Amakasu Masahiko
Encyclopedia
was an officer in the Imperial Japanese Army
imprisoned for his involvement in the Amakasu Incident
, the extrajudicial execution of anarchists after the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake
, who later became head of the Manchukuo Film Association
.
as the eldest son of an ex-samurai
of the Yonezawa Domain
. He was educated in military boarding school
s in Mie prefecture
and Nagoya
, and entered the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1912. After graduation, he served in the infantry
and then the military police
in various postings in Japan and in Korea
.
As a lieutenant
in charge of a detachment of military police
during the chaos immediately following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake
on September 16, 1923, his detachment arrested the well-known anarchists Sakae Osugi and Noe Ito
, along with Sakae's six year old nephew. In what came to be known as the Amakasu Incident
, the suspects were beaten to death and their bodies thrown into a well. The killing of such high profile anarchists, along with a young child, sparked surprise and outrage throughout Japan. Amakasu was court martialed and sentenced to serve 10 years in Chiba Prison.
However, Amakasu was released after only three years due to a general amnesty
proclaimed in celebration of the ascension of Hirohito
as Emperor of Japan
. After his release, Amakasu was sent to France
to study by the Japanese Army from July 1927. While in France, he became acquainted with the noted artist Tsuguharu Foujita
. He returned to Japan in 1930, but almost immediately relocated to Mukden in Manchuria
, where he worked under Japanese spymaster Kenji Doihara
to manage the Japanese Army's increasing involvement in opium
production and smuggling into China. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident
and the Manchurian Incident, he relocated to Harbin
, where he was involved in the effort to smuggle ex-Qing emperor Puyi
from the foreign concession in Tianjin
into Manchuria, where he would become the puppet ruler
of the new state of Manchukuo
. In Manchukuo, Amakasu helped establish the civilian police force in the new capital of Hsinking.
In 1939, with the support of Nobusuke Kishi
, he was named the head of Manchukuo Film Association
, which was one of the main propaganda
vehicles for the Kwantung Army to boost public support for Manchukuo
and for the war effort against the Kuomintang
government of China. Amakasu strove hard to improve the quality of the works produced, traveling to Germany
to acquire the latest movie camera
s and production techniques, and inviting noted Japanese movie stars, directors and conductors (such as Takashi Asahina
) to visit Manchukuo and to participate in his productions. His efforts were instrumental in launching the career of Yoshiko Ōtaka
, better known as "Ri Kōran" in Japanese.
With the fall of Manchukuo to Soviet forces
during the invasion of Manchuria in August 1945, Amakasu committed suicide by taking potassium cyanide
.
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
imprisoned for his involvement in the Amakasu Incident
Amakasu Incident
The Amakasu Incident occurred on September 16, 1923, in the chaos immediately following the Great Kantō earthquake, in Japan. Fearing that anarchists would take advantage of the disaster to overthrow the government, a squad of military police led by Lieutenant Masahiko Amakasu arrested Sakae Osugi,...
, the extrajudicial execution of anarchists after the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake
1923 Great Kanto earthquake
The struck the Kantō plain on the Japanese main island of Honshū at 11:58:44 am JST on September 1, 1923. Varied accounts hold that the duration of the earthquake was between 4 and 10 minutes...
, who later became head of the Manchukuo Film Association
Manchukuo Film Association
, also known as the "Manchuria Film Production", was a Japanese film production company in Manchukuo in the 1930s and 40s.-Early history:...
.
Biography
Amakasu was born in Yamagata prefectureYamagata Prefecture
-Fruit:Yamagata Prefecture is the largest producer of cherries and pears in Japan. A large quantity of other kinds of fruits such as grapes, apples, peaches, melons, persimmons and watermelons are also produced.- Demographics :...
as the eldest son of an ex-samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
of the Yonezawa Domain
Yonezawa Domain
Yonezawa Domain was a feudal domain of Tokugawa Japan, controlled by daimyō of the Uesugi clan. Covering the Okitama district of Dewa province, in what is today southeastern Yamagata Prefecture, the territory was ruled from Yonezawa castle in Yonezawa city...
. He was educated in military boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
s in Mie prefecture
Mie Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan which is part of the Kansai regions on Honshū island. The capital is the city of Tsu.- History :Until the Meiji Restoration, Mie prefecture was known as Ise Province and Iga Province....
and Nagoya
Nagoya, Aichi
is the third-largest incorporated city and the fourth most populous urban area in Japan.Located on the Pacific coast in the Chūbu region on central Honshu, it is the capital of Aichi Prefecture and is one of Japan's major ports along with those of Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Yokohama, Chiba, and Moji...
, and entered the Imperial Japanese Army Academy in 1912. After graduation, he served in the infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...
and then the military police
Military police
Military police are police organisations connected with, or part of, the military of a state. The word can have different meanings in different countries, and may refer to:...
in various postings in Japan and in Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
.
As a lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
in charge of a detachment of military police
Military police
Military police are police organisations connected with, or part of, the military of a state. The word can have different meanings in different countries, and may refer to:...
during the chaos immediately following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake
1923 Great Kanto earthquake
The struck the Kantō plain on the Japanese main island of Honshū at 11:58:44 am JST on September 1, 1923. Varied accounts hold that the duration of the earthquake was between 4 and 10 minutes...
on September 16, 1923, his detachment arrested the well-known anarchists Sakae Osugi and Noe Ito
Noe Ito
was a Japanese anarchist, social critic, author and feminist.-Biography:Itō graduated from Ueno Girls' High School in Ueno, Tokyo, and joined the Bluestocking Society , producer of the feminist arts and culture magazine Seitō in 1912...
, along with Sakae's six year old nephew. In what came to be known as the Amakasu Incident
Amakasu Incident
The Amakasu Incident occurred on September 16, 1923, in the chaos immediately following the Great Kantō earthquake, in Japan. Fearing that anarchists would take advantage of the disaster to overthrow the government, a squad of military police led by Lieutenant Masahiko Amakasu arrested Sakae Osugi,...
, the suspects were beaten to death and their bodies thrown into a well. The killing of such high profile anarchists, along with a young child, sparked surprise and outrage throughout Japan. Amakasu was court martialed and sentenced to serve 10 years in Chiba Prison.
However, Amakasu was released after only three years due to a general amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
proclaimed in celebration of the ascension of Hirohito
Hirohito
, posthumously in Japan officially called Emperor Shōwa or , was the 124th Emperor of Japan according to the traditional order, reigning from December 25, 1926, until his death in 1989. Although better known outside of Japan by his personal name Hirohito, in Japan he is now referred to...
as Emperor of Japan
Emperor of Japan
The Emperor of Japan is, according to the 1947 Constitution of Japan, "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people." He is a ceremonial figurehead under a form of constitutional monarchy and is head of the Japanese Imperial Family with functions as head of state. He is also the highest...
. After his release, Amakasu was sent to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to study by the Japanese Army from July 1927. While in France, he became acquainted with the noted artist Tsuguharu Foujita
Tsuguharu Foujita
was a painter and printmaker born in Tokyo, Japan who applied Japanese ink techniques to Western style paintings.- Education :In 1910 when he was twenty-four years old Foujita graduated from what is now the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music....
. He returned to Japan in 1930, but almost immediately relocated to Mukden in Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
, where he worked under Japanese spymaster Kenji Doihara
Kenji Doihara
was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army in World War II. He was instrumental in the Japanese invasion of Manchuria for which he earned fame taking the nickname 'Lawrence of Manchuria', a reference to the Lawrence of Arabia....
to manage the Japanese Army's increasing involvement in opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
production and smuggling into China. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident
Marco Polo Bridge Incident
The Marco Polo Bridge Incident was a battle between the Republic of China's National Revolutionary Army and the Imperial Japanese Army, often used as the marker for the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War .The eleven-arch granite bridge, Lugouqiao, is an architecturally significant structure,...
and the Manchurian Incident, he relocated to Harbin
Harbin
Harbin ; Manchu language: , Harbin; Russian: Харби́н Kharbin ), is the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China, lying on the southern bank of the Songhua River...
, where he was involved in the effort to smuggle ex-Qing emperor Puyi
Puyi
Puyi , of the Manchu Aisin Gioro clan, was the last Emperor of China, and the twelfth and final ruler of the Qing Dynasty. He ruled as the Xuantong Emperor from 1908 until his abdication on 12 February 1912. From 1 to 12 July 1917 he was briefly restored to the throne as a nominal emperor by the...
from the foreign concession in Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
into Manchuria, where he would become the puppet ruler
Puppet ruler
A puppet ruler is a person who has a title indicating possession of political power, but who, in reality, is controlled by outside individuals or forces. Such outside power can be exercised by a foreign government, in which case the puppet ruler's domain is called a puppet state...
of the new state of Manchukuo
Manchukuo
Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...
. In Manchukuo, Amakasu helped establish the civilian police force in the new capital of Hsinking.
In 1939, with the support of Nobusuke Kishi
Nobusuke Kishi
was a Japanese politician and the 56th and 57th Prime Minister of Japan from February 25, 1957 to June 12, 1958 and from then to July 19, 1960. He was often called Shōwa no yōkai .- Early life :...
, he was named the head of Manchukuo Film Association
Manchukuo Film Association
, also known as the "Manchuria Film Production", was a Japanese film production company in Manchukuo in the 1930s and 40s.-Early history:...
, which was one of the main propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
vehicles for the Kwantung Army to boost public support for Manchukuo
Manchukuo
Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...
and for the war effort against the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
government of China. Amakasu strove hard to improve the quality of the works produced, traveling to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to acquire the latest movie camera
Movie camera
The movie camera is a type of photographic camera which takes a rapid sequence of photographs on strips of film which was very popular for private use in the last century until its successor, the video camera, replaced it...
s and production techniques, and inviting noted Japanese movie stars, directors and conductors (such as Takashi Asahina
Takashi Asahina
was a Japanese conductor. Born in Tokyo, he founded the Kansai Symphonic Orchestra in 1947 and remained its chief conductor until his death in Kobe. Inspired by a meeting with Wilhelm Furtwängler in the 1950s, he began a lifelong attachment to the music of Anton Bruckner, recording the complete...
) to visit Manchukuo and to participate in his productions. His efforts were instrumental in launching the career of Yoshiko Ōtaka
Yoshiko Otaka
, is a China-born Japanese actress and singer who made a career in China, Japan, Hong Kong, and the United States. By the 1940s, she became one of the Seven great singing stars...
, better known as "Ri Kōran" in Japanese.
With the fall of Manchukuo to Soviet forces
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
during the invasion of Manchuria in August 1945, Amakasu committed suicide by taking potassium cyanide
Potassium cyanide
Potassium cyanide is an inorganic compound with the formula KCN. This colorless crystalline compound, similar in appearance to sugar, is highly soluble in water. Most KCN is used in gold mining, organic synthesis, and electroplating. Smaller applications include jewelry for chemical gilding and...
.
In Popular Culture
- Amakasu was portrayed by Japanese actor Ryuichi SakamotoRyuichi SakamotoAfter working as a session musician with Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi in 1977, the trio formed the internationally successful electronic music band Yellow Magic Orchestra in 1978. Known for their seminal influence on electronic music, the group helped pioneer electronic genres such as...
in the 1987 film, "The Last EmperorThe Last EmperorThe Last Emperor is a 1987 biopic about the life of Puyi, the last Emperor of China, whose autobiography was the basis for the screenplay written by Mark Peploe and Bernardo Bertolucci. Independently produced by Jeremy Thomas, it was directed by Bertolucci and released in 1987 by Columbia Pictures...
," although he was shown shooting himself to death in the movie.
- Amakasu is also a character in the historical fantasyHistorical fantasyHistorical fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy and related to historical fiction, which makes use of specific elements of real world history. It is used as an umbrella term for the sword and sorcery genre and sometimes, if fantasy is involved, the sword-and-sandal genre too...
novel Teito MonogatariTeito Monogatariis a massive Japanese historical fantasy epic written by Hiroshi Aramata.-Overview:The story is a retelling of the history of Edo from an occultist perspective. The premise is based on the idea that the curse of Taira no Masakado greatly influenced the city's history from its inception to the...
by Hiroshi AramataHiroshi Aramatais a Japanese author, translator, and screenplay writer, as well as a specialist in natural history and cartography.His most popular novel was Teito Monogatari , which has sold over 3.5 million copies in Japan alone. He also wrote Alexander Senki, a novel which eventually evolved into the anime...
. In the novel, he is involved with the freemasons.