Saburō Aizawa ( ja, 相沢三郎 ''Aizawa Saburō'') (6 September 1889 – 3 July 1936) was a Japanese

military officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent contex ...

of 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 Emperor ...

who assassinated

Tetsuzan Nagata was a Japanese military officer and general of the Imperial Japanese Army best known as the victim of the Aizawa Incident in August 1935. Nagata was an influential military figure in the Meiji government and the ''de facto'' leader of the '' ...

in the

Aizawa Incident The , also known as the was an attempted coup d'état that took place in the Empire of Japan in November 1934. It was one of a sequence of similar conspiracies for a "Shōwa Restoration" led by radical elements with the Imperial Japanese Army. B ...

in August 1935.

Biography

Saburō Aizawa was born on 6 September 1889 in

Sendai is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, the largest city in the Tōhoku region. , the city had a population of 1,091,407 in 525,828 households, and is one of Japan's 20 designated cities. The city was founded in 1600 by the ''daimyō'' Date M ...

, the eldest son of Hyonosuke Aizawa, a former

court clerk A court clerk (British English: clerk to the court or clerk of the court ; American English: clerk of the court or clerk of court ) is an officer of the court whose responsibilities include maintaining records of a court, administer oaths to w ...

and

notary A notary is a person authorised to perform acts in legal affairs, in particular witnessing signatures on documents. The form that the notarial profession takes varies with local legal systems. A notary, while a legal professional, is disti ...

of the

Sendai Domain The , also known as the , was a domain of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan during the Edo period from 1600 to 1871. The Sendai Domain was based at Aoba Castle in Mutsu Province, in the modern city of Sendai, located in the Tōhoku region of t ...

, and his wife Makiko. Aizawa attended

junior high school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...

Iwate Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It is the second-largest Japanese prefecture at , with a population of 1,210,534 (as of October 1, 2020). Iwate Prefecture borders Aomori Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefectu ...

before attending the regional

military school A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally provides education in a military environment, the exact definition depending on the country concerned. ...

of the

in Sendai and graduating on 28 May 1910. Aizawa served in many positions and was promoted numerous times during the 1910s and 1920s, reaching the rank of

lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

by the early 1930s. Aizawa was a staunch supporter of the '' Kōdōha'' (Imperial Way), the radical

militarist Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the mili ...

political faction A political faction is a group of individuals that share a common political purpose but differs in some respect to the rest of the entity. A faction within a group or political party may include fragmented sub-factions, "parties within a party," ...

of the Imperial Japanese Army in opposition to the moderate '' Tōseiha'' (Control Faction) during the '' Gunbatsu'' period. By mid-1935, Aizawa despised Major General

, the ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with '' de jure'' ("by l ...

'' leader of the ''Tōseiha'', whose ideas earned him the violent animosity as "chief villain" of the ''Kōdōha''. Nagata's national

mobilization Mobilization is the act of assembling and readying military troops and supplies for war. The word ''mobilization'' was first used in a military context in the 1850s to describe the preparation of the Prussian Army. Mobilization theories an ...

strategy of preparing both the military and civilian economy for

total war Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-com ...

offended the ''Kōdōha'', who perceived it as collusion with corrupt

party politics A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country'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 the ''

zaibatsu is a Japanese term referring to industrial and financial vertically integrated business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period unt ...

''. Aizawa's behavior became noticeably erratic and he was stationed in

Japanese Taiwan The island of Taiwan, together with the Penghu Islands, became a dependency of Japan in 1895, when the Qing dynasty ceded Fujian-Taiwan Province in the Treaty of Shimonoseki after the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. The sh ...

. In July 1935, Nagata's political manoeuvres led to the forced retirement of

Jinzaburō Masaki was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. He was regarded as a leader of the radical political faction within the Japanese military. Biography Born in Saga Prefecture in 1876, Masaki graduated from the 9th class of the Imperial ...

, the Inspector-General of Military Training, who was a leading member of ''Kōdōha'' and Aizawa's friend.

Aizawa Incident

On 12 August 1935, Aizawa assassinated Nagata for reputedly putting the Army "in the paws of high finance" and in retaliation for Masaki's forced retirement, which became known as the Aizawa Incident. Aizawa entered Nagata's office in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

and cut him down with his sword, making no attempt to resist arrest by

military police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, Screening (tactical), ...

and reportedly said that he "was in an absolute sphere, so there was neither affirmation nor negation, neither good nor evil".Schoppa, R. Keith: ''East Asia: Identities and Change in the Modern World'', Page 248. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008. Aizawa's actions increased the political polarization within the Imperial Japanese Army and the Army Minister

Senjūrō Hayashi was a Japanese politician and general. He served as Imperial Japanese Army Commander of the Japanese Korean Army during the Mukden Incident and the invasion of Manchuria. He briefly served as Prime Minister of Japan in 1937. Early life Hayas ...

was forced to resign over the affair. Further retaliation between factions resulted in the February 26 Incident in February 1936, effectively eradicating the ''Kōdōha'' and granting the ''Tōseiha'' total influence within the army. On 3 July 1936, Aizawa was executed by

firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are us ...

after a high-profile

court martial 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 me ...

trial held by the

IJA 1st Division The was an infantry division in the Imperial Japanese Army. Its call sign was the . The 1st Division was formed in Tokyo in January 1871 as the , one of six regional commands created in the fledgling Imperial Japanese Army. The Tokyo Garrison h ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aizawa, Saburo 1889 births 1936 deaths Military personnel from Iwate Prefecture Japanese assassins Executed assassins People who were court-martialed People executed by Japan by firing squad Executed Japanese people 20th-century executions by Japan Japanese people convicted of murder People convicted of murder by Japan 1935 murders in Japan

Biography

Aizawa Incident

See also

Notes