The , also known as the , was an abortive

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

attempt in the

Empire of Japan The Empire of Japan, also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was the Japanese nation state that existed from the Meiji Restoration on January 3, 1868, until the Constitution of Japan took effect on May 3, 1947. From Japan–Kor ...

on 21 October 1931, launched by the ''

Sakurakai , was an ultranationalist secret society established by young officers within the Imperial Japanese Army in September 1930, with the goal of reorganizing the state along totalitarian militarist lines via a military coup d'état, if necessary. Its ...

'' secret society within the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

, aided by civilian

ultranationalist Ultranationalism, or extreme nationalism, is an extremist form of nationalism in which a country asserts or maintains hegemony, supremacy, or other forms of control over other nations (usually through violent coercion) to pursue its specific ...

groups.

Background and history

Having failed to replace the government with a

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a political system and a form of government that prohibits opposition from political parties, disregards and outlaws the political claims of individual and group opposition to the state, and completely controls the public sph ...

military dictatorship A military dictatorship, or a military regime, is a type of dictatorship in which Power (social and political), power is held by one or more military officers. Military dictatorships are led by either a single military dictator, known as a Polit ...

in the abortive

of the March Incident of March 1931, Lt. Col.

Kingoro Hashimoto was a soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army and politician. He was famous for having twice tried to stage a coup against the civilian government in the 1930s. Early career Hashimoto was born in Okayama City, and a graduate of the 23rd class of ...

of the ''

'' and his ultra-nationalist civilian supporters, including

Shūmei Ōkawa was a Japanese nationalist and Pan-Asianist writer, known for his publications on Japanese history, philosophy of religion, Indian philosophy, and colonialism. Ōkawa advocated a form of Pan-Asianism which promoted Asian solidarity as a cov ...

, resolved to try again in October 1931. Soon after the

Japanese invasion of Manchuria The Empire of Japan's Kwantung Army invaded the Manchuria region of the Republic of China on 18 September 1931, immediately following the Mukden incident, a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext to invade. At the ...

by the

Kwantung Army The Kwantung Army (Japanese language, Japanese: 関東軍, ''Kantō-gun'') was a Armies of the Imperial Japanese Army, general army of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1919 to 1945. The Kwantung Army was formed in 1906 as a security force for th ...

, without prior authorization from the

Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office The , also called the Army General Staff, was one of the two principal agencies charged with overseeing the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). Role The was created in April 1872, along with the Navy Ministry, to replace the Ministry of Military Af ...

and over the ongoing objections of the Japanese civilian government, Capt.

Isamu Chō was an officer in the Imperial Japanese Army known for his support of ultranationalist politics and involvement in a number of attempted coup d'états in pre-World War II Japan. Biography Chō was a native of Fukuoka prefecture. He graduated ...

returned secretly to Japan (without orders) from

North China North China () is a list of regions of China, geographical region of the People's Republic of China, consisting of five province-level divisions of China, provincial-level administrative divisions, namely the direct-administered municipalities ...

to lead the plot to "prevent the government from squandering the fruits of our victory in Manchuria".Kiernan, Blood and Soil. p. 467 He was able to recruit the support of 120 members of the ''Sakurakai'', ten companies of troops from the Imperial Guards and ten bomber aircraft from the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, Potsdam Declaration, when it was dissolved followin ...

. The main elements of the plot included: * Key statesmen and officials such as

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Wakatsuki Reijirō Baron was a Japanese politician and Prime Minister of Japan. Early life Wakatsuki Reijirō was born on 21 March 1866, in Matsue, Izumo Province (present day Shimane Prefecture), the second son of samurai foot soldier ('' ashigaru'') Okumura S ...

Grand Chamberlain A chamberlain (Medieval Latin: ''cambellanus'' or ''cambrerius'', with charge of treasury ''camerarius'') is a senior royal official in charge of managing a royal household. Historically, the chamberlain superintends the arrangement of domestic ...

Saitō Makoto Viscount (27 October 1858 – 26 February 1936) was a Japanese naval officer and politician. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Saitō Makoto"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 809. Upon distinguishing himself during his command of two cruisers in t ...

, Prince

Saionji Kinmochi Kazoku, Prince was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan, prime minister of Japan from 1906 to 1908, and from 1911 to 1912. As the last surviving member of the ''genrō'', the group of senior statesmen who had directed pol ...

, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal

Makino Nobuaki Count , was a Japanese politician and imperial court official. As Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan, Makino served as Emperor Hirohito's chief counselor on the monarch's position in Japanese society and policymaking. After victory in W ...

and

Foreign Minister In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

Kijūrō Shidehara Baron was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1945 to 1946. He was a leading proponent of pacifism in Japan before and after World War II. Born to a wealthy Osaka family, Shidehara studied law at Tok ...

were to be

assassinated Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

. * The Imperial Palace,

Tokyo Metropolitan Police The , known locally as simply the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), is the prefectural police of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. Founded in 1874, the TMPD is the largest police force in Japan by number of officers, with a staff of more than 40,000 p ...

Headquarters, and other key government buildings were to be seized by troops loyal to the ''Sakurakai'' * A new cabinet would be formed under the auspices of Gen.

Sadao Araki Baron was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army before and during World War II. As one of the principal nationalist right-wing political theorists in the Empire of Japan, he was regarded as the leader of the radical faction within the polit ...

, chief of the radical

Imperial Way Faction The ''Kōdōha'' or was a political faction in the Imperial Japanese Army active in the 1920s and 1930s. The ''Kōdōha'' sought to establish a military government that promoted totalitarian, militaristic and aggressive imperialist ideals, an ...

. The new government would ban

political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

, and would consolidate the recent territorial gains of Japan in

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

. * The Emperor would be forced to accept this

Shōwa Restoration The was promoted by Japanese author Ikki Kita in the 1930s, with the goal of restoring power to the newly enthroned Emperor Shōwa (Hirohito) and abolishing the liberal Taishō Democracy. The aims of the "Shōwa Restoration" were similar to t ...

even if under threat of violence. However, younger elements within the conspiracy came to doubt their leaders and seceded from the plot. In addition, there were leaks that reached

War Minister A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divided ...

Gen.

Jirō Minami was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and Governor-General of Korea between 1936 and 1942. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment. Life Born to an ex-''samurai'' family in Hiji, Ōita Prefecture, Minami came to ...

. He requested Gen.

to pacify the malcontents. Araki thereupon attempted to reason with Hashimoto and Chō, but they refused to abandon their scheme and Araki had them arrested by the ''

Kempeitai The , , was the military police of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). The organization also shared civilian secret police that specialized in clandestine and covert operation, counterinsurgency, counterintelligence, HUMINT, interrogated suspects ...

''—military police—on 17 October 1931. The punishments for this abortive coup were even milder than for the previous March Incident, as Gen. Minami publicly excused the plot as simply an excess of patriotic zeal. Hashimoto was sentenced to 20 days

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

, Chō to 10 days and the other ringleaders were simply transferred.

Consequences

The October Incident, also known as the "Imperial Colors Incident", thus ended in apparent failure and resulted in the dissolution of the ''Sakurakai''. However, the lightness of the punishments only encouraged more attempted military intervention in the government, culminating in the February 26 Incident of 1936.Beasley, The Rise of Modern Japan. p. 168

References

* * {{Authority control Conflicts in 1931 1931 in Japan 1930s coups d'état and coup attempts October 1931 Empire of Japan Attempted coups in Japan Shōwa Restoration Fascism in Japan Fascist revolts