Political Unrest
History, Heritage & Religion

Japan was a rapidly transforming country in the 1920s, particularly in the wake of the Great Kanto Earthquake. The Kanto Massacre was one such event. However the murder of various anarchists and leftists include the Kameido Incident, the Amakasu Incident, the Toranomon incident, and the arrest and trial of Fumiko Kaneko and Pak Yol.

Furthermore, during the 1920s the Japanese military saw the increasing awareness of "gunbatsu" (軍閥), factions within the Imperial Army and Imperial Navy in the decades after the Meiji Restoration. The major factor that contributed to the creation of these gunbatsu factions was the establishment that the Japanese military during the 1920s did not have civilian oversight. Consequently two groups emerged in the chain of command that were independant of one another- the Japanese Army General Staff (military controlled) and the Ministry of War (civilian controlled). This created a conflicting hierarchy where the General Staff reported to the Emperor and the Ministry of War reported to the Prime Minister.

Additionally the Japanese government had a policy at the time that a Prime Minister had to resign if he could not fill all of his cabinet posts. The Army Minster and Navy Minister both were required to be active duty within their respective branches and thus either branch of the military could refuse to seat a minister and force a Prime Minister's resignation by proxy. Little by little factions developed that believed they could best represent what the Emperor wanted for Japan and this lead to intra and inter-military branch conflicts. Ultimately this could be grouped into two primary factions: The "Imperial Way Faction" (皇道派/kodoha) and the "Control Faction" (統制派/toseiha).

Relevance to MAO

In Mao chapter 45 one of the men at the party mentions the recent disappearance of a platoon and mentions a potential coup d'etat and troubles with disarmament policies. This could be a reference to any of the above troubles that were ongoing at the time.

While any or all of the incidents listed above could be what was mentioned in this chapter, the Toranomon Incident which took place in December of 1923 would have been chronologically closest to when the chapter takes place. Pictured to the right is Daisuke Namba, the man who made the assassination attempt during the Toranomon Incident.