Episode 81 - The Great Treason Incident

History of Japan

Isaac Meyer

Japan, History, Japanese

4.8 • 744 Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2014

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1910, an anarchist plot to assassinate the Meiji Emperor was uncovered. Seizing the opportunity, conservatives in the government pounced in to arrest 26 anarchists. The background of this confrontation between the government and the radical left, the trials themselves, and their modern legacy are our topics this week.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week's episode is brought to you by Audible.
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0:22.3	You can cancel any time and keep the free book, or keep going with one of Audible's subscription offers. Go toaudibletrial.com
0:28.3	slash Japan to claim your offer. This week, I'm going to recommend the Guns of August, a classic
0:35.9	work on the origins of World War I. It really was the first great book on the origins of August, a classic work on the origins of World War I.
0:38.6	It really was the first great book on the origins of the war that shaped the 20th century,
0:43.9	and remains a must-read, or must-listening, as the case may be,
0:48.4	for its clarity of style as well as its insightfulness.
0:52.3	Go to audible trial.com
0:54.2	slash Japan to claim your copy.
1:20.7	Hello and welcome to the History of Japan podcast, Episode 81, The Great Treason Incident.
1:30.6	Picture the setting, a small room in Nagano Prefecture in 1910, home to one Miyashita Takichi, a lumber mill employee.
1:37.0	The date is May 20th, and outside the police are lining up to prepare to raid the place.
1:44.8	They break in and begin to search, only to find exactly what they feared would be there, parts to produce a bomb.
1:50.4	This confirms their worst fears. It's exactly as they suspected.
1:54.4	Someone is plotting to kill the Meiji Emperor.
2:01.8	The raid on Miyashda's home was the climax of an investigation which came at one of the most unsettled points in Japan's national history. Only five years earlier, crowds had rejoiced in the streets
2:08.6	at victory over Russia, but that rejoicing had been short-lived. The military had done an excellent
2:15.2	job at keeping a lid and just how hard things had been going in Manchuria,
2:19.7	and as a result, the majority of Japanese were simply not aware of how much they had sacrificed for victory.
2:26.8	In particular, they had no good explanation for the fact that their country's debt was not being wiped out with a massive war indemnity.
	...

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