Incident on May 15th
The incident on May 15, 1932 ( Jap. 五·一五事件 , go ichigo jiken ) was a revolt of cadets of the Imperial Japanese Navy and cadets of the Army in Tōkyō , in which the Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai was killed.
prehistory
In February and March 1932 committed members of Ketsumeidan attacks, whereby the former Finance Minister Inoue Junnosuke and the chairman of Mitsui zaibatsu (now Mitsui ), Dan Takuma , died. At that time, the Ketsumeidan was under the leadership of Inoue Nisshō , a radical self-appointed priest of Nichiren Buddhism . This preached terrorism , accompanied by propaganda directed against the prevailing capitalism in Japan.
The Ketsumeidan kept a list of people who were to be murdered by assassinations. These included personalities such as Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi (from December 1931), his predecessor Wakatsuki Reijirō , the genrō Saionji Kimmochi , Inoue Junnosuke and Dan Takuma. After the attacks on Inoue and Dan, the connections Inoue Nisshō to the attackers were uncovered by the subsequent investigation. Inoue Nisshō was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The remaining members of the Ketsumeidan were now looking for their co-conspirators in the ranks of the navy and the army. There were groups of young officers there who wanted to create a Shōwa ishin ("Shōwa Restoration", comparable to the Meiji Restoration ) by killing Inukai .
May 15, 1932
On May 15, 1932, cadets of the Imperial Navy and junior army officers decided to attack politically important buildings. The main target was the murder of Prime Minister Inukai and Naidaijin (Lord Seal Keeper) Makino Nobuaki . The headquarters of the seiyūkai , the Mitsubishi Bank , the Tokyo police headquarters and various power plants outside of Tōkyō were attacked and occupied. The junior officers only succeeded in killing Inukai. Several officers broke into the kōtei (prime minister's residence) and shot Inukai. He is said to have asked the assassins to discuss with him before his death.
The May 15 revolt was quickly suppressed and the coup plotters were taken into custody.
Aftermath
Due to the pressure of the reservist associations, which collected 700,000 signatures, the penalties were only mild.
The attack on Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi put an end to the party government and now left political space for the military: with the Saitō cabinet , a “cabinet of national unity” took over the government. This benefited the Kwantung Army could act unhindered by the government in Tōkyō in Manchuria .
literature
- Beasley, WG The Rise of Modern Japan , 3rd edition, in: Political, Economic, and Social Change since 1850 . Palgrave Macmillan, 2000, ISBN 0-312-23373-6 .
- Hane, Mikiso; Perez, Louis G. Modern Japan. A Historical Survey . 4th ed., Boulder, 2009.
- Customs officer, Reinhard. History of Japan - From 1800 to the present . 2nd Edition. Paderborn 2009.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Makiyō Hori: ( 堀 ま き よ う ): 「井上 日 召 と" か ぎ の 折伏 "： 血盟 団 事件 に つ い て」 ( Inoue Nisshō and his Terrorist Ideas: Some Notes on the Oath of Blood Group ), in: 早 稲 済 学 経 経 経 経 済 学 政治雑 誌 (The Waseda Journal of Political Science and Economics), No. 328 (1996), p. 178