The Yokohama Incident

 

 

The rehabilitation of the Japanese economy after the Soviet-Japanese War was more difficult than the reorganization of the government. The scarcity of food had to be offset by imports from the remaining colony of Taiwan and from South East Asia, and beginning in May 1941 work stoppages took place in various Japanese industries, notably coal mining. A wave of strike menaced to paralyze the country.

 

This serious problem was initiated by radical leftists imbued in Marxist-Leninist ideology, who said they would create a "new Japan," and proceeded to brand everything in the nation's history as evil. They wanted nothing less than the complete destruction of Japanese “reactionary” traditions, leaving the country ripe for picking by the Communist International, an organization dedicated to advancing communism worldwide.

 

The promulgation of the Peace Preservation Law served as a tool to deter and arrest suspects of being Communists, but the abuse of the law posed a problem as more and more individuals with no knowledge of Marxism and Communist activity found themselves caught up in the search for suspected leftists. However, in the end it served to the military and civil police to quench at least one major conspiracy, the Yokohama Incident of 1941. This case resulted in the arrest of dozens of individuals, many of whom were employed in government offices, government-affiliated research organizations, the military, and industries important for the postwar recuperation effort.

 

The term "Yokohama Incident" was coined by the press and refers to the city where much of the police investigation took place. The whole affair began with the arrest of political writer Hosokawa Karoku by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Board on 14 September 1941, and the arrest of labor specialist Kawada Hisashi by the Kanagawa Prefectural (Yokohama) civil police on 9 September 1941. Hosokawa was arrested because of a censorship violation, but actually he was arrested for his  membership in the Central Committee of the Japanese Communist Party. Unlike Hosokawa, Kawada was suspected of being a spy for the U.S. Communist Party. In the course of their investigation the Kanagawa Police came across a mean of linking the Kawada and Hosokawa cases. A few months before his arrest Hosokawa and six friends, two of whom were also acquaintances of Kawada, had gone on a trip to a seaside resort, where they planned a coup d’etat against the I.R.C.

 

In several safe houses in Yokohama, and in other locations around the country, a large number of stolen IJA weapons, including large numbers of crates of high explosives, were found. The Yokohama Incident increase the anxiety concerning Communists, and the certainty that Communists had already succeeded in infiltrating many sectors of society, were becoming increasingly well-organized and were readying themselves for action.

 

The Yokohama Incident, which uncovered the existence of an extensive network of subversives, possessed all the ingredients to heighten official concerns about internal security. The Kempei Tai (under control of the IJN) report of August 1943 summarized the findings contained in earlier police reports:

 

1.       Communists in Japan have attempted to establish contact with their counterparts in enemy countries;

2.       They have persistently attempted to re-establish the Japan Communist Party;

3.       They have tried to use legal organizations, such as publishing firms, in their efforts to promote Communism and defend the interests of the Soviet Union;

4.       They have infiltrated industries important for the postwar recuperation effort.

 

The August 1943 report divided the suspects into five main groups and described the significant characteristics of each group. "The United States Communist Party Group," which was supposedly headed by Kawada Hisashi, was responsible for sending material on Japan's war capacity to the United States. "The Soviet Research Group," which included individuals employed in governmental or semi-governmental offices, was responsible for maintaining a liaison with the Soviet Union and for promoting within Japanese military and official circles a positive view of Soviet military capabilities. The police proved that one member of "The Soviet Research Group" had secured employment as a Foreign Ministry courier to the Soviet Union in order to pass along information on conditions in Japan to Comintern agents. "The Hosokawa Group," which was the central organization of the conspiracy, was responsible for re-establishing the Japan Communist Party and for making contact with the Manzhouguan and Korean Communists. "The Patriotic Political Comrades Group," which supposedly used the guise of a right-wing labour organization to camouflage its activities, was responsible for promoting leftism among industrial workers. "The Political and Economics Research Group," which consisted of researchers in government ministries and key industries, was responsible for collecting confidential material available at their places of work.

 

The police claimed that the activities of "The Politics and Economics Research Group" were particularly dangerous. The authors of the August 1943 police report observed that the group was providing information on Japan's military weaknesses to the other groups, who could have transmitted this information to American, Soviet, and Chinese Communists. The seriousness with which the authorities viewed the Yokohama Incident is revealed by the fact it appears to have been a topic of discussion at a cabinet council meeting and was analyzed at a conference for high-ranking police officials. Even today, most of the documents related with the investigation are kept under strict governmental control.

 

However, some government and court records are public, such as the 1943 "Chianojo kyoni tsuite keisatsu buchokaigi ni okeru hoanokacho setsumei oyoshi" (Summary of the Explanation by the Head of the Security Department about the State of Public Peace at the Conference of Police Chiefs), and the "Saikin no sayoku jiken ni kangami choi yosuruojiko" (The Recent Leftist Incident, Facts that Require Reflection). The following is an excerpt from the first document

 

In the course of the present year, with the deteriorating military and domestic situation, the Communist movement has progressed and gone from a preparatory stage to a stage of active resistance. That is, the Communists are trying to organize their scattered groups into an illegal, radical vanguard organization. In the meantime, they have formulated a plan to encourage popular discontent by drawing attention to those problems which, under the present strained domestic situation, are directly affecting the living conditions of the people. They are attempting to prompt outbursts of this discontent in every sector of society.

 

The use of cases such as the Yokohama Incident to gauge the present state of public peace led high-ranking police and political officials to the conclusion that Communists were capitalizing on the war's impact on the domestic situation.

 

Official assessments such as the mentioned which were derived from cases of widespread conspiracies, concluded that the strained domestic conditions caused by the war had inspired Communists to ready themselves for action and step up efforts to promote popular rebellion. This was one of the main factors behind the decision to implement the Great Reform.