Mr. Hubbard to Mr.
Bayard.
Legation of
the United States,
Tokio, February 14, 1888.
(Received March 12.)
No. 548.]
Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department of
the assassination of the Japanese minister of education, Viscount Mori
Arinori, which occurred at his residence early on the morning of February
11.
So far as can be ascertained the assassination had no political significance
whatever, and was committed by a Shintoist religious fanatic, without aid or
instigation from any accomplice, for the purpose of avenging some real or
imagined slight or indignity to a Shinto temple,
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which the assassin claimed the late minister once
committed in entering the temple without removing his hat and shoes. The
assassin was at once killed by an attendant of the minister.
The minister lived about twenty-four hours after receiving the wound.
The assassination was especially deplorable coming, as it did, on a day when
all of Japan had put on holiday attire and was rejoicing over the
constitution which was to be promulgated that day.
Viscount Mori was born in 1841, and had served his country in many honorable
capacities, having been at one time the diplomatic representative of Japan
at Washington; afterwards becoming vice-minister for foreign affairs, and
later envoy and minister to England and to China, respectively.
Under his administration of the department of education Japan has made
wonderful strides in educational advancement.
I inclose a clipping from the Japan Mail, giving an account of the
assassination, which is believed to be in the main correct.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure in No. 548.—Extract from the
Japan Mail.]
Assassination of Viscount Mori.
It is with the most sincere regret that we have to announce the fatal
termination of the injury received on the morning of the 11th by his
excellency the minister of state tor education. It appears that the
weapon used by the assassin was an ordinary Japanese kitchen-knife, the
flat triangular blade of which had been sharpened to a state of great
keenness. Unfortunately the blow was delivered so as to cut an artery,
and, owing probably to the fact that all Tokio had begun to keep
festival, medical aid was not procured until three hours had elapsed. By
that time the Viscount had fainted from loss of blood, and at 5 o’clock
on Tuesday morning he passed away. The irony of fate could scarcely be
shown more cruelly than in the death of such a man by such an
instrument. The particulars of the sad affair are now known. The
murderer, a youth of about twenty-live, went to Viscount Mori’s house
early in the morning, and asked for an interview with the minister. He
was received by his excellency’s private secretary, but at first
declined to state his business through a third party, alleging that it
demanded the utmost secrecy. Ultimately, however, he reluctantly
consented to explain that he had come to warn the minister against an
assault which certain discontented students of the university
contemplated making upon him while he was en route for the palace. The
secretary carried this message to Viscount Mori, but the minister
treated it with some disdain, and told the secretary that he had better
question the informant more fully. While the secretary was obeying this
instruction the Viscount himself came down stairs dressed in full
uniform, and as he was about to pass the door of the room in which the
secretary and the youth were conversing, the former said, “This, your
excellency, is the man of whom I have just been speaking to you.” The
professed informant then advanced, and had begun to repeat his story
when suddenly grasping the Viscount, and drawing a kitchen-knife which
he had concealed in his clothes, he plunged it in the minister’s
abdomen. Concerning what immediately ensued there is, as may well be
supposed, some confusion. Whether the man in attempting to make his way
from the house seemed to threaten fresh violence, or whether he showed a
disposition to follow up his murderous assault, it is at all events
certain that one of the minister’s guards, who though standing in the
vestibule was unable to prevent the fatal deed, immediately cut the
assassin down. Under any circumstances this was regretable, but it would
have been more so had there been any suspicion that the assailant had
accomplices. Such, however, was not the case. From a manifesto found on
his person, and corroborated by subsequent inquiries, the fact is placed
beyond doubt that he was absolutely alone in his attempt and that its
sole motive was a fanatical desire to wreak vengeance on the Viscount
for an act of sacrilege which it appears that the latter did really,
whether ignorantly or inadvertently, commit by entering the principal
shrine at Ise without removing his hoots. By a zealot like Nishino
Bunjiro—for that seems to have been the man’s
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name—such a proceeding on the part of a prominent
minister of state may have been interpreted in the sense of a serious
peril to the future of Shintoism in Japan. At all events he was content
to sacrifice his own life in order to vindicate the majesty of the gods
he reverenced. What an example of the curiously linked chain from which
human destinies hang! That one of the ablest statesmen and most
brilliant scholars in Japan should be struck down in the very prime of
life by a kitchen-knife, and for no better reason than because he had
failed to remove his foot-gear when entering a revered sanctuary! And
yet there are critics who profess to believe that the religious
sentiment is non-existent in Japan. We shall not at the present moment
attempt to speak in detail of the deceased minister’s career. His death,
felt all the more keenly in contrast with the national rejoicing at the
promulgation of the constitution, has thrown Tokio into mourning. That
the assassin was virtually a lunatic there can be little doubt, though
the time he chose for the execution of his fell design seems to show
either a subtle purpose to give the tragedy greater emphasis, or a
clever idea that among the crowds and confusion of the national festival
he might find exceptional facilities for escape.
