May 15 Incident

Osaka Mainichi Shimbun describing the May 15 Incident and assassination of Prime Minister Inukai

The May 15 Incident (五・一五事件, Goichigo Jiken^?) was an attempted coup d'état in Japan, on May 15, 1932, launched by radical elements of the Imperial Japanese Navy, aided by cadets in the Imperial Japanese Army and civilian remnants of the League of Blood Incident. Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated by 11 young naval officers. The following trial and popular support by Japanese population led to light sentences, strengthening military factions, weakening immediately the rule of law, but also, in the long term, the young Japanese democracy.

Background

Main article: League of Blood Incident

As a result of the ratification of the London Naval Treaty limiting the size of the Imperial Japanese Navy, a movement grew within the junior officer corps to overthrow the government, and to replace it with military rule. This movement had parallels in the Sakurakai secret society organized within the Imperial Japanese Army. The naval officers established contacts with the ultranationalist Inoue Nissho and his "League of Blood", and agreed with his philosophy that to bring about a 'Shōwa Restoration', it would be necessary to assassinate leading political and business figures.

In March 1932, in the 'League of Blood Incident', Inoue's group only managed to kill former Finance Minister and head of the Rikken Minseito, Inoue Junnosuke, and Director-General of Mitsui Holding Company, Takuma Dan.

Incident

On May 15, 1932, the naval officers, aided by Army cadets, and right-wing civilian elements (including Shūmei Ōkawa, Mitsuru Tōyama, and Kosaburo Tachibana) staged their own attempt to complete what had been started in the League of Blood Incident.

Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was shot by eleven young Naval officers (most were just turning twenty years of age) in the Prime Minister's residence. Inukai's last words were roughly If I could speak, you would understand (話せば分かる, hanaseba wakaru^?) to which his killers replied Dialogue is useless (問答無用, mondō muyō^?).^[1] The original assassination plan included killing the film star Charlie Chaplin, who happened to be visiting Japan at the time. When the prime minister was killed, his son Inukai Takeru was watching a sumo wrestling match with Charlie Chaplin, which probably saved both their lives.

The insurgents also attacked the residence of Makino Nobuaki, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, the residence and office of Kimmochi Saionji, head of the Rikken Seiyukai political party, and tossed hand-grenades into Mitsubishi Bank headquarters in Tokyo, and several electrical transformer substations.

Aside from the murder of the Prime Minister, the attempted coup d'état came to nothing, and the rebellion as a whole proved a failure. The participants took a taxi to the police headquarters and surrendered themselves to the Kempeitai without a struggle.

Consequences

The eleven murderers of Prime Minister Inukai were court-martialed; however, before the end of their trial a petition arrived at court containing over 350,000 signatures in blood, which had been signed by sympathizers around the country to plead for a lenient sentence. During the proceedings, the accused used the trial as a platform to proclaim their loyalty to the Emperor and to arouse popular sympathy by appealing for reforms of the government and economy. In addition to the petition, the court also received a request from eleven youths in Niigata, asking that they be executed in place of the Navy officers, and sending eleven severed fingers to the court as a gesture of their sincerity.^[2]

Punishment handed by the court was extremely light, and there was little doubt in the Japanese press that the murderers of Prime Minister Inukai would be released in a couple of years, if not sooner. Failure to severely punish the plotters in the May 15 Incident further eroded the rule of law and the power of the democratic government in Japan to confront the military. Indirectly, it led to the February 26 Incident and the increasing rise of Japanese militarism.^[3]

Footnotes

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1. ^ Tolland, The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945
2. ^ Spector, Eagle Against the Sun. pp.36
3. ^ Beasley, The Rise of Modern Japan

References

• Beasley, W.G. (2000). The Rise of Modern Japan, 3rd Edition: Political, Economic, and Social Change since 1850. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0312233736. 
• Borkwith, Mark (1989). Pacific Century: The Emergence of Modern Pacific Asia. Westview Press. ISBN 0813334713. 
• Oka, Yoshitake (1984). Five Political Leaders of Modern Japan: Ito Hirobumi, Okuma Shigenobu, Hara Takashi, Inukai Tsuyoshi, and Saionji Kimmochi. University of Tokyo Press. ISBN 0860083799. 
• Sims, Richard (2001). Japanese Political History Since the Meiji Renovation 1868-2000. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0312239157. 
• Spector, Ronald (1985). Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan. Vintage. ISBN 0-394-74101-3. 
• Toland, John (2003 reprint). The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945. Modern Library. ISBN 0812968581. 

External links

• National Diet Library Reference