In the spring of 1932, tokyo was shrouded in panic as two important people were assassinated.
On February 9, former Finance Minister Junnosuke Inoue was killed at a lecture hall while campaigning in Tokyo.
On March 5, the chairman of the Mitsui Foundation, Tatsumi, collapsed in a pool of blood as he stood in front of the company's headquarters in the central neighborhood of Tokyo.
In less than a month, two political and economic heavyweights died, alarming the authorities. After a swift and rigorous investigation, the police found a staggering list of 20 assassins, including the elder minister, the current prime minister, the foreign minister, the minister of justice, and the famous chaebol, of which Junnosuke Inoue and Takuma Toshina were just two of them. If the assassination plan is fully realized, it will mean that Japan's political arena will suffer a devastating blow. And it was a monk who presided over the assassination plan.
Hisashi Inoue
Born in Gunma Prefecture in 1886, the monk, whose name was Inoue Hinzo, was a soldier and studied at Waseda University after retiring from the army, but dropped out of school. He then spent 12 years as a military spy and smuggler in northeastern and northern China. At that time, many Japanese ronin were active in Chinese mainland, they had their own missions, they moved around, and sometimes they got together and drank wine for fun.
"My 10 years of life in China can be said to be almost a 'wine and boredom' life. At that time, the Japanese in China, especially the young people, unconsciously, when they met, they first drank," Inoue Later recalled, "The praise is the excellence of our motherland, Japan, its national system, the beauty of the land, the thickness of human feelings, the cleanliness of the water, etc., tirelessly repeating these things, and the young people all carry the worldly beauty of the 'inland' as lovers." ”
In 1921, this man who claimed to know nothing about the country, society, or the human world returned to Japan and was disappointed to find that his "lover" was no longer a "peerless beauty." At that time, the left-wing factions in Japanese politics were dominant, and in the words of Inoue Nikkaku, "because I heard and witnessed the increase in socialists, the brutality of the far left, the redundancy of the working masses, the fierceness and unconsciousness of the guiding class, etc., I hated this extremely, and the cursed feelings of 'who defiled my lover' flooded my whole heart like a flood."
The 34-year-old Inoue Niksho felt desperate, became angry, and converted to the Nichiren Sect, and "Nichijo" was the name changed at this time. He was passionate about reciting the Lotus Sutra and zazen meditation he had learned during his wanderings. This is very similar to Kita's experience, except that Inoue Nikzo is more obsessed and forgets to recite the Lotus Sutra. In the process of chanting, he felt that "his whole body was bathed in aura, and everything he saw in all directions shone brightly, indistinguishable from the solemn world described in the Buddhist scriptures." Not only that, but it was also obvious that a voice was heard saying to itself, "You are the Savior!" ”
Some people may wonder how, having lived through the era of "Taisho Democracy," there could be such an uncivilized and ignorant person in Japan. In fact, the light of science and reason did not reach everyone's heart at that time. According to the research of the famous folklorist Kunio Yanagida, there were still ancient legends in the Japanese countryside at that time that were very different from the rational and scientific world taught in schools. In an era when the waves of democracy had spread throughout Japan, "ordinary people" (ordinary people) still felt that their ancestors or yokai, foxes, and kappa lived around their villages. Not only in rural areas, but also in urban legends, divination or curses, etc., are still part of urban life. Inoue Niksho is also one of the ordinary people, but he is more concerned about state affairs than others.
The 226 Mutiny in film and television dramas
According to the "Autobiography of the Day Summons", he could also talk to green snakes and birds, communicate with trees, flowers and plants, foresee diseases, and chant mantras to cure diseases. One day in May 1924, he saw a group of ants fighting, listened intently, and came with incredible words: "In Showa 16, Japan and the United States went to war." At first Japan had the upper hand, but soon the United States won and Japan was utterly defeated. However, soon there will be a time when the sun flag will fly in the world. Look, that group of small black ants is the Japanese army, and the big red ants are the American army. ”
Readers, if this self-statement is true, it is clear that Inoue Niksuke has gone mad. But it is such a mentally abnormal person who wants to transform the country. "My national transformation movement is my religion," he said. In 1927, he opened the "Ritsusho Gokoku-do Hall" in Ibaraki Prefecture, 40 kilometers from Tokyo, to train nearby rural youth in Buddhist chanting and zazen meditation, and to carry out so-called "religious forms of enlightenment education activities." Initially, his plan was to grow the number of believers to tens of thousands, then lead them to besiege Tokyo, surround the parliament without resistance, and select negotiators to negotiate the dissolution of political parties and the abolition of the parliament with the goal of establishing the "Emperor of Japan".
If Inoue had stayed at such a stage, it would have been a "peaceful" national reformer, but this whimsical plan would not have been possible. He struggled to recruit fewer than ten believers. These people come from the withered countryside and only want to be free from their troubles.
On October 23, 1929, the New York stock exchange collapsed, ensuing a global economic crisis and plunging Japan into an economic depression. Large enterprises are under-operated, medium-sized enterprises are rapidly bankrupt, small businesses are in arrears in wages, millions of workers have joined the army of unemployed, and many young people plan to return to their rural hometowns to escape the crisis, but find life in the countryside more difficult. Some farmers were starved in winter by nibbling on tree bark, and thousands of rural families sold their daughters to brothels in the city. Although unemployment and declining production in the United States are serious, the panic of the Japanese people is even more serious, and people believe that the country is in a "period of emergency", and various solutions have been proposed.
In Inoue's view, the machinations of those privileged groups, especially politicians and leaders of large corporations, have brought disasters to the Japanese people, who are the source of all disasters. As a result, his idea of "no resistance" began to waver, and the young officer of the Kasumigaura Naval Aviation School, a neighbor of the "Rishigokudo Temple", accelerated his change of thinking. These young officers went to and from the Gokokudo Hall and often talked to Inoue about the method of "national transformation". Lieutenant Fujii Ki was radical in his thinking, advocating a "violent reform movement" and criticizing Inoue's "no resistance" as pedantic and useless.
Inoue's thinking changed. He turned to violent means and organized the "Blood Alliance" to plan the assassination of dignitaries in the political and financial circles. Joining this radical terrorist organization are not only desperate young farmers, but also students with idealistic complexes. Originally, Inoue planned to attack the ministers who went to the Imperial Palace to congratulate him on February 11, 1932, the day of the Anno Festival, together with the young officers of the Navy led by Fujii Qi. Coinciding with the "1.28 Incident" in Shanghai, Fujii Qi and others were ordered to go to the Chinese battlefield and the plan was stranded.
Inoue changed his plan, first carrying out the assassination of "one person, one kill", and then the young officers of the Navy launched a coup d'état. According to Inoue's plan, from the minister to the elders, every assassination target has a division of labor, and the "Blood Alliance" is strictly confidential, except for Inoue himself, the killers are absolutely not allowed to disclose the list of assassinated people to each other.
Why the radical tactic of assassination? Inoue's answer was, "What can make them realize?" What is the method? You should understand it as soon as you think about it. For their iron walls, publications and the sincerity of the volunteers are useless, and only the sense of danger in the most important life they cherish can enlighten them. ”
Inoue said to his comrades: "Our assassination is not aimed at killing people, but the only means that the young people of the worried country have to resort to in order to arouse their awakening." In his eyes, "assassination is an act of a bodhisattva" and "an act of good faith." He secretly obtained pistols through naval officers and handed them over to the young men he had brainwashed, resulting in two terrorist attacks in the "Blood Covenant Incident".
Konuma, who killed Junnosuke Inoue, who was only 23 years old, said after his arrest: "I killed Junnosuke Inoue and vaguely felt that I could master something about Buddhism." After becoming a murderer, I read Buddhist texts more enthusiastically during my detention. This is all a blessing for the help of the trust. In this way, it is so convenient for me to kill people. ”
Minister of the Exchequer Inoue Junnosuke
After the "Blood Compact Incident", the Japanese Metropolitan Police Agency quickly seized and arrested all the members of the Blood Compact Group, and Inoue Realized that he could not escape, so he surrendered to the police. In his prison account, he recounted his vision of "national transformation," including the emperor's pro-government (i.e., the politics of monarchy), the abolition of the parliamentary system, the reform of education, and the restriction of private property. People can see from this that unlike theoreticians such as KitaIchiki, Inoue Nikkaku does not have a systematic guiding theory on "national transformation", but only pays attention to practical actions and advocates the implementation of "one person, one kill" terrorism.
In the words of Inoue's confidants, the solution to Japan's social crisis is to "kill the prime ministers one by one." In addition to individual assassinations, the group's armed action was also "necessary". Inoue also explained his terrorism: "Our comrades should huddle together, throw them as bombs of flesh, and use our own flesh as explosives to kill our enemies." ”
However, this simple and crude bloody method could not solve social problems at all, but added to the crisis atmosphere of the early 1930s and stimulated the arrogant young officers. After the authorities found out the relationship between the Blood Compact and its back, they did not take any action against the naval officers who secretly supported the assassination plan. Just two months later, these people launched the "May 15 Incident", killing Prime Minister Inuyasha. Although this fascist coup was quickly suppressed, it set the stage for the largest fascist coup in Japan's modern history four years later, the "226 Incident".
From the assassination of chaebol Zenjiro Yasuda in 1921 by Hirigo Asahi, to the assassination of former Finance Minister Junnosuke Inoue and the Chaebol Group in the spring of 1932, from the "May 15 Incident" launched by young officers in the summer of 1932 to kill Prime Minister Inuyasha, to the "226 Incident" launched by young officers in 1936 to kill several ministers, Japan's fascist terrorist acts formed a "ratchet effect", which was constantly accelerating and becoming more and more public. There is no doubt that the "Blood Compact" is an important link in this chain.
In November 1934, the court sentenced Inoue and the two murderers to life imprisonment, and the other members of the Blood Covenant regiment were sentenced to 3 to 15 years in prison. At this time, Japan had taken the lead in emerging from the economic crisis and entering a new period of rapid growth, and the most prestigious economist at that time, Hiromi Arizawa, even thought that this was an "economic miracle". However, Japan's political ecology has completely changed, and the right has an increasing voice.
Six years later, in 1940, the Japanese government released Inoue and all members of the Blood Compact. A year later, Japan provoked the Pacific War, and under the impetus of fascist forces, it created an unprecedented catastrophe in human history. ”