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Crazy 1930s-40s Extremists Who Tried to Rewrite Japan’s History

Khalid Elhassan January 29, 2025 14 min

Japanese - League of Blood members await trial — League of Blood members await trial. Wikimedia

14. An Ambitious List of Intended Assassination Victims

Nissho Inoue, 1, and League of Blood members – only numbers 3 and 6 managed to actually assassinate their assigned target. Matthew Langere

Inoue and his disciples drew up a list of twenty liberal politicians and wealthy businessmen – pro Western types viewed as evil obstacles in the way of Japan’s nationalist rebirth. It was eventually decided that twenty targets might be too ambitious. So the number was reduced to ten, with more to be added later after the initial targets were eliminated. They were Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai; former Prime Minister Reijiro Wakatsuki; former Foreign Minister Baron Kijuro Shidehara; former Finance Minister Junnosuke Inoue; Prince Kimmochi Saionji, a trusted advisor of the Emperor; Viscount Nobukai Makino, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal; Iesato Tokugawa, President of the House of Peers; Railway Minister Takejiro Tokonami; Baron Takuma Dan, director-general of the Mitsui Zaibatsu; and businessman Seihin Ikeda, director of the Mitsui Bank. Then, with the slogan “one person, one kill“, Inoue’s killers fanned out to remake Japan in their desired image.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.