Public Security Preservation Law of 1925
The Public Security Preservation Law of 1925 (治安維持法, Chian Iji Hō?) was enacted on 12 May 1925, under the administration of Kato Takaaki, specifically against socialism, communism, and anarchism. It was one of the most significant laws of pre-war Japan.
The main force behind the law was Minister of Justice (and future Prime Minister) Hiranuma Kiichiro.
Anyone who has formed an association with altering the kokutai, or the system of private property, and anyone who has joined such an association with full knowledge of its object, shall be liable to imprisonment with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding ten years.
By using the highly vague and subjective term kokutai, the law attempted to blend politics and ethics, but the result was that any political opposition could be branded as “altering the kokutai”. Thus the government had carte blanche to outlaw any form of dissent.
Renewed activity by underground Japan Communist Party in 1928 led to the March 15 Incident, in which police arrested more than 1,600 Communists and suspected Communists under the provisions of the Public Safety Preservation Law of 1925. The same year, the highly anti-Communist government of Tanaka Giichi pushed through an amendment to the law, raising the maximum penalty from ten years to death.
A “Thought Police” section, named the Tokkō, was formed within the Home Ministry, with branches all over Japan and in overseas locations with high concentrations of Japanese subjects to monitor activity by socialists and Communists. A Student Section was also established under the Ministry of Education to monitor university professors and students. Within the Ministry of Justice, special “Thought Prosecutors” (shiso kenji) were appointed to suppress “thought criminals”, either through punishment or through “conversion” back to orthodoxy via reeducation.
In the 1930s, with Japan's increasing militarism and totalitarianism, dissent was tolerated less and less. In early February 1941, the Security Preservation Law of 1925 was completely re-written. Terms for people suspected of Communist sympathies became more severe, and for the first time religious organizations were included in the purview of the Thought Police. In addition, the appeals court for thought crimes was abolished, and the Ministry of Justice given the right to appoint defense attorneys in cases of thought crime. The new provisions became effective on 15 May 1941.
From 1925 through 1945, over 70,000 people were arrested under the provisions of the Public Security Preservation Law of 1925, but only about 10% reached trial, and the death penalty was only imposed on two offenders, spy Richard Sorge and his informant Ozaki Hotsumi. The Public Safety Preservation Law of 1925 was repealed after the end of World War II by the American occupation authorities.
Read more about this topic: Peace Preservation Law
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