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Otoya Yamaguchi

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In this Japanese name, the surname is Yamaguchi.

Otoya Yamaguchi
山口 二矢
A photograph taken by Yasushi Nagao of Otoya Yamaguchi attempting to stab Inejirō Asanuma for a second time.
Born(1943-02-22)22 February 1943
Taitō, Tokyo, Japan
Died2 November 1960(1960-11-02) (aged 17)
Nerima, Tokyo, Japan
Cause of deathSuicide by hanging
Resting placeAoyama Cemetery, Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo
Known forAssassination of Inejirō Asanuma

Otoya Yamaguchi (山口 二矢, Yamaguchi Otoya, 22 February 1943 – 2 November 1960) was a Japanese right-wing ultranationalist youth who assassinated Inejirō Asanuma, chairman of the Japan Socialist Party, on 12 October 1960. Yamaguchi rushed the stage and stabbed Asanuma with a wakizashi-like short sword while Asanuma was participating in a televised election debate at Hibiya Public Hall in Tokyo. Yamaguchi, who was 17 years of age at the time, had been a member of Bin Akao's far-right Greater Japan Patriotic Party, but had resigned earlier that year, just prior to the assassination.[1] After being arrested and interrogated, Yamaguchi committed suicide while in a detention facility.

Yamaguchi became a hero and a martyr to Japanese far-right groups, who as of 2022,[2] have continued to hold commemorations to this day.[3] Yamaguchi's actions inspired a number of copycat crimes, including the Shimanaka incident in 1961, and inspired Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kenzaburō Ōe's novellas Seventeen and Death of a Political Youth.[4][5] A photograph of the Asanuma assassination taken by Japanese photojournalist Yasushi Nagao won World Press Photo of the Year for 1960 and the 1961 Pulitzer Prize.[6][7]

Early life

Yamaguchi was born on 22 February 1943 in Yanaka, Taitō ward, Tokyo. He was the second son of Shinpei Yamaguchi, who by 1960 would become a high-ranking officer in the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, and was the maternal grandson of the famous writer Namiroku Murakami, well known for his violent novels glorifying the chivalric code of Japanese organized crime syndicates known as the yakuza.[8]

Yamaguchi began reading newspapers starting in his early childhood. Angered by what he read, he became interested in nationalist movements and vehemently critical of politicians. Due to his father's job, he lived in Sapporo, Hokkaido for much of his childhood. In 1958, he was accepted into Tamagawa High School in Tokyo, however his father transferred him to Sapporo Kōsei, a local Catholic school in Sapporo. Yamaguchi then decided to move to Tokyo to live with his brother, and transferred back to Tamagawa High School.[9] Through the influence of his brother, he began attending speeches and participating in protests and counter-protests organized by various right-wing groups.[8]

On 10 May 1959, at age 16, he heard a speech by right-wing ultranationalist Bin Akao declaring that Japan was on the verge of a revolution, and that the youth must begin resisting the actions of left-wing groups. This speech had a profound impact on him. After the speech, while Akao was planning to go to the next location, Yamaguchi told Akao that he wanted to go along with him, but Akao gently declined. Following this, he formally joined Akao's Greater Japan Patriotic Party (大日本愛国党, Dai Nippon Aikokutō).[8][9]

1960 Anpo protests

Protestors marching from Hibiya Park towards the national diet

Akao was virulently anti-communist and strongly pro-United States. Thus when left-wing protesters, led by Asanuma and the Japan Socialist Party, staged the massive Anpo protests against the 1960 revision of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty (known as "Anpo" in Japanese), Akao became convinced that Japan was on the verge of a communist revolution and mobilized his followers to stage counter-protests.[10] Yamaguchi participated in these counter-protest activities, and was arrested and released 10 times over the course of 1959 and 1960, within his first six months since joining Akao's party.[9][10]

Over the course of his participation in the Anpo protests, Yamaguchi became further disillusioned with Akao's leadership, which he felt was not radical enough.[11] In his testimony to the police after the assassination of Asanuma, Yamaguchi stated that Akao was always talking about taking out left-wing leaders, but was only interested in protests and media coverage, and that Akao would stop him if he ever tried to act on his words. Later in the interview, he stated that he had resigned from Akao's party in order to "lay [his] hands on a weapon" and be free to take more "decisive action."[11]

Assassination of Inejirō Asanuma

Main article: Assassination of Inejirō Asanuma

You, Inejirō Asanuma, are planning to turn Japan red [i.e. communist]. Although I bear no grudge against you as an individual, for the stances you have taken in your role as leader of the Socialist Party, for the outrageous statement you made when you visited China, and for the responsibility you bear for the intrusion into the National Diet,[note 1] I cannot grant you forgiveness. I shall hereby become the instrument that brings down heaven's judgment upon you.

Day 12 of the 10th month of the 2,620th year of imperial rule[a][note 2] Otoya Yamaguchi

A note written in the book in Otoya Yamaguchi's Pocket[12]

On 12 October 1960, Yamaguchi was in the large crowd of 2,500 spectators at a televised election debate held in Hibiya Public Hall in Hibiya Park in central Tokyo, featuring Suehiro Nishio of the Democratic Socialist Party, Inejirō Asanuma of the Japan Socialist Party, and Hayato Ikeda of the Liberal Democratic Party. Asanuma was the second to speak, and took the stage at 3:00 p.m.

At 3:05 p.m., Yamaguchi rushed onto the stage and made a deep thrust into Asanuma's left flank with the 33-centimeter replica "wakizashi" he had stolen from his father.[note 3] He was subsequently thereafter swarmed and detained by bystanders.[citation needed] Asanuma then died within minutes from massive internal bleeding.

At the time of his arrest at the scene of the murder, Yamaguchi had a notebook in his pocket describing Asanuma's actions as unforgivable, as well as detailing his motivations for the attack.

In this note, he made mention of political controversy surrounding Asanuma's support for the then recently proclaimed People's Republic of China, the June 15th Incident during the Anpo Protests, as well as concerns over Japan potentially becoming communist.[12]

The loss of Asanuma's adroit leadership and the new leadership that followed caused the party to head in a more centrist direction, and deprived the JSP of its ability to present a cohesive message, leading to severe infighting within the party.[14] As a result, the number of seats the socialists held in the Diet continued to decline until the party's extinction in 1996.[15]

Imprisonment and suicide

The note Otoya Yamaguchi wrote with toothpaste on his cell wall before committing suicide

Following the assassination, Yamaguchi was arrested and imprisoned awaiting trial. Throughout his incarceration, Yamaguchi remained calm and composed and freely gave extensive testimony to police. He spoke of goals pertaining to causing the restriction of behavior for future left-wing leaders, as well as a desire to negatively influence public perception of left-wing leaders and their ideology.

I did not think that the left-wing forces could be overthrown simply by taking out their leaders. However, the evil deeds those leaders had continued to perpetrate up to the present day could no longer be tolerated, and I knew that if even one leader were taken out, the behavior of future left-wing leaders would be constrained. If even a single member of the general public that is now blindly following the blandishments of left-wing agitators were awakened to their folly, I thought it would be worth doing...[11][b]

Otoya Yamaguchi, in his confession to the police

Yamaguchi spoke of Akao respectfully, referring to him using the honorific sensei (先生, master), however, also stating that Akao was more interested in "media attention" and "agitation", as opposed to actively putting his words and ideals to practice. Yamaguchi told police that Akao would have prevented him from carrying out the assassination had he known of his intentions, as well as consistently maintaining that he had acted alone and without any direction from others, stating the inaction on Akao's part as a component of his motivation and reasoning for resigning from the party and committing the offense.

Master Akao was always saying "we must take out the leaders of the left wing," but it was clear that he was more interested in attracting media attention with mild agitation, and that he would stop me if I ever tried to put his words into action....Therefore I decided to leave the party, lay my hands on a weapon, and take decisive action.[11][c]

Less than three weeks after the assassination, on 2 November, Yamaguchi mixed a small amount of toothpaste with water and wrote on his cell wall, "Long live the Emperor" (天皇陛下万才, tennōheika banzai) and "Would that I had seven lives to give for my country" (七生報国, shichishō hōkoku), the latter a reference to the famous last words of fourteenth-century samurai Kusunoki Masashige.[3][12] Yamaguchi then knotted strips of his bedsheet into a makeshift rope and used it to hang himself from a light fixture.[3][17]

Right-wing groups celebrated Yamaguchi as a martyr; they gave a burial coat, kimono, and belt to his parents and performed a memorial service for him.[18] His ashes were interred in Aoyama Cemetery.[19]

Legacy

Yasushi Nagao with his Pulitzer Prize winning photo. (1961)

A photograph taken by Yasushi Nagao immediately after Yamaguchi withdrew his sword from Asanuma won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize,[20] and the 1960 World Press Photo award.[7] Footage of the incident was also captured.[21]

On 15 December 1960, just weeks after Yamaguchi's suicide, a nationwide coalition of Japanese right-wing groups held a "National Memorial Service for Our Martyred Brother Yamaguchi Otoya" in the same Hibya Public Hall in Tokyo where Yamaguchi had assassinated Asanuma.[3] Since then, right-wing groups have held an annual commemoration of Yamaguchi's death anniversary each year on 2 November.[3] In October 2010, right-wing groups staged a large-scale celebration of the 50th anniversary of Yamaguchi's assassination of Asanuma in Hibiya Park.[18]

Yamaguchi's actions and the massive publicity they received inspired a rash of copycat crimes, as a number of political figures became targets of assassination plots and attempts over the next few years.[3] Of the notable crimes inspired by Yamaguchi's attack, one was the Shimanaka Incident of 1 February 1961. In this incident, Kazutaka Komori, a 17-year-old member of the Greater Japan Patriotic Party, attempted to assassinate the president of Chūō Kōron magazine for publishing a graphic dream sequence depicting the beheading of the emperor and his family. This played a role in establishing what came to be known as the Chrysanthemum taboo.[22][23]

Japanese author Kenzaburō Ōe based his 1961 novellas Seventeen and Death of a Political Youth on Yamaguchi.[5]

Notes

Footnotes

  1. ^ This is a reference to the "June 15th Incident" of 15 June 1960, when leftist protesters stormed the National Diet compound to protest the Security Treaty
  2. ^ 12 October 1960 in the Gregorian calendar.
  3. ^ The sword was a slightly undersized replica of a famous sword forged in the Kamakura Period by the swordsmith Rai Kunitoshi, and thus is better considered a wakizashi than a full-sized tachi or katana.[13]

Original Japanese text

Below is the original, untranslated transcriptions from various statements made by the subject of this article.

  1. ^ 「汝、浅沼稲次郎は日本赤化をはかっている。自分は、汝個人に恨みはないが、社会党の指導的立場にいる者としての責任と、訪中に際しての暴言と、国会乱入の直接のせん動者としての責任からして、汝を許しておくことはできない。ここに於て我、汝に対し天誅を下す。 皇紀二千六百二十年十月十二日 山口二矢。」[12]
  2. ^ 「左翼指導者を倒せば左翼勢力をすぐ阻止できるとは考えないが、彼らが現在までやってきた罪悪は許すことはできないし、1人を倒すことによって、今後左翼指導者の行動が制限され、扇動者の甘言によって附和雷同している一般の国民が、1人でも多く覚醒してくれればそれで良いと思いました」[16]
  3. ^ 「赤尾先生も口では「左翼の指導者を倒さなければならない」などと言ってはいますが、実際は軽い事件を起こしてマスコミを利用した運動方法であり、私が実行したいと言えば阻止することは明らかであるので、… 脱党して武器を手に入れ決行しようと思いました。」[16]

References

  1. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 252–53. ISBN 9780674988484.
  2. ^ Webmaster (2 November 2020). "山口二矢烈士御命日墓参". 大日本愛国党 (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 12 May 2023. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 254. ISBN 9780674988484.
  4. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 257. ISBN 9780674988484.
  5. ^ a b Weston, Mark (1999). Giants of Japan: The Lives of Japan's Most Influential Men and Women. New York: Kodansha International. p. 295. ISBN 1-568362862.
  6. ^ "The 1961 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Photography". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  7. ^ a b "1961 Photo Contest, World Press Photo of the Year". World Press Photo. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  8. ^ a b c Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 252. ISBN 9780674988484.
  9. ^ a b c 関西書院, 千頭剛 (1995). 戦後文学の作家たち. p. 90.
  10. ^ a b Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 253. ISBN 9780674988484.
  11. ^ a b c d Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 253–54. ISBN 9780674988484.
  12. ^ a b c d Webmaster (2 November 2020). "山口二矢烈士御命日墓参". 大日本愛国党 (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 12 May 2023. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  13. ^ 沢木, 耕太郎 (1982). 『テロルの決算』文藝春秋. 文春文庫. pp. 10, 238. ISBN 978-4167209049.
  14. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 127. ISBN 9780674988484.
  15. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 125–26. ISBN 9780674988484.
  16. ^ a b Arahara, Bokusui (1966). Dai uyoku shi. Tokyo: Dai Nihon Kokumintō. p. 934.
  17. ^ "JAPAN: Assassin's Apologies". TIME Magazine. Time Inc. 14 November 1960. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
  18. ^ a b Newton, Michael (17 April 2014). "Inejiro Asanuma (1898–1960)". Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. ABC-CLIO. pp. 234–235. ISBN 978-1-61069-286-1.
  19. ^ "四月廿九日 山口二矢及び筆保泰禎兩氏之墓參 於港區南青山「梅窓院」". Douketusya (in Japanese). 3 May 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  20. ^ Zelizer, Barbie (1 December 2010). About to Die:How News Images Move the Public. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 183–4. ISBN 978-0199752133. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
  21. ^ Inejiro Asanuma Assassination Footage (1960) (Digital video). YouTube.com (published 18 May 2006). 12 October 1960. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
  22. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 261. ISBN 9780674988484.
  23. ^ Yoshida, Reiji; Nagata, Kazuaki (22 January 2015). "Self-censorship is biggest threat to free speech in Japan". The Japan Times. Archived from the original on 24 January 2015. Retrieved 16 October 2021.

Further reading

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