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TheOctober incident (十月事件,Jūgatsu Jiken), also known as theImperial Colors incident (錦旗革命事件,Kinki Kakumei Jiken), was an abortivecoup d'état attempt in theEmpire of Japan on 21 October 1931, launched by theSakurakai secret society within theImperial Japanese Army, aided by civilianultranationalist groups.
Having failed to replace the government with atotalitarianmilitary dictatorship in the abortivecoup d'état of theMarch Incident of March 1931, Lt. Col.Kingoro Hashimoto of theSakurakai and his ultra-nationalist civilian supporters, includingShūmei Ōkawa, resolved to try again in October 1931.
Soon after theJapanese invasion of Manchuria by theKwantung Army, without prior authorization from theImperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and over the ongoing objections of the Japanese civilian government, Capt.Isamu Chō returned secretly to Japan (without orders) fromNorth China to lead the plot to "prevent the government from squandering the fruits of our victory in Manchuria".[1] He was able to recruit the support of 120 members of theSakurakai, ten companies of troops from theImperial Guards and ten bomber aircraft from theImperial Japanese Navy.
The main elements of the plot included:
However, younger elements within the conspiracy came to doubt their leaders and seceded from the plot. In addition, there were leaks that reachedWar Minister Gen.Jirō Minami. He requested Gen.Sadao Araki 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 theKempeitai—military police—on 17 October 1931.
The punishments for this abortive coup were even milder than for the previousMarch Incident, as Gen. Minami publicly excused the plot as simply an excess of patriotic zeal. Hashimoto was sentenced to 20 dayshouse arrest, Chō to 10 days and the other ringleaders were simply transferred.
The October Incident, also known as the "Imperial Colors Incident", thus ended in apparent failure and resulted in the dissolution of theSakurakai. However, the lightness of the punishments only encouraged more attempted military intervention in the government, culminating in theFebruary 26 Incident of 1936.[2]
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