Waseda University Military Research Group Incident

Waseda University Military Research Group Incident (早稲田大学軍事研究団事件, Waseda Daigaku Gunji Kenkyūdan Jiken) was an incident in 1923 at Waseda University involving opposition to military education. It is also known as the Waseda Military Education Incident (早大軍教事件).

Overview

Following World War I, surplus officers and weapons from disarmament were repurposed to promote militarization of schools. This first occurred at Waseda University. On May 10, 1923, the Military Research Group (団長: Professor Aoyagi Atsutsune), formed from the Riding Student Group with close ties to the Imperial Japanese Army, held its founding ceremony.[1]

The group aimed to "take the lead in supporting student military education, study military education as seen in universities in Europe and America, contribute to national defense from the students' standpoint, and at the same time eliminate the red (communist ideology) that had infested the university."[2] It established departments including headquarters, ideology, military, science/engineering research, and national defense.[2]

The founding ceremony was held on the second floor of the Waseda University auditorium on May 10, attended by more than a dozen key figures from the army and navy, including Vice Minister of War Shirakawa Yoshinori. In opposition, students from the Cultural Alliance (an on-campus group of the Builders' League), advised by Ōyama Ikuo and Sano Manabu, fiercely protested and disrupted the ceremony.

On May 12, the Waseda University Oratorical Society sponsored an "Exterminate the Military Research Group" speech rally in the central courtyard, but members of the judo and sumo clubs, along with reactionary forces from inside and outside the university, stormed the event, resulting in many injuries.

Due to this great chaos, students Asanuma Inejirō, Hayashi Tatsuromaru, Mori Saki Genkichi (from the first Japanese Communist Party), Inamura Ryūichi, and a Mr. Todo (戸叶某) and others, who suffered injuries to their faces and heads, rushed to nearby clinics for treatment.

— Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, May 13, 1923

As a result, young professors, alumni such as Ogawa Mimei and Akita Ujaku, also condemned the group, and on May 15 the Military Research Group was forced to disband. However, alumni volunteers centered on the Vertical and Horizontal Club viewed the Cultural Alliance as a vanguard of socialism and demanded its dissolution; on May 20, the Cultural Alliance was also compelled to disband.

Furthermore, on June 5, raids on the research rooms of professors Sano Manabu and Inomata Tsunao, known as the "Research Room Trampling Incident" occurred, becoming a trigger for the First Japanese Communist Party Incident.

Notes

  1. ^ Shimokawa Kōshi, Katei Sōgō Kenkyūkai (2000). 明治・大正家庭史年表:1868-1925. Kawade Shobō Shinsha. p. 468. ISBN 4-309-22361-3.
  2. ^ a b Sensen Sensō Uyoku Minzokuhā Soshiki Sōran (Prewar and Wartime Right-Wing and Nationalist Organizations Overview), pp. 1412–1413

References

  • Former Waseda University Military Research Group students, We Too to National Defense (我等も国防へ), 1924.
  • Kikukawa Tadao, History of Student Social Movements (学生社会運動史), Kaikō Shoten, 1947.
  • Asanuma Inejirō, The Defense of Maamaa-koji (まあまあ居士の弁), 1950.
  • Waseda University University History Compilation Office, Waseda University Centennial History (早稲田大学百年史), Volume 3, 1987.
  • Obara Hiroyuki, The Great Taishō Earthquake: The Forgotten Fault Line (大正大震災 忘却された断層), Hakusuisha, 2012. ISBN 9784560082065
  • Nagata Tetsurō, Prewar and Wartime Right-Wing and Nationalist Organizations Overview (戦前戦中 右翼・民族派組織総覧), Kokusho Kankōkai, 2014.

See also

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