Bin Akao | |
|---|---|
赤尾 敏 | |
 Akao in 1986 | |
| Member of theHouse of Representatives | |
| In office 1 May 1942 – 18 December 1945 | |
| Preceded by | Suzuki Bunji |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Constituency | Tokyo 6th |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1899-01-15)15 January 1899 |
| Died | 6 February 1990(1990-02-06) (aged 91) Toshima, Tokyo, Japan |
| Political party | Greater Japan Patriotic Party (1951–1990) |
| Other political affiliations | Independent (1926–1942) IRAA (1942–1945) |
| Education | Tsushima High School |
Bin Akao (赤尾敏,Akao Bin; 15 January 1899 – 6 February 1990) was a Japanesefar-right (uyoku) politician who served as a member of theHouse of Representatives of Japan duringWorld War II.
Akao was cofounder and first president of theKenkokukai and became one of the leadingultranationalists in Japan during the 1920s. Akao was elected to theHouse of Representatives as anindependent in1942 and espoused a unique type ofJapanese nationalism characterized by support for the United States and opposition to thePacific War. Akao founded and became the first president of the far-rightGreater Japan Patriotic Party in 1951 and continued to adamantly championpro-United States andanti-communist stances inpost-war Japan.
Bin Akao was born on 15 January 1899 inHigashi Ward,Nagoya, the son of a hardware dealer. Akao was sickly as a child and he contractedtuberculosis while a student atAichi Third Junior High School. To aid his recovery, he was sent to manage a farm owned by his father on the island ofMiyakejima. While on the island, Akao became acquainted withInejirō Asanuma, the future chairman of theJapan Socialist Party, as well as Inejiro's distant relative Michio Asanuma, who would later become a member of Akao's Greater Japan Patriotic Party.
On the farm, Akao sought to create autopian society by implementing a primitive form ofagrariancommunism based on the ideals of the "New Village Movement" advocated by poet-philosopherSaneatsu Mushanokōji. In particular, the produce of the farm was distributed in equal shares to all workers on the farm, regardless of class or social standing. However, Akao's neighbors on the island felt threatened by his practices, and managed to swindle the farm from him through legalistic maneuvers. Disillusioned by the failure of his experiments with communism, Akao returned to the mainland and settled in Tokyo, where he began to dabble insocialism under the influence ofToshihiko Sakai,Hitoshi Yamakawa,Sakae Osugi, andMotoyuki Takabatake. Akao was arrested and imprisoned for a speech critical of Japan'sEmperor system after beingconscripted into military service. While in prison, Akao became disillusioned with the left-wing movement in Japan and soon abandoned left-wing politics as a whole.
In 1926, Akao "converted" (tenkō suru) toultranationalism while still imprisoned and began his foray into right-wing Japanese politics. Thereafter, he became a vocal opponent of theSoviet Union and communism.[1] That year, Akao became cofounder and president of theKenkokukai (National Foundation Society), a major ultranationalist organization of the 1920s that ultimately reached a nationwide membership of around 120,000. Akao was a close associate of legal scholarUesugi Shinkichi, who allowed him to run the Kenkokukai from his home after the withdrawal of several prominent members left the organization without the means to fund their headquarters.[1]
One consistent aspect of Akao's thought was his respect for the power of the United States, having opposed thePacific War from a nationalist perspective on the grounds that the United States was too powerful for Japan and therefore that fighting a war with it was foolhardy.
In the1942 election, Akao ran for the Tokyo 6th district seat in theNational Diet as a "non-recommended candidate," meaning he was not recommended by the single national political party, theImperial Rule Assistance Association (IRAA). Nevertheless, Akao won the election and received the second most votes in Tokyo and the fourth most votes of anyone in Japan. Like otherindependent candidates, Akao was forced to join theImperial Rule Assistance Political Association after winning his seat, but he was expelled from that organisation after publicly rebuking Prime MinisterHideki Tojo in June 1943.[2]
Akao was defeated for re-election in 1945, and shortly thereafter was purged by theUS military occupation of Japan as a wartime leader. Akao's purge was reversed in 1951 as part of theReverse Course and he vowed to return to elected office. To this end, Akao established a new political party, theGreater Japan Patriotic Party (GJPP), which was ideologically virulentlyanti-communist andpro-American. As a member of this party, Akao stood for several elected positions but never won. Increasingly, he seemed less interested in winning elections and more interested in stirring up debate. His use of noise trucks and street corner speechifying was a model for laterright-wing movements in Japan.
In 1960, during theAnpo protests against theUS-Japan Security Treaty, Akao became convinced that Japan was on the verge of a communist revolution and sought to rally right-wing groups to engage in counter-protests.[3] BothOtoya Yamaguchi, who assassinatedInejirō Asanuma, andKazutaka Komori, who perpetrated theShimanaka Incident, were 17-year-old members of the GJPP who resigned from the party shortly before committing their violent attacks, leading many people to speculate that Akao had ordered both attacks.[4] Akao was arrested for conspiracy to murder in the wake of the Shimanaka Incident, but was not indicted due to lack of evidence, and instead was sentenced to eight months in prison for the lesser charges of disturbing the peace and intimidation.[5]
Akao continued his activism and took to flying theAmerican flag and theUnion Jack on his noise trucks alongside theHinomaru, and strongly supported the revised Security Treaty and theU.S.–Japan Alliance. Akao was a strong supporter ofSouth Korea, mainly for its anti-communism, and advocated close alliance between South Korea and Japan. Akao once stated that theLiancourt Rocks should be blown up as thedispute over the islets represented an obstacle to friendship between the two countries.
In 1989, following the death of emperorHirohito, Akao ran for a seat in theHouse of Councillors for a 15th time, at the age of 90. Akao died of heart failure on 6 February 1990, at the age of 91, inToshima, Tokyo.[6]
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