Taigyaku Jiken

The Taigyaku Jiken ( Japanese 大逆 事件 , dt. "High treason affair "), also known as Kōtoku Jiken ( 幸 徳 事件 , dt. "Kōtoku affair"), was a socialist - anarchist plan, 1910 the Japanese Tennō Meiji in an assassination attempt to kill. It led to mass arrests of leftists and the execution of 12 suspected conspirators in 1911 .

procedure

On May 20, 1910, the police searched the home of Miyashita Takichi ( 宮 下 太 吉 ; 1875–1911), a sawmill employee from Nagano Prefecture , and found various items that could be used to build bombs. Further investigations led to the arrest of his accomplices Nitta Tōru ( 新 田 融 ; 1880-1911), Niimura Tadao ( 新村 忠 ; 1887-1911), Furukawa Rikisaku ( 古河 力作 ; 1884-1911) and Kōtoku Shūsui (1871-1911) as well as his former partner, the feminist author Kanno Suga ( 管 野 ス ガ ), who had already been indicted in the red flag incident ( 赤 旗 事件 , akahata jiken ) but was acquitted. Through interrogation, the police learned of what the prosecutors called a nationwide conspiracy against the Japanese monarchy .

As the investigation continued, many well-known leftists across the country were interrogated. 25 men and one woman were charged with violating Article 73 of the Criminal Code (harm or attempted harm to the emperor or a member of the imperial family). The negotiations were not public and Hiranuma Kiichirō represented the prosecution.

While the evidence against the five main defendants was clear, it was rather poor for the remaining 21 defendants. Even so, 24 of the 26 defendants were sentenced to death by hanging, while the other two received eight and eleven years' imprisonment for violating explosives ordinances.

Of the 24 death sentences, twelve were commuted to life imprisonment the following day. Of the remaining twelve, eleven were executed on January 24, 1911, including the one against the well-known anarchist Kōtoku Shūsui and the doctor Ōishi Senosuke ( 大石 誠 之 助 ). Kanno Suga was the last to be executed the following day.

The incident was used by the authorities as an excuse to arrest many dissidents . Only five or six of those arrested and accused had anything to do with the planned assassination attempt on the Tennō. Even the main defendant Kōtoku Shūsui had nothing to do with the planning of the attack since the earliest planning, but his great fame made him the main character of the prosecution.

The treason affair was indirectly related to the red flag incident of 1908. During the treason affair, imprisoned anarchists such as Ōsugi Sakae , Kanson Arahata ( 荒 畑 寒 村 ), Sakai Toshihiko ( 堺 利 彦 ) and Yamakawa Hitoshi ( 山川 均 ) were recruited asked about possible participation. The fact that many of them were already in prison protected them from higher sentences.

The treason affair led to a shift within the upper class of the late Meiji period towards greater control and suppression of ideologies considered dangerous. She was directly responsible for the establishment of the Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu and the enactment of the Law to Maintain Public Safety .

A request for rehabilitation of the convicted after World War II was rejected by the Supreme Court in 1967 .

On the occasion of its 100th anniversary, the treason affair in Japan has become the subject of a documentary film that was released in 2012 under the title “The echo of 100 years - the treason affair is alive” ( Hyakunen no kodama - taigyaku jiken wa ikite iru - 100 年 の 谺 ー 大逆事件 は 生 き て い る ) has been published.

literature

• Joseph Cronin: The Life of Seinosuke: Dr. Oishi and the High Treason Incident . White Tiger Press, 2007
• Maik Hendrik Sprotte : Conflicts in authoritarian systems of rule. A historical case study of the early socialist movement in Japan during the Meiji period . Marburg 2001, ISBN 3-8288-8323-0

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ian Hill Nish and Hugh Cortazzi: Britain & Japan. Biographical portraits . Japan Society Publications, 2002, p. 338
2. ↑ Helen Bowen Raddeker: Treacherous Women of Imperial Japan . Routledge, 1997, p. 6
3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from June 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Maik Hendrik Sprotte: History in the film - 100 years of the "treason affair"
5. ↑ Internet page for the documentary "The echo of 100 years - the treason affair is alive"

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Miyashita is the family name, Takichi the first name.