Ruffians, Yakuza, Nationalists by Eiko Maruko Siniawer

Author:Eiko Maruko Siniawer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cornell University Press

4.2. Published in March 1926, in the aftermath of the attack on parliamentarian Kiyose IchirM, this cartoon was entitled “An Example of Constitutional Government.” In Kensei o kiki ni michibiku Seiyūkai no bōkō jiken (Tokyo: Jiyū Bundansha, 1927).

As this comment about the Diet suggests, the incident served as an opportunity to express deep-seated apprehensions about the parliament and political parties. Although the Tōkyō asahi shinbun made a plea not to boycott these entities, preferring instead that the violent Diet members not be re-elected, many newspapers gave the sense of an almost existential crisis for both the Diet and the political parties.106 The Kyūshū shinbun observed that the people’s confidence in the Diet was decaying and that voices for its repudiation were increasing. An editorial urged the Diet to serve as a model to the people by valuing freedom of speech, and warned that a failure to reform the parliament would invite the indignity of the people—if that were to happen, the Diet would cease to be of any meaning or significance.107

Perhaps even more than the Diet, the future of the Seiyūkai was cast into doubt. The Ōsaka mainichi shinbun believed that the Seiyūkai politicians had destroyed trust in the party at its root, eroding its prestige and credibility. The Seiyūkai’s actions were interpreted by some as violence against the people themselves, violence that denied and contradicted the very foundation of constitutional politics. What was worse, this violence was all the more corrosive because it was wrapped up with other ills such as the tyrannical and despotic oppression of other Diet members’ speech and the attempt to discredit opponents (like Kiyose) by labeling them “red.”108 The Nagasaki nichinichi shinbun considered criminal not just the use of physical force, but also the party’s subsequent efforts to justify its violence and evade responsibility. Similarly, the Kokumin shinbun suggested that the Seiyūkai president was indeed involved in some sort of plot. If Tanaka was not guilty, the reasoning went, he would have simply said so instead of resorting to violence. As much as the violence itself, this alleged strategy of obfuscating with physical force was disgraceful. Reflecting on all of these sins, newspapers observed that the Seiyūkai had “dug its own grave.”109

To formally articulate these various concerns, some 130 journalists and 20 intellectuals (including democracy scholar Yoshino Sakuzō) gathered on April 7 at Hibiya Park to participate in a meeting to denounce and reject Diet violence. Officially named the Convention of Journalists Who Reject Diet Violence (Gikai Bōryoku Haigeki Yūshi Kisha Taikai), the group issued a declaration that formally articulated the stances these journalists had been taking in their editorials: repeated Diet violence was lamentable for constitutional government and a negative influence on the people’s thought, the sanctity of the Diet should be respected, and violence should be rejected to protect speech. A resolution was also passed calling for, among other things, self-examination on the part of the political parties and the expulsion of Diet members who were habitually violent. In a somewhat ironic

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