* THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1961.
{WASTING]
PIRKS PERKS
| SOLICITORS!
LAW
SOCIETY
&
PERKS
PERKS
SOLICITORS
LAWYERS "OVERYIN
'Just leave it there one minute over time my lad-that's all"
London Express Service.
A crunch of boots shattered the Tokyo dawn heralding one of
history's most brutal massacres
Day of the Black Dragon
THEY
were days of violence. At half a dozen strife-torn trouble spots across the world, during those first three months of 1936, hatred boiled over blood-red.
The Italians, purposeful with bombs and gas, were raping Ethiopia. Now the world watched appalled as an Abyssinian Red Cross unit was blasted. Through it all, looters pro wled.
In Switzerland, Dr Wilhelm Gustioff, a Nazi agent, was shot dend at his home in Bosle, In Paraguay a one-day revolution triumphed.
There were riots among stu- dents in Cairo. There were riots
in Poland and Yugoslavia.
in
And there were lets (and the Iron hand of martial law) Spain, sliding helplessly towards The maelstrom of civil war,
Sinister
Day: of violence.....but violence nowhere more larre, or more sinister in HS Import for the watching world. than on the fantastle Day of the Black Dragon in Japani,
It began in the freezing dawn of February 20th, 1939-just 35 years ago.
I began with the crunch of marching boots, as 1,400 officers and men of the First Infantry Division swung in ordered ranks oul of Tokyo "Barracks,
When Prime Minister Admiral Okada. In his bedromu, heard those boots, he waited neither to question nog to watch. He fled Into a wardrobe, and stay- ed there for eight hours,
He knew what it meant. He had seen armed inen bear down on Japanese Premiers before.
Black Dragon men. Five years earlier, Minister Hamaguchi, ]
ANNIVERSARY STORY
By GUY JONES
Western liberalist, had been shot dead in front of Els wife by one of the uniformed killers of the "Black Dragon Society" and the "Black Brotherhood League."
His successor, Premier Kata Inouye, formerly Finance Mini- ster, had been a liberal, too. He had been shot in the back in February, 1932, while walking into a meeting-hall to addrea awaiting audience.
Then a widely-revered poli- tical figure, bearded 75-year-old Inukai Little KP" to all Japan
had taken over.
Surrendered
He was also of liberal views. And he had been Premier for only two months when, on May 15, a band of uniformed thugs walked unchecked into his Mini-
try headquarters.
Nobody had questioned them as they roamed the building in search of the Premier's private quarters, then entered them with pistols drawn.
The old man had sailed po- Prime litely and lit a clarette. "Fire" pro- one of the invaders, Lieutenant
Just arrived
1960
THE
ANNUAL
1
$4.50 per copy
Obtainable from
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST, LTD.
HONGKONG
KOWLOON.
Yamagishi, had yelled. Inukal the had fallen, shot through. stomachi. The comp-de-grace, from another officer, was through the neck.
Then the lliers had walked over to the police station and given themselves up.
To western ears it sounded crazy. And in January, 1933, when 54 Japanese ymy and # clock navy officers stood in charged with murdering three Prime Ministers, it had sounded crazier still.
The old man smiled and lit a cigarette....
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.