League of Blood Incident
The League of Blood Incident (
Japanese: "Katsumeidan jiken", also translated as "Blood-Pledge Corps Incident") was a 1932
assassination plot in which Japanese
nationalist extremists targeted wealthy businessmen and liberal politicians. The group chose ten victims but succeeded in killing only two: former Finance Minister, Junnosuke Inoue, and Director-General of Mitsui Holding Company, Takuma Dan. The plot revolved around self-styled Buddhist priest, Nissho Inoue. Born Shiro Inoue in 1886, he spent his young adult life as a drifter and adventurer, eventually ending up in
China fighting with various factions in the civil wars. After a series of mystical experiences in 1923-24, Inoue became convinced that
Japan required violent spiritual rebirth and that he was called to be its savior. He adopted the name Nissho ("Called by The Sun") along with ideas and symbols derived from
Nichiren Buddhism. He collected a set of followers, mainly unemployed drifters, to whom he preached a doctrine of national salvation through violent confrontation with the forces of evil. Evil, in this case, meaning liberal, westward-looking politicians and businessmen. Inoue's original group made contact with a group of nationalist naval officers, who objected to
Japan's acceptance of the
Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, and a group of right-wing university students from Tokyo. Together they compiled a list of ten politicians and business leaders whose assassination would be the first step toward restoring the Emperor to supreme political power in Japan. Inoue distributed
Browning automatic pistols and ammunition to ten would-be assassains, chosen from his original followers and the Tokyo students. In the event, only two actually carried out their missions. On 9 February, 1932, Sho 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, Goro Hishinuma waited outside the entrance to Mitsui Bank in Nihonbashi with a picture of Takuma Dan in his pocket. When Dan arrived, he shot him dead on the spot. Both killers were apprehended immediately. On 11 March, Inoue turned himself in at the Metropolitan Police Headquarters where he was apparently treated with respect as a 'patriot'. Two months later, on
May 15, Japanese naval officers, including those associated with the League of Blood, assassainated Prime Minister Inukai.
The phrase "League of Blood" is actually something of a misnomer. It referred to an oath of loyalty taken by a handful of the conspirators but there is no evidence that it was a 'blood oath' in any technical sense. The term 'League of Blood' (kastumeidan), however, 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 with terrorists 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.
* Large S.S. (2001) Nationalist Extremism in Early Showa Japan: Inoue Nissho and the 'Blood-Pledge Corps Incident', 1932. Modern Asian Studies 35(3):553-564.
