JAPANESE ANARCHISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2968, 1 February 1911, Page 80

JAPANESE ANARCHISTS.

GREAT MURDER PLOT

In the spring of this year (says Renter's Tokio correspondent on November 11) a number of arrests were made in Japan. It was given out that the prisoners were Socialists, charged with plotting to assassinate "some high personage." Later a startling story was told in the clubs frequented" by -Japanese of the higher class and officials. It was said that the men recently arrested had plotted against the life of the Emperor himself. Those who dared even to whisper this were laughed at as insane, or made to feel that they had grossly offended, because even the thought amounted to treason. Later the rumour became more persistent, and it finally leaked out that there was some foundation in fact for the statement that a band of anarchists had formed a plot to take the life of the Emperor of Japan as he drove from his palace to one of the outlying military schools to inspect the students. Bombs were the weapons to be used. The bombs were discovered and seized.' Four or five men first, then four or five more, until at last some 40 were in gaol at Tokio charged with complicity in this hideous plot. Still, the story was disbelieved, and both natives and foreigners scoffed at the idea that any Japanese could, in any circumstances, or by any possibility, think of taking his Emperor's life. There is a clause in the criminal code of Japan which applies, however, to the treatment of persons concerned in a plot against the life of the Emperor; and, within the last few days, 25 men and one woman have been tried under that clause and convicted. The clause is art. 73 of the Criminal Code, and reads : —"Anyone who injures, assassinates, or attempts to assassinate, the Emperor, the Empress Dowager, the Empress, the Crown Prince, or the Imperial grandchildren, shall be put to death." Since the special court of inquiry publicly recommended the trial of these people under this clause of the criminal code, there can be no possible room for doubt as to the plot in which these prisoners were concerned, nor can there be any doubt as to- the penalty. It is possibly the most startling story that lias come up in Japan within the memory of the .present generation. It marks the removal of another fanciful belief that has prevailed not only in Japan, but also in the outside world. It has done something more. It has brought the authorities in Japan, responsible for the safety of the public and the lives of high authorities, to the full realisation that the seed of anarchism- has blown across the oceans, through the doors opened for intercourse with what is known as the 'i/civilised world," that this seed has taken root and propagated, until it is a real menace to the nation. Face to face w ith it, at first, the high police officials were stunned- with astonish" ment. It was known that socialism was creeping in, and its spread was checked by various means, but Japanese officials seem not quite to have differentiated between what they thought was socialism, but what in fact was anarchism. Now commencing with the carrying out of the sentence pronounced upon the 26 prisoners, a most active campaign will be carried on. It has been arranged to give a series of lectures to soldiers, pointing out the fallacy and danger of Socialist doctrines. The children of the schools are to be trained on the same lines. The leader of the convicted plotters is a man named Denjiro Kotoku, a newspaper man and an author, well known in Tokio and also on the Pacific coast of America. He became a Socialist in 1905, and subsequently an avowed Anarchist and Communist. Returning to Japan in 1906, he began actively to propagate his doctrines, and surrounded himself with a considerable number of followers.