May 15 incident
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Taking place on Sunday, May 15, 1932, the Incident was a coup, by junior military officers, which resulted in the assassination of Prime Minister of Japan Tsuyoshi Inukai. The assassins, after throwing a few bombs and leaflets, surrendered themselves to police. Inukai was succeeded by the government of Makoto Saito.
One of the assassins regretted Inukai's death, but said he had to be "sacrificed on the altar of national reconstruction."[1]
While the event was obviously significant to Inukai, it had little national impact, other than creating support for more intense gekokoju such as the February 26, 1936 Incident. There were a large number of petitions for clemency. The courts were lenient, reflecting national sentiment.
References
- ↑ John Toland (1970), Chapter 1: Gekokoju, The Rising Sun: the Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire 1936-1935, vol. Volume 1, Random House, pp. 13-14