894.00/635
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 6.]
Sir: Supplementing the Embassy’s despatch No. 1707 of March 5, 1936, concerning the trial of Lieutenant-Colonel Aizawa for the murder of Major-General Nagata, I have the honor to submit a report on developments that have come to light since the writing of that despatch, with particular reference to the relation between the trial and the Incident of February 26.
Recently the Embassy’s Military Attaché was informed by an official of the War Office that former Captains Koji Muranaka and Asaichi Isobe, former Lieutenant Zei Nishida and Kazuteru Kita (once a “ronin” in China), all of whom were prominently mentioned in the Aizawa trial as close associates of the defendant, had been the real ringleaders in the revolt although the nominal and active leaders had been Captains Ando and Nonaka. This information was substantiated by an announcement of the Martial Law Headquarters on March 11.
According to newspaper reports, Kazuteru Kita was a Socialist during the early part of his career and later became converted to out-and-out nationalism. About 1920 he published a book in Shanghai entitled Japan’s Reconstruction which was prohibited from distribution in Japan on account of its pernicious intermingling of leftist and rightist ideas and its insistence upon direct action. It is said that the book, Japan’s Reconstruction, had a great influence on the men accused of perpetrating the May 15 assassination. Zei Nishida resigned as a lieutenant in the Army in 1924 on account of illness and subsequently joined the chauvinist movement, becoming a member of several ultra-nationalist societies. In 1926 he was arrested in connection with a plot against the life of Count Makino and others and was sentenced to five months’ penal servitude in 1930. For the past five years he has been working closely with Kazuteru Kita.
Furthermore, according to the Asahi of March 5, ex-Captain Muranaka and Zensuke Shibukawa, a graduate of the Military Academy [Page 767] and one of the civilians arrested for participation in the February 26 Incident, attended seven sessions of the Aizawa trial, carefully taking notes, and on February 17 ceased to appear at the hearings. The disclosures made during the trial may thus have influenced the conspirators in the choice of the date on which to act and of the persons to be assassinated.
It was reported by the Asahi of March 12 that Lieutenant-Colonel Aizawa would have to be completely retried because his trial had already been suspended fifteen days, the legal limit under the Court Martial Law. Domei (News Agency) stated that no date for a new trial had been set and that it would be postponed indefinitely. In this connection it is of interest to note, according to newspaper accounts and to the Military Attaché’s informant mentioned above, that the trial of the officers and civilians involved in the February 26 Incident will be distinctly different from the trial of the men involved in the assassination of Premier Inukai on May 15, 1932, and from the Aizawa trial in that it will be held strictly in camera, the accused will be denied the benefit of counsel, the decisions given will be final with no appeal allowed, and there will be less airing of political views and more attention paid to establishing the guilt of and the punishment for the defendants.
A five-day conference of Army and Division Commanders is scheduled to begin at Tokyo on April 7. Although such conferences of Army and Division Commanders are routine matters and take place from time to time under ordinary circumstances, the newspapers report that the purpose of the coming conference is to strengthen Army discipline and to unify the control of the Army. It remains to be seen whether any extraordinary measures will be taken at the scheduled conference.
Respectfully yours,