The May 15 Incident was an attempted coup in which eleven young Imperial Japanese Navy officers assassinated Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi with help from Imperial Japanese Army cadets. Inukai had studied China, worked as a journalist, and reported on the Satsuma Rebellion before entering politics. The plotters also considered killing Charlie Chaplin to provoke a war with the United States, but he was at a sumo match and that part of the plan was not carried out. Public support and light sentences showed how little resistance Japanese institutions offered to military violence. Anger over the 1930 London Naval Treaty's limits on Japanese construction formed part of the officers' motive. The episode explains why Royal Navy observers in East Asia treated Japanese militarism as an immediate strategic concern.
Notable Point · 11:38-15:28
The May 15 Incident removes a civilian check on militarism
Inukai Tsuyoshi's assassination, public support for the naval officers responsible, and their light sentences showed how political violence opened more space for Japanese militarism.