Chapter 64 Assassination Nation

In early February 1932, when the Japanese bombing target was getting closer and closer to the western powers' concession in Shanghai, the Japanese government sent a proposal to the foreign envoys in Tokyo to mediate the "misunderstanding" between China and Japan.Two days later, I received a reply, and the US Secretary of State stated that it was necessary to combine Shanghai's mediation with the Manchurian issue.In this way, as long as Western countries take a tough stand on the Shanghai issue, the big chaebols who are afraid of economic sanctions will not pay for the war.Although Japan's national credit has fallen to its lowest point in New York and other international financial markets, which is very detrimental to Japan's overseas financing in the future, Hirohito still insists on refusing to accept the US plan, and he has not forgotten the February 10 deadline that he warned the chaebol a month ago .Now that they can't make up their minds, plans to punish the bankers are set in motion.

The unlucky one this time was the former Prime Minister Junnosuke Inoue. It was he who coordinated the Mitsui and other chaebols to enter the market to hoard dollars, and he knew that the conspiracy came from the imperial palace. Later, he was ineffective in persuading the chaebols to donate part of their profits to the country.As the saying goes: "A companion is like a tiger." Who let Junnosuke Inoue know too much! On February 9, Hirohito invited the former head of the Chinese intelligence network to give lectures at the imperial palace. This person's subordinate in China is the leader of the Japanese right-wing organization Blood League. They are famous for assassinating politicians.At 8 o'clock that night, when Junnosuke Inoue was about to give a campaign speech at an elementary school, he was shot and killed three times by the most powerful assassin of the Blood League. The first victim of the "triple conspiracy" was born.The assassin received unusually favorable treatment at the police station, and when he appeared in court a few months later, he was refreshed and flushed.

Another purpose of removing Junosuke Inoue is to attack the ruling Seiyukai and Inukai Takeshi in the upcoming general election, because dollar arbitrage occurred during the Inukai Takeshi cabinet period, and the moderate views of the Seiyukai are often at odds with The expansion policies of the emperor and the military are at odds. They believe that the empire should pursue economic expansion rather than military expansion, and maintain long-term cooperation with China. The result of the general election made Hirohito's small circle very worried.It seems that ordinary people are not stupid. They know that the current economic policy is inherited from the previous government by the cabinet, so they continue to vote for the Political Friends Association.

The chaebols who were just in a cold sweat from the death of Inoue Junnosuke saw that the voters did not support the war, so they straightened up and prepared to challenge the emperor again.The chaebols who abandoned Xiyuan Temple Gongwang for profit, now come to him one after another, and want to jointly launch the "Constitution Defense Movement" with him, and create another glory during the "Taisho Coup" period. The chaebols have recruited their own security forces to fight against the blood alliance.Not only did they not agree to pay for the "fake war" in Shanghai, but they even came up with the idea of ​​buying the Kwantung Army, which was the most loyal to the emperor.Representatives of Mitsubishi found the commander of the Kwantung Army and asked him to accept a "donation" of up to 100,000 US dollars.The answer they got was: the amount is too small, and Mitsubishi should be more generous and donate directly to the Chief of Army Staff in Tokyo.

Hirohito's coterie realized that this was a serious political crisis, and the mercenary chaebol colluded with politicians to confuse the emperor's subjects, and now they wanted to buy off the army.Politicians have been corrupted by the chaebol's money and the so-called parliamentary democracy in the West, and have lost their loyalty to the country and the emperor.Therefore, it is necessary to directly attack the chaebol who is the culprit. To the comfort of Hirohito's small circle, on February 29, when the League of Nations arrived in Tokyo, 70,000 elite Japanese soldiers finally broke through the defense line of 50,000 Nineteenth Route Army soldiers, and on March 1, the puppet "Manchukuo" It was also announced with great fanfare. On March 2, international public opinion was completely attracted by the kidnapping of a child of a world-famous American pilot.This series of good news is considered by them as a godsend opportunity, and now they can rest assured to prepare how to deal with the chaebol.

On the same day, Mitsui Bank held a shareholder meeting to discuss the annual report. The annual report specifically pointed out the difficulties encountered by the banking business in the past year. The losses caused by the depreciation of the stock market and the British pound far exceeded the profit of the US dollar arbitrage, and the US dollar arbitrage was completely for hedging the pound. The loss of depreciation resulted in a net loss of US$4 million for Mitsui Bank. It is completely unreasonable for the outside world to criticize Mitsui for speculating in US dollars to make a lot of black-hearted money. [11] On March 3, the Ministry of Finance seemed to completely ignore Mitsui’s cries for poverty, announcing that in order to repay the debts brought about by the Shanghai war, it was preparing to issue about 8 million US dollars of bonds, hoping that Mitsui and other chaebols would actively purchase them for the sake of the national interest.The Mitsui Presidential Group did not buy it, and replied: "The big entrepreneurs in the country agree that the company is in financial difficulties and lacks cash, so it is difficult to buy bonds as desired." The two sides worked together! 【12】In 1932, Japan was in the midst of an economic crisis, and the rural areas in the Northeast suffered from the worst grain production decline since 1869.Farmers lived on grass roots, their daughters were bought as singing girls, and their sons were sent to Manchuria to "defend the country's interests."The money that should have been used to redeem her daughter had to go to pay rent and taxes.Another tragedy happened to a peasant father whose son was in Manchuria. Before leaving for Manchuria, the son wrote a letter to tell his father, but forgot to post the stamp, and the father could not receive the letter because he could not afford the 4 cents postage.A month later, the father received official notification that his son had died in battle in Manchuria. 【13】The life of the common people is very difficult, and they complain a lot about the capitalists.Hirohito's small circle thinks this is the best time to take action against the chaebol. It can not only use the chaebol as a target to vent public anger, but also make them obediently obey the emperor's orders.

On March 5, Tuan Takuma was shot down by an assassin from the Blood League in front of the Mitsui Bank building and died 20 minutes later. The assassin later said to the "Asahi Shimbun": "My purpose is to break the corrupt established political party, but behind the established political party, there must be a giant of the chaebol, so my plan is to start with the assassination of the giant of the chaebol. The center of the Mitsui Zaibatsu, so I want to kill him.” [14] The assassin’s criticism of the Zaibatsu really hit the nail on the head, completely in line with the Emperor’s wishes.

On the second day after Tuan Takumo was assassinated, Saiyuanji Gongwang returned to Tokyo, but refused to enter the palace to meet the emperor according to the etiquette.He has been negotiating with all parties, trying to keep the dream of constitutional government he has fought for all his life.He wants the Inukai Takeshi cabinet to stay in office, to keep people's hope and confidence in the Constituent Assembly, and to do everything possible to stop the terror politics of assassination.In exchange, Xiyuan Temple Gongwang asked the big chaebol to buy all the 8 million US dollars in bonds issued for the Shanghai War, and another 7.5 million US dollars as the start-up capital of the puppet "Manchukuo".

After everything was discussed, Gong Wang of Xiyuan Temple entered the palace and negotiated the arrangement with the emperor.However, things did not go as he wished, the assassination did not stop, and all forces that hindered the expansion of the empire must be eliminated. On May 15th, officers of the young navy and members of the peasant fascist organization launched an armed coup.They plan to attack the official residence of Prime Minister Inukai Takeshi, the official residence of the Minister of Internal Affairs, the headquarters of the Political Friends Association, and Mitsubishi Bank in four directions, and then occupy the Metropolitan Police Department and destroy the substation.Except for killing the former Prime Minister Inukai Takeshi, most of the other targets of the attack were not achieved. In the end, they took a taxi to the Metropolitan Police Department and surrendered.

The 11 murderers who assassinated Prime Minister Inukai Takeshi were prosecuted by military law.But just before the trial, the court received a petition signed by 350,000 people in blood. The petition was initiated and signed by people who sympathized with the murderer from all over Japan, asking the court for leniency.During the trial, the murderers not only did not plead guilty, but instead used the court as a propaganda stage to publicize their utter loyalty to the emperor, arouse more sympathy from the public, and call for reform of the government and the economy.In addition to the petition, another pleading letter sent by 11 young people was also sent to the court.They attached a finger each to pay their respects to the Assassins and asked to die in place of the 11 Assassins.

If the public opinion is so, how can we not teach the emperor to be full of confidence in the dream of "respecting the king and expelling barbarians" that he personally manages!