Otoya Yamaguchi

Otoya Yamaguchi (山口 二矢, Yamaguchi Otoya, 22 February 1943 – 2 November 1960) was a Japanese ultranationalist who assassinated Inejiro Asanuma, head of the Japan Socialist Party. Yamaguchi was a member of a right-wing uyoku dantai group, and assassinated Asanuma with a yoroi-dōshi on 12 October 1960, at Tokyo's Hibiya Hall during a political debate in advance of parliamentary elections.[1]

Otoya Yamaguchi
山口 二矢
A photograph taken by Yasushi Nagao immediately after Otoya Yamaguchi withdrew his Japanese sword (yoroidōshi) from Inejiro Asanuma.
Born(1943-02-22)22 February 1943
Taito, Tokyo, Japan
Died2 November 1960(1960-11-02) (aged 17)
Nerima, Tokyo, Japan
Cause of deathSuicide by hanging
Resting placeAoyama Cemetery, Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo
Known forAssassination of Inejiro Asanuma

Death

Less than three weeks after the assassination, while being held in a juvenile detention facility, Yamaguchi mixed a small amount of toothpaste with water and wrote on his cell wall, "Seven lives for my country. Long live His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor!" Yamaguchi then knotted strips of his bedsheet into a makeshift rope and used it to hang himself from a light fixture.[2] The phrase "seven lives for my country" was a reference to the last words of 14th-century samurai Kusunoki Masashige.[3]

Right-wing groups celebrated Yamaguchi as a martyr; they gave a burial coat, kimono, and belt to his parents and performed a memorial service for him.[4] His ashes were interred in Aoyama Cemetery.[5]

Legacy
Yasushi Nagao with his Pulitzer Prize winning photo. (1961)

A photograph taken by Yasushi Nagao immediately after Yamaguchi withdrew his sword from Asanuma won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize,[6] and the 1960 World Press Photo award. Footage of the incident was also captured.[7]

Nobel Prize-winning author Kenzaburō Ōe based his 1961 novellas Seventeen and The Death of a Political Youth on Yamaguchi.[8]

In October 2010, right-wing groups celebrated the 50th anniversary of the assassination in Hibiya Park.[4]

On 12 October 2018, right-wing provocateur Gavin McInnes reenacted the murder as part of a skit to entertain members of the Metropolitan Republican Club and the Proud Boys (a neo-fascist hate group founded by McInnes)[9] in New York City.[10][11] After the performance, McInnes left the club holding the plastic samurai sword used in the reenactment.[11]

References
  1. "山口 二矢" [Otoya Yamaguchi]. Nihon Jinmei Daijiten (in Japanese). Tokyo: Shogakukan. 2012. Archived from the original on 25 August 2007. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
  2. "JAPAN: Assassin's Apologies". TIME Magazine. Time Inc. 14 November 1960. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
  3. "Using a traditional blade, 17-year-old Yamaguchi assassinates politician Asanuma in Tokyo, 1960". Rare Historical Photos. 27 November 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  4. Newton, Michael (17 April 2014). "Inejiro Asanuma (1898–1960)". Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia. 2. ABC-CLIO. pp. 234–235. ISBN 978-1-61069-286-1.
  5. "四月廿九日　山口二矢及び筆保泰禎兩氏之墓參　於港區南青山「梅窓院」". Douketusya (in Japanese). 3 May 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  6. Zelizer, Barbie (1 December 2010). About to Die:How News Images Move the Public. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 183–4. ISBN 0199752133. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
  7. Inejiro Asanuma Assassination Footage (1960) (Digital video). YouTube.com (published 18 May 2006). 12 October 1960. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
  8. Weston, Mark (1999). Giants of Japan: The Lives of Japan’s Most Influential Men and Women. New York: Kodansha International. p. 295. ISBN 1-568362862.
  9. "Proud Boys". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 17 October 2018.
  10. Dana Rubinstein (12 October 2018). "State GOP distances itself from McInnes, following vandalism". Politico. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  11. Richardson, Davis (15 October 2018), "How Gavin McInnes' Proud Boys and Antifa Turned the Upper East Side Into Hell", Observer, New York, retrieved 29 October 2018
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