The Amakasu Incident (''Amakasu jiken'') was the murder of two prominent Japanese

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessari ...

and a young boy by military police, led by Lieutenant Amakasu Masahiko, in September 1923. The victims were

Ōsugi Sakae was a radical Japanese anarchist. He published numerous anarchist periodicals, helped translate western anarchist essays into Japanese for the first time, and created Japan's first Esperanto school in 1906. He, Itō Noe, and his nephew were m ...

, an informal leader of the Japanese anarchist movement, together with the anarcha-feminist

Itō Noe was a Japanese anarchist, social critic, author, and feminist. She was the editor-in-chief of the feminist magazine '' Seitō (Bluestocking)''. Her progressive anarcha-feminist ideology challenged the norms of the Meiji and Taishō periods i ...

(his wife), and Ōsugi's child nephew. During the chaos that followed the catastrophic

1923 Great Kantō earthquake The struck the Kantō Plain on the main Japanese island of Honshū at 11:58:44 JST (02:58:44 UTC) on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and ten minutes. Extensive firestorms an ...

, Japanese authorities killed many dissidents and ethnic Koreans in what became known as the

Kantō Massacre The Kantō Massacre was a mass murder which the Japanese military, police and vigilantes committed against the Korean residents of the Kantō region, as well as socialists, communists, anarchists, and other dissidents, in the immediate afterma ...

. Itō, Ōsugi, and his nephew were arrested on 16 September. According to writer and activist

Jakucho Setouchi (15 May 1922 – 9 November 2021; born formerly known as was a Japanese Buddhist nun, writer, and activist. Setouchi wrote a best-selling translation of '' The Tale of Genji'' and over 400 fictional biographical and historical novels. In 1997 ...

, Itō, Ōsugi, and his 6-year-old nephew were arrested, beaten to death, and thrown into an abandoned well by a squad of military police led by Lieutenant Masahiko Amakasu. According to literary scholar Patricia Morley, Itō and Ōsugi were strangled in their cells. Both accounts agree that both or all of the prisoners were brutally executed without a trial, where convictions and death sentences for the two adults would have been almost guaranteed. These killings, which became known as the Amakasu Incident, sparked widespread anger. The historian John Crump argued that "once again, the most able anarchist of his generation had been murdered," echoing the execution of

Kōtoku Shūsui , better known by the pen name , was a Japanese socialist and anarchist who played a leading role in introducing anarchism to Japan in the early 20th century. Historian John Crump described him as "the most famous socialist in Japan". He was ...

in the

High Treason Incident The , also known as the , was a socialist-anarchist plot to assassinate the Japanese Emperor Meiji in 1910, leading to a mass arrest of leftists, and the execution of 12 alleged conspirators in 1911. Investigation On 20 May 1910, the police se ...

just twelve years prior. Following nationwide outcry, Amakasu was

court-martialed A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of mem ...

and sentenced to 10 years in prison. When

Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

became

Emperor of Japan The Emperor of Japan is the monarch and the head of the Imperial Family of Japan. Under the Constitution of Japan, he is defined as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, and his position is derived from "the ...

three years later, Amakasu was released. He studied in France and became a special agent for the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emper ...

in Manchuria. When Japan surrendered in August 1945 he killed himself with

potassium cyanide Potassium cyanide is a compound with the formula KCN. This colorless crystalline salt, similar in appearance to sugar, is highly soluble in water. Most KCN is used in gold mining, organic synthesis, and electroplating. Smaller applications inc ...

References

External links

甘粕（あまかす）事件

(今井清一) * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090307101929/http://ikemidoujou.com/bun/media/kougi02.htm 関東大震災と新聞(池見哲司) 1923 in Japan Anarchism in Japan Anti-anarchism History of anarchism Murder in Japan Political repression in Japan 1923 murders in Japan 1923 Great Kantō earthquake {{Anarchism-stub

See also

References

External links