Hotsumi Ozaki

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Hotsumi Ozaki (尾崎秀実, Ozaki Hotsumi^?, April 29, 1901 - November 7, 1944) was a Japanese journalist working for the Asahi Shinbun newspaper, communist, spy, and an advisor to Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe. He is well-known for his role as an informant for the famous spy Richard Sorge.

Ozaki was the only Japanese person to be hanged for treason (under the guise of the Peace Preservation Law) by the Japanese government during World War II. He wrote letters published to his wife and daughter while imprisoned, Love is like a Shower of Stars.

[edit] Biography

Ozaki was born in what is now Shirakawa town, Gifu prefecture. His family relocated to Taiwan when he was a youth, and he grew up in Taipei. He returned to Japan in 1922, and enrolled in the Legal department of Tokyo Imperial University. However, he left school without graduating in 1925, after becoming involved in the activities of the Japan Communist Party. In 1926, he joined the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, where he wrote articles on Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. He was transferred to the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun the following year.

From November 1928, Ozaki was dispatched to Shanghai in China, where he soon made contact with members of the Chinese Communist Party, including Agnes Smedley, and other members of the Comintern leadership based in Shanghai. He remained in Shanghai for three years, and it was during this period that he was first introduced to Richard Sorge. After his return to Japan, he moved back to Tokyo in 1934.

Ozaki was recruited by Ryūnosuke Gotō in 1937 to join the Shōwa Kenkyūkai, a think tank established by Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe. From 1938, he was invited by Konoe to become a member of his inner circle, or “Breakfast Club”, of select members with whom he would confer on current events each week over breakfast. He was outspoken in his opposition and concerns with regards to the decision reached at the Gozen Kaigi conference of September 6, 1941 that war with the United States was unavoidable.

On October 15, 1941, Ozaki was arrested in conjunction with the Sorge Incident. During his trial, it was revealed that Ozaki had been working with Sorge since his return to Japan, and that through his close contacts with Konoe and other senior Japanese politicians, was able to gather information and to copy secret documents. Ozaki was executed on November 7, 1944.

[edit] Further information

• Johnson, Chalmers. An Instance of Treason Ozaki Hotsumi and the Sorge Spy Ring. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, Expanded edition 1990 ISBN 0-8047-1766-2 is the standard biography in English and also contains a wealth of information, much of it from a Japanese perspective, about Richard Sorge and his other collaborators.
• No Regrets for Our Youth (わが青春に悔なし) is a Japanese film loosely based on Ozaki, written and directed by Akira Kurosawa.
• Kinoshita Junji　木下順二, A Japanese Called Otto オットーと呼ばれる日本人. This play, centered on Ozaki, was first performed in 1962 and has been produced in Japan a number of times since, most recently in 2008.
• Whymant, Robert. Stalin's Spy: Richard Sorge and the Tokyo Espionage Ring. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996. This is the latest book-length study of the Sorge ring and Ozaki in English.