Purview into the Past: Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, and Japanese Ultra-Nationalism
- Phoenix Amata
- Dec 6, 2021
- 2 min read
Updated: Feb 6, 2023
Two friends of Morihei Ueshiba, Kozaburo Tachibana and Taku Mikami.
Kozaburo Tachibana was a radical right-wing ultra-nationalist with an agrarian philosophy very similar to Morihei Ueshiba. He argued that radical, violent change was needed to cleanse ‘the world of national politics...poisoned by mammon and the gang of corrupt industrialists’.
Taku Mikami was a naval officer who composed the popular right-wing anthem "Ode of the Showa Restoration":
He was a frequent visitor to the Ueshiba home before the war, and after the war he hid from the occupation authorities in Iwama with Morihei Ueshiba.
They both attended meetings of the terrorist Sakurakai organization held at Morihei Ueshiba's Kobukan dojo.
Kozaburo Tachibana helped to inspire the group of young naval officers, led by Taku Mikami, who assassinated Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi in 1932, effectively signaling the end of civilian control in pre-war Japan.
Inukai's last words were roughly If we could talk, you would understand (話せば分かる, hanaseba wakaru) to which his killers replied Dialogue is useless (問答無用, mondō muyō).
Taku Mikami was one of the officers who actually shot Inukai Tsuyoshi:
“Our revolution is intended to bring about direct rule and harmony between ruler and ruled. We find it necessary to overthrow plutocrats and others whatever their station who act against the spirit of the Empire. As we aim to establish direct Imperial rule, we are neither left nor right.”
Taku Mikami and the other assassins used the trial to proclaim their loyalty to the Emperor and received very light sentences due to a surge of public support and over 100,000 petitions for clemency, most written or signed in blood. Nine young men from Niigata requested that they be tried by the court in the place of the accused, and sent the court a jar containing nine of their own pickled severed pinky fingers as a gesture of their sincerity and commitment.
Taku Mikami was paroled in 1938.
Kozaburo Tachibana himself was sentenced to life imprisonment and served eight years in prison.
There's a good look at the entire incident here:
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