On October 13th, 1960, the Japanese photographer Yasushi Nagao captured a historical image in which Inejirō Asanuma, a left-wing politician, was assassinated by Otoya Yamaguchi, a 17 years old (at the time) right-wing extremist. A year later, in 1961, Yasushi Nagao won the 1960 World Press Photo of the Year prize as a press photographer. Through the lenses of his camera, Nagao captured a significant moment in Japanese history that affected the state’s relations with the US, Russia, and China along with the left-wing party in the country. In the picture, Otoya Yamaguchi is holding a 33-centimeter samurai short sword and pointing it against the figure of Inejirō Asanuma.
Inejiro Asanuma was born in late 1988 on the remote island of Miyake-Jima. Asanuma was an orphan of his mother that had died during his birth and later on an orphan of both parents as his father died of cancer during his early years. During his college years, Asanuma participated in various left-wing activist groups and protests.
In 1926, Asanuma founded the Japan Labour-Farmer Party and was elected to the Tokyo City Council in 1933. 3 years later, Asanuma was voted for the National Diet of Japan, the National Legislature of Japan where he expressed his anti-imperialistic views. Far left, center and right socialists who had been coerced into joining forces to oppose the merger of conservative parties into the Liberal Democratic Party in 1955 formed the Japan Socialist Party, which had been an unhappy union. Asanuma was an affable character who used the power of his personality to tie several of these mutually hostile factions together. Every election over the second half of the 1950s under Asanuma’s leadership saw the party win an increasing number of seats in the Diet and appear to be gaining ground. Nevertheless, Asanuma received harsh criticism in 1959 for a speech he gave in front of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing during which he visited the People’s Republic of China and referred to the United States as “the shared enemy of China and Japan.”
Otoya Yamaguchi was born in early 1943 in Tokyo and grew up with certain privileges, but his older brother radicalized him when he was a teenager. He joined the Greater Japan Patriotic Party, led by notable right-wing ultranationalist Bin Akao, at the age of 16. In contrast to Asanuma, Yamaguchi was pro-United States and extremely anti-communist. Leaders of right-wing movements were convinced that Japan was near a communist revolution and, thus, formed protests in which Otoya Yamaguchi participated and was several times detained by the police. As a result of his involvement in the demonstrations, Yamaguchi furthered his radicalization.
In the Hibiya Hall, the 17-year-old was present with other members of the extreme right-wing Great Japan Patriotic Society. Asanuma soon took the stage to speak and roughly five minutes later, Yamaguchi Rana cross the stage with his father’s samurai sword and pressed it against the politician’s torso making a deep cut that would lead him to death. According to The Guardian, Yamaguchi was reportedly grinning as he was hauled into jail, according to witnesses.
Finally, the assassination had an imperative impact on Japanese international relations with other states. According to The Guardian, the United States believed that Asanuma’s opinions and the person had been martyred in a way that may increase the emotional appeal of his beliefs. Nevertheless, the article claimed that China and Russia responded quickly to the assassination news.
EAC PRESS 