1952 May Day Riot Trial Ends In Tokyo

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32209, 30 January 1970, Page 16

1952 May Day Riot Trial Ends In Tokyo

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) TOKYO, January 28. The Tokyo District Court today found 90 people guilty and 109 innocent after a trial, described as the world’s longest, arising from a bloody May Day riot in 1952.

The Court upheld the prosecution’s contention that the disturbances, in the outer compounds of the Imperial Palace by 10,000 Leftist demonstrators, constituted a premeditated riot Two of the demonstrators were killed by shots fired by policemen, and more than 2000 people, including 500 policemen, were injured in the incident. Dozens of parked cars, mostly American owned, were burned or overturned by the demonstrators as they shouted “Yankee, go home.” The incident occurred three days after the signing of the San Francisco peace treaty which brought to an end nearly seven years of Allied occupation of Japan.

Of the 1232 persons arrested, 261 were indicted. Sixteen of those indicted have died since the trial began. Eiichi Iwata, a former Communist Party executive, received the heaviest sentence —a two-year suspended prison term and a fine of 2500 yen (SNZ6O). The other defendants also had suspended sentences imposed on them. The trial entailed 1792 hearings, the summoning of 954 witnesses, the examination of 1300 photographs, and the collection of 3200 bamboo poles and wooden staves and 1080 rocks for evidence. Five hundred riot policemen were mobilised today outside the Court, where 2000 Leftists, waving red flags, shouted denunciations of the trial.