Amakasu Incident

The Amakasu Incident refers to the 1923 killings of two prominent Japanese anarchists, Ōsugi Sakae and Itō Noe, along with Ōsugi's six-year-old nephew, Munekazu Tachibana. The killings were carried out by military police under the command of Lieutenant Masahiko Amakasu. They occurred during a period of widespread violence against dissidents and ethnic Koreans in Japan following the catastrophic Great Kantō earthquake, a period later termed the Kantō Massacre.

According to accounts cited on the case's Wikipedia page, Itō, Ōsugi, and the child were arrested on 16 September 1923. Writer and activist Jakucho Setouchi described the three as having been arrested, beaten to death, and thrown into an abandoned well by the military police squad led by Amakasu. A differing account from literary scholar Patricia Morley states that Itō and Ōsugi were strangled in their cells. Both accounts agree that the prisoners were executed without any trial, despite the fact that a trial would almost certainly have resulted in convictions and death sentences for the two adults regardless.

The killings caused public outrage in Japan, with historian John Crump characterizing the death of Ōsugi as the murder of "the most able anarchist of his generation," drawing a parallel to the earlier execution of Kōtoku Shūsui in the 1911 High Treason Incident. At the same time, thousands of people signed petitions in Japan requesting leniency for Amakasu. Because the murdered child held dual American citizenship, having been born in Portland, Oregon, the case attracted attention in the United States, though efforts to involve the American Embassy were unsuccessful; an embassy official stated that the law of the country where a trial occurs "must take its course."

Amakasu and four other Imperial Japanese Army soldiers were court-martialed. Defense arguments framed the killings as consistent with military duty and patriotic motive, characterizing Ōsugi and Itō as traitors and arguing the killing of the child served the public good. Courtroom spectators reportedly called Amakasu a "kokushi" (hero), and the military prosecutor expressed sympathy for Amakasu, describing his actions as excessive but patriotic, and requested only 15 years' imprisonment with hard labor. The judge was more lenient still: Amakasu was sentenced to ten years with hard labor, later reduced to seven years and six months in August 1924. Sergeant Keijiro Mori received three years as an accomplice, while three other defendants were acquitted, either on grounds of superior orders or insufficient evidence.

Amakasu was released in October 1926 under an amnesty after serving roughly two years. He later studied in France and served as a special agent for the Imperial Japanese Army in Manchuria. Following Japan's surrender in August 1945, he died by suicide, taking potassium cyanide.