In the early Showa period, March 15 Incident, April 16 Incident, March Incident, October Incident, February 26 Incident and May 15 Incident There are many incidents such as, and it is very difficult to remember.
However, it is a demanding event that you will definitely learn in history classes, so you cannot help remembering it.
Therefore, I would like to touch on the XX incident in several parts.
In the first installment, I will explain the May 15 Incident.
What is the May 15 Incident?
First of all, what kind of incident was the May 15 Incident?
The May 15 Incident is 1932 (Showa 7) . It refers to the case in which young Navy officers attacked the Prime Minister's Office and killed Prime Minister Inukai on May 15. May 15th means May 15th.
Tsuyoshi Inukai, who replaced Prime Minister Wakatsuki as Prime Minister, did not oppose the Manchurian Incident and did not go on the path of war reduction. As a result, he had a good relationship with the military, but he was killed by a naval officer.
So why was Tsuyoshi Inukai murdered? ??
Background of the May 15 Incident
During this period, the Japanese economy shrank due to the Great Depression, and many people were forced into bankruptcy. Among them, the May 15 Incident was initiated for farmers under the leadership of thinker Shumei Okawa. That Okawa idea prompted the Navy youth officer to assassinate Inuyo.
The economic contraction had a great impact on rural areas, and the prices of agricultural products fell, and the export of raw silk to the United States fell sharply, causing prices to plummet. In addition, urban unemployment has returned to rural areas, furthering distress.
In some regions, children and women were sold, and in the Tohoku region, the recession, bad harvest and tsunami overlapped, and the situation was more dire than in other regions.
In this way, the lives of the people were in dire straits, and the case was carried out mainly by the youth officers of the Navy and the candidates for army officers who had a sense of justice.
The government had also put forth a recessionary measure, but there was a strong dissatisfaction with the politics, which was reluctant to take measures for the common people, mainly due to the bailout measures of banks and large corporations.
Shumei Okawa and the May 15 Incident
The Okawa family has been a family of doctors for generations, 1886 Was born in Yamagata prefecture.
When I was a junior high school student, I went to Fukuoka Prefecture Yahata Steel Works Was built, the Second Industrial Revolution began, and heavy industry developed. At the same time, capitalism developed and the economic gap between capitalists and the workers hired by them became very large.
Okawa was strongly opposed to this world of money-making principles.
One day, when he went to a Christian church, Okawa had doubts about his behavior asking for donations.
[Human beings should not be divided into those who have money and those who do not. Humans must be equal above all]
Thinking that, I will gradually move toward socialist ideas.
Okawa enrolled in Tokyo Imperial University.
There, he had the opportunity to compile the biographies of successive emperors. At this time, Okawa examined the historical materials of the Emperor's family and strengthened the idea that the center of Japan should be the Emperor.
[In Japan, from the ancient times of Nara and Heian to the Meiji Restoration, there were various times when public houses and samurai took over the world one after another. But in every era, everyone who practices politics has protected the emperor. The history of Japan is connected by a single emperor. There is no other country like this in the world. But what about now? Corrupt and corrupt conglomerates and politicians are scattered around and under the emperor, and they are trying to twist Japan. That's why we have to get rid of corrupt chaebols and politicians and make it a country where the emperor and the people are directly connected.]
It seems that he said.
Impact after the May 15 Incident
This series of incidents terrorized the ruling class.
Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated by the May 15 Incident, the Inukai Cabinet ended, and the party system in which the Prime Minister was elected from the party powers that took the majority in the parliament did not take place until the end of the Pacific War. ..
Nowadays, I think it is normal to say that it is a political party base, but it seems that it was not commonplace from the Meiji era to the beginning of the Taisho era. After this incident, the National Unity Government was born with Admiral Saito as Prime Minister, and the political party cabinet that has continued for eight years since the Cabinet of the Three Guardians is ending here.
Treatment of youth officers and masterminds of the case
The May 15 Incident was tried in a military court in Yokosuka.
The ruling generally expected everyone to be sentenced to death, but the actual ruling was the best [ 15 years in prison . ] Some people say it's been a few years.
The result was that the punishment of the soldiers who caused the incident was unusually light.
Prime Minister Inukai tries to bring the officers who rushed in on the day of the incident through the drawing room, saying [I understand if I speak], but [ no questions asked . ] And was killed.
Summary
This May 15 Incident is a very important case and almost appears in history classes, so I summarized it briefly.
- When did you get up? → May 15, 1932
- Who? → Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai
- Where → At the Prime Minister's Office, Bank, Metropolitan Police Department, Seiyukai Headquarters
- By whom → Navy youth officer
- What's wrong? → Killed