“Government by Assassination”: Japan's Years of Lead 1921-36

Today I cover roughly a 15 year period from 1921 to 1936 where Japanese society was subjected to near monthly acts of terrorism and violence. This period which I am terming the Japanese Years of Lead, or has alternatively been called "Government by Assassination" was marked by a spike of high profile political violence targeting the entrenched Japanese oligarchy. This period also saw the erosion of any vestiges of Japanese democracy, as the state transitioned towards its wartime fascist period. I also look at the increasing international tensions between Japan and the United States, specifically with regards to their shared Pacific Sphere of influence. By looking at the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-22, I hope to chart the path to war in the Pacific from the conference all the way to 1941. Check out my Patreon for early access to future EWO videos and Discord access:   / eyeswideopen408   BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mark Schreiber - You Can't Catch Me (Article about Baron Yasuda assassination) https://www.fccj.or.jp/number-1-shimb... Heigo Asahi unknown book excerpt: https://laits.utexas.edu/~mr56267/HIS... Danny Orbach: Pure Spirits: Imperial Japanese Justice and Right-Wing Terrorists, 1878–1936 (Download) https://journals.uni-lj.si/as/article... Sadao Asada Japan's "Special Interests" and the Washington Conference p. 63-75 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1846262 Samuel Eliot Morison - The Two Ocean War p. 6-7 Marius Jansen - The Making of Modern Japan p. 581-583 Nine Power Treaty information: https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_cent... Peter Zarrow - China in War and Revolution p. 195-96 John G. Roberts - Mitsui p. 207-208 Kunio Suzuki - Takashi Masuda: Resolute Determination on the Strength of Meticulous Care https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/... p. 53 Ron Chernow - House of Morgan p. 234-37 Richard H. Mitchell - Japan's Peace Preservation Law of 1925: Its Origins and Significance https://www.jstor.org/stable/2383786?... p. 334-336 Dan Kurzman - Kishi and Japan: The Search for the Sun p. 109 Sterling and Peggy Seagrave - The Yamato Dynasty p. 123-133 Gerry Iguchi - Nichirenism as Modernism: Imperialism, Fascism, and Buddhism in Modern Japan https://www.academia.edu/61583158/Nic... p. 71-72 War History Online article about Inukai Assassination and Chaplin https://www.warhistoryonline.com/feat... 0:00 Intro 0:21 Japanese Years of Lead 8:45 Baron Yasuda: First Blood 15:58 Government by Assassination 22:30 Washington Naval Conference 45:30 Takuma Dan and the Great Kanto Earthquake 54:11 Toranomon Incident and the Peace Preservation law 1:01:57 The Origins of the Liberal Democratic Party 1:07:41 The League of Blood Incident 1:14:17 The Inukai Tsuyoshi Assassination 1:19:18 Outtro samurai tokyo germany ww2 hirohito taisho saigo takamori okubo toshimichi tojo boshin wars russo japanese war meiji restoration satsuma choshu jardine matheson opium wars boshin wars aritomo yamagata ito hirobumi thomas glover sakamoto ryoma hagi castle ronin pacific geopolitics history documentary formosa seikanron korea haihan chiken iwakura tomomi mission bismarck kaneko kentaro harvard teddy roosevelt russo-japanese war takuma dan mitsui sumitomo mitsubishi koryukutai ryohei uchida toyama mitsuru battle of tsushima admiral togo treaty of portsmouth meiji constitution kmt kuomintang sun yat sen chiang kai shek canton guangzhou tongmenghui uchida ryohei katsura taro Grigory Semyonov lenin trotsky vladivostok woodrow wilson joseph grew robert lansing allen john foster dulles vickers siemens russian civil war white russians cossacks versailles shandong question kokkashugi totalism pan-asia koryukutai gen yosha kita ikki uesugi tokyo imperial university reform bureaucrats control officers great kanto earthquake eisaku sato charles willoughby sugamo prison