アジアの曙

"Tojo may have made a major mistake in his political foresight, and the undercurrent of insubordination was so strong that his subordinates stopped listening to him. In that case, if he had tried to avoid war, it might have resulted in a civil war, and if Tojo had stayed in office around the time of his resignation, he might have been assassinated. In any case, it may sound like sour grapes, but I think this war was unavoidable once the opinions of a few people gained dominance over the majority." (From "Records of Audiences with Showa Emperor," Vol. 3, May 28, 1952) The Emperor states that an atmosphere of insubordination was rampant, and even Tojo could not suppress it, and that he might have been assassinated in some cases. In the May 15 Incident and the February 26 Incident, prime ministers, former prime ministers, and even high-ranking army officials were assassinated, so the Emperor's concerns were by no means unfounded.

For Tojo, a bureaucrat through and through, it was difficult to overturn a policy established through established procedures. For the same reason, having come from the army, he was completely powerless to interfere with the opposing navy. Then, in July 1944, when Saipan fell, he was forced to resign as prime minister without any coup d'état or other unrest. This was something unimaginable with dictators in other countries.

However, these concurrent positions were not so much a manifestation of a lust for power, but rather a desperate measure to exert political leadership within the framework of the system. Unlike Hitler and Mussolini, who concentrated power in their own hands for extended periods, Tojo attempted to create a pseudo-dictatorship through "illegal" concurrent positions. This was typical behavior for a military bureaucrat like Tojo, who was obsessively strict about rules. However, even holding multiple positions had its limits. This was clearly evident in his actions before the outbreak of war. As Minister of War, Tojo was originally a staunch supporter of war. However, upon becoming Prime Minister, he received a request from Showa to "avoid war," and as a self-proclaimed loyalist to the Showa Emperor, he faithfully followed that command. His earnest efforts to avoid war led to suspicions of a betrayal within the army. Even so, he could not stop the war.

Tojo Hideki far from a Dictator Tojo only became prime minister in October 1941, just two months before the outbreak of war. His predecessor, Fumimaro Konoe, suddenly resigned from his cabinet, forcing Tojo to hastily assume the position without any preparation. The reason Tojo is often described as dictatorial is likely due to his holding multiple important posts simultaneously. For example, at the outbreak of the Greater East Asia War, he held the positions of Prime Minister, Minister of War, and Minister of Home Affairs, controlling the two major power structures: the army and the police (although he resigned as Minister of Home Affairs shortly after the war began). Furthermore, in February 1944, as the war situation worsened, he broke with the established practice of distinguishing between military administration and military command, taking the unprecedented measure of concurrently holding the positions of Minister of War and Chief of the General Staff.

Hatred towards far-left extremist students was intense within the Kanagawa Prefectural Police, and it is said that young police officers volunteered to be deployed to Narita for security, saying things like, "I want to go to Narita and take revenge," and "It's a battle of vengeance." In the same year, a series of incidents targeting Self-Defense Forces personnel and police officers occurred, including the Asaka Self-Defense Forces officer murder case, the Okinawa general strike police officer murder case, and the Shibuya riot incident.

News of the attack on the Hotta Battalion reached the riot police on the front lines, and when the news of the police officer's death was relayed over police radio, the officers on the scene became enraged. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's riot police and the Chiba and Saitama Prefectural Police riot police competed with each other to storm the opposition's strongholds in Komaino and Tennami, which were their respective areas of responsibility. The strongholds were seized that same day.

During the on-site investigation conducted by the Narita Police Station's Special Investigation Headquarters on the afternoon of the 16th, numerous items were discovered near the scene, including smashed helmets of officers, torn blood-stained jackets and trousers, and blood-soaked bamboo spears. Large amounts of blood were found on the stones of the gravel road and on the pampas grass lining both sides of the path. Furthermore, the Molotov cocktails used were of the type that ignite using pesticides. Even when officers blocked the Molotov cocktails with their shields, the ignited gasoline splattered onto their uniforms, causing burns to the faces and limbs of the officers.

Afterward, the guerrilla group fled, using the intricate terrain to their advantage, leaving the bloodied and groaning riot police officers behind. Around 7:15 AM, the security headquarters intercepted a radio transmission from the battalion headquarters requesting assistance and dispatched a rescue force, led by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Second Riot Unit, to the Higashimine Crossroads. However, by the time the Second Riot Unit reached the scene north of the crossroads, the guerrilla forces had already fled. Additionally, 36 members of the Hotta Battalion were disarmed, and 30 of them were temporarily taken away by the guerrilla forces but were rescued by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Second Riot Unit.

The brutal and merciless treatment, seemingly an attempt by those who had harbored long-held grudges, was so intense that even fellow opponents nearby tried to stop them. A local resident who witnessed the incident and claimed to be an opponent sympathizer also stated in an interview with the media that it had gone too far. To prevent the victims from testifying later, the guerrillas deliberately focused their attacks on the jaws and faces. Some young officers suffered shattered jawbones, losing all their teeth, and required over 100 stitches. Furthermore, the police claim that concentrated sulfuric acid was poured on the fallen officers and then set on fire with Molotov cocktails. The director of Narita Red Cross Hospital also testified that some officers suffered fractured ribs despite wearing duralumin protective gear under their uniforms, due to being struck with very hard objects.

Officers who escaped pursuit and retreated further north, then turned right, followed a farm road towards Tako, and returned to the prefectural road leading to the Higashimine intersection. There, they were ambushed by far-left extremist students and youth action groups. The guerrillas attacked Assistant Inspector Fukushima, who was engulfed in flames after being hit by a Molotov cocktail. The defenseless Inspector Fukushima had his helmet ripped off, was handcuffed with handcuffs taken from other officers, and was brutally beaten with batons and iron pipes, leaving him in critical condition. He died en route to the hospital. Sergeant Kashiwamura and Officer Morii were similarly beaten while lying on the ground, and were pronounced dead at the hospitals and airport infirmaries, respectively.

The following is a summary of news reports from the time. Police officers, engulfed in flames after being hit with Molotov cocktails, writhed in pain. As each injured and defenseless officer lay on the ground, multiple people swarmed them, shouting "Kill him," "Finish him off," and "Don't let him go alive." The police were stripped of their equipment and uniforms, left naked, and brutally beaten with bamboo spears and wooden planks riddled with nails. Some officers attempting to retreat were given refuge in nearby houses, but unfamiliar with the area and surrounded only by opposing farmers, they were quickly surrounded by guerrillas. They were dragged one after another into nearby woods and bushes, brutally beaten, forced to grovel, and handcuffed to tree trunks.

Monument to the Kanagawa Prefectural Police officers who were brutally murdered in the Tōhō Crossroads Incident. The Tōhō Crossroads Incident occurred on September 16, 1971, when the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Special Mobile Unit, which had been dispatched for rear-area security, was attacked by far-left extremist groups, resulting in the deaths of three police officers. Sergeant Seiichi Fukushima (then 47 years old), the platoon leader; Sergeant Shinji Kashiwamura (then 35 years old), the leader of the 1st squad; and Constable Nobuyuki Morii (then 23 years old), a member of the squad. More than 20 others were seriously injured.

The dolls that famous members of the Giretsu Kuteitai carried on their backs were gifts from students of Fukuoka Chikushi Girls' High School (now Chikushi Jogakuen), along with headbands and other items, and therefore there are multiple shapes of the dolls. In the famous photograph said to show "a unit member sorting through his belongings," there are many dolls, and next to the headbands is an envelope addressed "To the Special Attack Unit Members," which suggests that it is more likely that the photograph was not of sorting through his belongings, but rather of a letter of thanks for the dolls and other gifts he received. The dolls were given with the understanding that they would be a burden, but with the hope that they would "carry the wishes of 100 million Japanese citizens," representing the sincere desire of the schoolgirls who wanted to go to the battlefield with him.

Ziggers recently erected a monument in the Far East depicting a Soviet soldier defacing a border marker bearing the Japanese imperial chrysanthemum crest, to provoke Japan in this way. However, the side where the Soviet soldier was standing was... Well, they probably don't care, since the coat of arms belongs to the Russian Empire, and the Russian Empire was also an enemy of the Bolshevik barbarians.

Announcement in the Yasukuni Shrine bulletin introducing the exhibition of Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki’s famous photographic negatives.

Japanese Navy in Paris

The Japanese Navy to see Mount Vesuvius in Italy.

Onshi no Tabako from the Japanese Empire. Were cigarettes distributed by the Emperor of Japan as a mark of imperial favor. Bearing the imperial chrysanthemum crest. According to descriptions from man who have smoked this cigarette: "Even in the ashes, the chrysanthemum crest will never disappear. A strong, wheat-like astringency and an intense, sugary sweetness. And a woody aroma, like the trees of a mansion, in the aftertaste. Like tatami mats, like carpet. And a very slight hint of saltiness."

August 19, 1945, Manchuria, The Last Kamikaze: The Special Attack Pilot Who Flew with His Wife④ Former military officers who survived the war scornfully dismissed it as "simply an act of suicide, not a kamikaze attack ordered by orders," and condemned the carrying of a woman as a "violation of military discipline." They were treated almost like war criminals and were not even allowed to be included among the war dead. Therefore, their families, concerned about appearances, did not even hold funerals. However, thanks to the efforts of comrades who had served in the same unit in Manchuria, a memorial monument to the Shinshu Fumetsu Kamikaze Unit was erected at Setagaya Kannon in Tokyo in 1967, 22 years after the end of the war. Later, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (at the time) recognized them as war dead, and 11 kamikaze pilots, including Tetsuo Tanifuji, were enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine.