Shibuya incident
Encyclopedia
- Not to be confused with the Shinjuku IncidentShinjuku IncidentShinjuku Incident is a 2009 Hong Kong action crime drama film written and directed by Derek Yee, and also produced by and starring Jackie Chan...
, a 2009 Jackie Chan movie.
The was a violent confrontation which occurred in between rival gangs near the Shibuya Station
Shibuya Station
is a train station located in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. With 2.4 million passengers on an average weekday in 2004, it is the fourth-busiest commuter rail station in Japan handling a large amount of commuter traffic between the center city and suburbs to the south and west.-JR East:*Saikyō Line /...
in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Japan. The years after World War II saw Japan as a defeated nation and the Japanese people had to improvise in many aspects of daily life. In the chaos of the post-war recovery large and very lucrative black markets opened throughout Japan. Various gangs fought for control over them. There were also many non-Japanese "third nationals" in post-war Japan. These "third nationals"
Sangokujin
is a Japanese term referring to ex-colonial nationals of Taiwan, Korea and China in the aftermath of World War II. The original term, which literally means "three country person", is said to have been coined to establish a separate political, social and legal status from Japanese.- Concept :In the...
or "third-country people" were former subjects of the Japanese Empire whose citizenship then transferred to other countries like China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and 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...
. The Shibuya incident involved former Japanese citizens from the Japanese province of Formosa
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
(now called Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
) fighting against native Japanese Yakuza
Yakuza
, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
gangs. After the fight, the Chinese nationalist government
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...
stepped forward to defend the Formosans.
Post-War Japan
The air raids on JapanAir raids on Japan
During World War II the Allied forces conducted many air raids on Japan which caused extensive destruction to the country's cities and killed over 300,000 people. These attacks began with the Doolittle Raid in mid-April 1942, but did not resume until June 1944 when United States Army Air Forces ...
left millions displaced in urban centers, and food shortages, created by bad harvests and the demands of the war, worsened when the importation of food from Korea, Taiwan, and China ceased. Repatriation of Japanese living in other parts of Asia only aggravated the problems in Japan as these displaced people put more strain on already scarce resources. Over 5.1 million Japanese returned to Japan during the fifteen months following October 1, 1945. Alcohol and drug abuse became major problems. Deep exhaustion, declining morale, and despair was so widespread that it was termed the . Inflation was rampant and many people turned to the black market for even the most basic goods.
Black markets
The black markets were among the first economic entities to spring up after the defeat of Japan. People who were desperate for food and basic necessities turned to the black market with its inflated prices as the official lines of supply and stores had either been destroyed or had nothing to sell. Four days after the surrender of JapanSurrender of Japan
The surrender of Japan in 1945 brought hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...
on August 14, 1945, the Ozu gang placed an ad in newspapers asking for factory owners, who up to that point only sold to the military, to come to gang headquarters and discuss distribution of their products. In Shinjuku, Tokyo, the Ozu gang then created a large market near the station and by had an enormous sign with 117 hundred-watt bulbs advertising its location; it was so bright that it could be seen from several miles away. Profits were huge, and the vendors – who were known as "peanuts" – earned as much as 50 yen a day (by comparison, teachers were paid a monthly salary of 300 yen). Other gangs followed suit and all over Japan open-air markets sprang up. About 30% of those working in the markets were "third-country people".
Third-country people
After the Empire of JapanEmpire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
's surrender the territories it had controlled (often for decades) were broken up to form new countries, like North
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
and South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
or, ceded to the post-war Chinese nationalist government
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...
. In response, the Japanese government stripped citizenship from the ethnic peoples of these places. Many thousands of these people had decided to emigrate to Japan. These non-Japanese Asians were called "third-country people" or "third-national people" (daisan-kokujin in Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
). With no work for even the Japanese and with thousands of refugees returning from the former colonies every day there was little chance for third-country people to find work and so they turned en masse to the black markets and other underworld activities.
Turf war
With vast amounts of money to be made and simmering racist undercurrents, fights for control of the markets were probably inevitable. In fights broke out between Formosan gangs and the Japanese YakuzaYakuza
, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
group, Matsuba-kai
Matsuba-kai
The is a yakuza organization based in Tokyo, Japan. The Matsuba-kai is a designated yakuza group with an estimated 1,500 active members and 600 semi-active members.-History:...
. Outside the Shibuya police station over a thousand Matsuba members fought hundreds of Formosan gang members with clubs, metal pipes and some small firearms. Seven Formosans were killed and thirty-four wounded. The Japanese police suffered casualties too: one policeman was killed and another injured.. The Japanese public were outraged by the chaos and blamed the non-Japanese Asians and the incompetence of the Japanese police. Tensions between the Korean and Formosan communities mounted.
More than forty Formosans were arrested in connection with the incident, but their cases were quickly taken up by the Chinese component of Allied command in Tokyo. The men were given a very public trial and the Japanese government was also forced to put the Tokyo policemen who were involved in the incident on trial, something that was unheard of in Japan. The trial resulted in thirty-five convictions; sentences were either hard labor or deportation. The trial put a spotlight on the Chinese population in Japan; the Chinese used their influence in Allied command to grant special status to ethnic Chinese, and gave them special rights including extra rations, a privilege that was not granted to ethnic Koreans.
In media
- In the fictional novelization of a real life serial killer, Yoshio KodairaYoshio Kodairawas a Japanese rapist and serial killer. He killed one person in 1932 and was later sentenced to death after being convicted of killing seven others in 1945 and 1946.- Life as a soldier :...
, in Tokyo Year Zero, by David PeaceDavid PeaceDavid Peace is an English author. Known for his novels GB84, The Damned Utd, and Red Riding Quartet, Peace was named one of the Best of Young British Novelists by Granta in their 2003 list...
, the book describes the fight and the police reaction to it.