February 26 Incident - Overview

Overview

The main cause of the incident was the actions of some young activist officers (mainly below the rank of major). They noted instances of political corruption and extreme poverty in rural areas and decided the solution would be to remove some of the elder statesmen in the government. Their slogan was “the Shōwa Restoration (昭和維新, Shōwa-ishin)”, modelled after the "Meiji Restoration", and “Revere the Emperor, Expel the Evils (尊皇討奸, sonnō-tōkan)”. Their avowed purpose was "destroying the deadly spirit that was poisoning Japan."

In the early morning on February 26, 1936, the leaders of the coup, with around 1,483 soldiers, put their plans in action. Most of these troops belonged to 1st & 3rd Infantry Regiments and 7th Field Heavy Artillery Regiment of the 1st (“Gem”) Division, and 3rd Infantry Regiment of the Imperial Guards Division.

Their targets were as follows;

• Okada Keisuke (Prime Minister)
• Suzuki Kantarō (Grand Chamberlain Admiral)
• Saitō Makoto (Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal)
• Takahashi Korekiyo (Finance Minister)
• Watanabe Jōtarō (Inspector-General of Military Education)
• Makino Nobuaki (former Keeper of the Privy Seal)

By the end of the incident Saitō, Takahashi, and Watanabe were dead. Okada escaped assassination because the insurgents killed his brother-in-law, Captain Matsuo Denzō, by mistake.

The leaders of the rebellion asked the head of Army to talk to the Emperor, and demanded the establishment of a Shōwa Restoration. However, the Army and the Emperor considered their claims illegitimate. The Emperor himself was enraged and demanded that they be crushed for killing his loyal supporters, refusing even to consider ordering them to commit suicide because their "terrible atrocities" were contrary to bushido. Loyal troops surrounded the rebels and eventually persuaded them to surrender. After the rebel soldiers involved in the coup returned to their units, some leaders committed suicide. The others surrendered and were tried for their involvement in a military court, to explain and publicize their actions.