15. “Reforming” Japan Via Murder
Inoue returned to Japan and opened a school whose curriculum was based on an agrarian philosophy that advocated the superiority of farmers over city workers, and rural life over urban. Inoue slowly began to radicalize his students. Within a few years, his school’s agenda morphed from mere education and into a training center for ultranationalists, who pined to make Japan great again by returning to the traditions of past centuries. At first, Inoue contacted Japanese naval officers who were livid that Japan had signed the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, which limited Japan to a smaller navy than that of either Britain or the US. He also made inroads with radical right wing university students. In 1932, Inoue preached that Japan should be reformed with an assassination campaign. The ultimate aim of the targeted murders was to dismantle Japan’s secular government, and restore supreme power to the emperor.
