University of Georgia Press, 1998, ISBN 0-8203-2022-6 .
  • JE Hoare: Britain and Japan. Biographical Portraits III . Routledge Shorton, 1999, ISBN 1-873410-89-1 .
  • Richard Sims: Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Renovation 1868-2000 . Palgrave Macmillan, 2001, ISBN 0-312-23915-7 .
  • Toru Takenaka: Siemens' activities in Japan before the First World War . In: Quarterly for social and economic history . Vol. 76, 1989, ISSN  0340-8728 .
  • Toru Takenaka: Siemens in Japan. From the opening of the country to the First World War . Steiner, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 978-3-515-06462-0 (translated from Japanese and with an introduction by Wieland Wagner).
  • Richard H. Mitchell: Political Bribery in Japan . University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu 1996, ISBN 0-8248-1819-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hoare: Britain and Japan . P. 190
  2. ↑ Mitchell: Political Bribery in Japan , p. 28.
  3. ^ Haley: The Spirit of Japanese Law . P. 63
  4. ^ NYT - Origin of Japan's Armament Scandal
  5. ^ Sim: Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Renovation 1868-2000 . P. 115
  6. ^ Negotiations of the Reichstag. XIII. Legislative period. I. Session . tape 295 . Norddeutsche Buchdruckerei, Berlin 1914, p. 8711 ff., 8909 ff . ( Digitized version of the plenary minutes ).
Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus, Yamamoto is the family name, Gonnohyōe the first name.