WHAT WAS THE MOTIVE?

Northern Advocate, 14 August 1935, Page 7

WHAT WAS THE MOTIVE?

JAPANESE ASSASSINATION PERSONAL GRIEVANCE SUSPECTED. FEARS OF ARMY DISUNITY. (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, August 13. A Tokio despatch says that the War Office has revealed that Major-General Nagata’s assassin was Lieut.-Colonel Aizawa, aged 46, who, on August 1, received an “Irishman’s rise,” being relegated from the 46th Regiment to a military instructorship in Formosa. General Hayashi, Minister, of War, visited the Emperor, and received sanction to remain in office -and uphold the policy of strict army discipline. He has appointed Lieut.-General Imai, director of the War Office personnel, to succeed Major-General Nagata in the joint offices of Director of Military Affairs and Secretary-General Superior of the War Council. The Tokio correspondent of . “The Times” reports that though the motive of the crime is unknown, it seems that the assailant believed misleading rumours concerning Major-General Nagata. This remark is interpreted to mean that he thought officers who had sympathised with the political faction of the armj r would suffer in their careers. Everybody would like to believe that the crime originated in personal feeling, but uneasiness is still discernible in well informed circles lest the trial bring further disclosures of disunity. Licut,-Colonel Aizawa prepared himself for the deed by patriotic and religious exercises.