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TheLeague of Blood Incident (血盟団事件,Ketsumeidan Jiken; also translated asBlood-Pledge Corps Incident) was a 1932assassination plot in Japan in which extremists targeted wealthy businessmen and liberal politicians. The group chose twenty victims but succeeded in killing only two: formerFinance Minister and head of theRikken Minseitō political party,Junnosuke Inoue, and the Director-General ofMitsui Holding Company,Dan Takuma.[1]
The arrest of the assassins led to the discovery of the existence of a civilianultranationalist,fascist[2] group led by self-styled Buddhist preacher,Nisshō Inoue.
Born asInoue Shirō in 1886 inGunma Prefecture, Nisshō spent his young adult life as a drifter and adventurer, eventually ending up innorth andnortheast China gathering information for the Japanese military. After a series of mystical experiences in 1923–24, Inoue became convinced that Japan required spiritual rebirth and that he was called to be its savior. He established a school inIbaraki Prefecture to promoteagrarianism and social reform, which gradually evolved into a training center for ultra-rightist radicals. He adopted the name Nisshō ("Called by The Sun") along with ideas and symbols derived fromNichiren Buddhism.[3]
After theOctober incident, a failedcoup d'état by rightist Army officers of theSakurakai ultranationalist secret society in 1931, Inoue became convinced that national reform could be achieved only through violent confrontation with what he saw as the forces of evil: pro-Westernliberal politicians andzaibatsu business interests. He devised the slogan "ichinin issatsu" ("one person, one kill") and drew up a list of twenty politicians and business leaders whose assassination would be the first step toward restoring supreme political power to the Emperor, a platform known as the "Shōwa Restoration".
Inoue's original group made contact with a group of extremist officers in theImperial Japanese Navy, who strongly objected to Japan's acceptance of theWashington Naval Treaty of 1922, and a group of right-wing university students from Tokyo. Inoue distributedBrowning automatic pistols to his followers; however, only two actually carried out their missions.
On 9 February 1932, Shō Onuma gunned down Junnosuke Inoue as he stepped from his car at the Komamoto Elementary School in Tokyo, where he was scheduled to give a political speech. On 5 March 1932, Gorō Hishinuma waited outside the entrance to Mitsui Bank inNihonbashi, Tokyo, with a picture ofTakuma Dan in his pocket. When Dan arrived, he shot him dead on the spot. Both killers were apprehended immediately. On 11 March 1932, Inoue turned himself in at theTokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Two months later, in theMay 15 Incident, of 1932, Japanese naval officers, including some associated with the League of Blood, assassinatedPrime MinisterInukai Tsuyoshi.
The phrase "League of Blood" is somewhat of a misnomer, as it referred to an oath of loyalty supposedly taken by the conspirators, but there is no evidence that it was a "blood oath" in any technical sense. Nevertheless, the term "League of Blood" (血盟団,ketsumeidan) appeared in the popular press during the group's trial and was adopted by the lead prosecutor.
Historically, the most important consequences of the League of Blood Incident sprang from the trial, which gave Inoue and his co-defendants a platform from which to broadcast their ultra-nationalist views. Many in the Japanese public came to sympathize with the aims of the conspirators, if not their methods. Following the trial it became harder for courts to deal harshly withterrorists who claimed to be acting in the interests of the Emperor. In a more general sense, the trial and its aftermath contributed to the erosion of the rule of law in 1930s Japan.'
Sentenced tolife imprisonment in 1934, Inoue was released under a generalamnesty in 1940, and died in 1967. This incident inspired the central plot ofYukio Mishima's novelRunaway Horses.
In December 1945, following the defeat of Japan in World War II, theSupreme Commander for the Allied Powers (GHQ) required the Japanese government to turn over police records, trial records, and other materials related to incidents taking place between 1932 and 1940 that had been classified as terrorism, including the League of Blood Incident.[4]
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