Otoya Yamaguchi

Yamaguchi withdraws his Japanese long knife (dosu) after attacking Inejiro Asanuma

Otoya Yamaguchi (山口二矢, Yamaguchi Otoya, February 22, 1943 – November 2, 1960) was a Japanese ultranationalist, a member of a right-wing Uyoku dantai group, who assassinated Inejiro Asanuma (a politician and head of the Japan Socialist Party) by wakizashi on October 12, 1960 at Tokyo's Hibiya Hall during a political debate in advance of parliamentary elections. This assassination was caught on tape, and a slow-motion viewing of the tape reveals that the sword blade penetrated Asanuma's left side.

Death

Less than three weeks after the assassination, while being held in a juvenile detention facility, Yamaguchi mixed a small amount of tooth paste with water and wrote on his cell wall, "Seven lives for my country. Long live His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor!" Yamaguchi then knotted strips of his bedsheet into a makeshift rope and used it to hang himself from a light fixture.^[1] The phrase "seven lives for my country" was a reference to the last words of 14th century samurai Kusunoki Masashige.

Legacy

A photograph taken by Yasushi Nagao immediately after Otoya withdrew his sword from Asanuma would later go on to win the Pulitzer Prize and the 1960 World Press Photo award. Footage of the incident was also captured.^[2]

Nobel Prize-winning author Kenzaburō Ōe based his 1961 novella Seventeen on Yamaguchi.

References

^ "Assassin's Apologies". TIME Magazine. November 14, 1960. Retrieved June 11, 2010.
^ Inejiro Asanuma Assassination Footage (1960) (Digital video). YouTube.com. October 12, 1960 (uploaded May 18, 2006). Retrieved June 11, 2010. {{cite AV media}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links

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Yasushi Nagao's picture

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[1] "Assassin's Apologies". TIME Magazine. November 14, 1960. Retrieved June 11, 2010.

[2] Inejiro Asanuma Assassination Footage (1960) (Digital video). YouTube.com. October 12, 1960 (uploaded May 18, 2006). Retrieved June 11, 2010. {{cite AV media}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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