Shōwa Democracy - A Darkest Hour Kaiserreich Cold War AAR (Japan)

[Aussie Perun]

When you take a bunch of people that are politically and intellectually engaged and have a lot more flexibility in their schedules than other segments of society...I think there are good reasons that 'student unrest' seems to be something that flares just about everywhere in the world, and pretty frequently across modern history.

Now, conscript them all into penal battalions and send them to China until they learn to shut up. (please, please don't actually do that).

 

[Health]

Gotta say it has been amazing to read about the student unrest in this timeline, I haven't read too much about that subject tbh but it's surprising nonetheless to see that something so characteristic of OTL has managed to also occur within this AAR. I assume there are differences and all of that, but, it's still impressive. As I've said before, you really seem to be doing a great job at the researching front for this , I'm enjoying it a lot. I will continue to watch how the world develops. ​

Thanks, but yeah on the topic of OTL/TTL. I wouldn't necessarily call student protests inherent to OTL. Maybe I'm being too linear and dismissive towards the butterflies, but at late departure points a lot of what we consider inherent to OTL isn't really that inherent. Barring revolutionary or Nazi levels of upheaval as well as humanity nuking itself into the ground that is.

Despite the boomers being the largest perpetrators of this, I will state for the record, that I'm a very recent undergraduate, seeking to ward off any claims of boomerism on my behalf. Students, but probably university students especially have had this tendency of trying to push the boundaries, I guess. At this point a university education still appears to be a ticket to the good life. Not as good as during the Meiji era or so, at leat in regards to Japan, where it would almost certainly land you in the upper class, but it still seems to offer a rise to a comfortable middle class office job, where you don't have to break your back doing manual labour. As such you have a lot of people with very... Interesting view points on themselves and likely have a degree of thinking that they are better that their less educated peers for one reason or another. Now what they don't really realise is that they're on the cusp of where higher education is beginning to transform into the "norm", sort of similar to what began to happen to secondary education during the interbellum, but what is another story for another time.

Anyway, combine those feelings of "superiority" with that political engagement and free time, that Aussie mentioned, as well as chalk in that disappointment when they learn that the university isn't a 100% guarantee to a very good life and then you get a recipe for these people trying to act out and make their voices heard. Aussie also mentioned that modern history is chock-full of these events. Korea of OTL is a pretty decent example for this regard, arguably so is Taiwan but I'm more clear on Korea in this regard, where student protests and this sort of academic noblesse oblige to push for liberty happened despite a repressive regime, be it domestic or foreign.

Imperial Japan of OTL also had a number of these "incidents" in the 1920s and 30s prior to the military taking over control during the China War. A lot of that was stamped out by Fukumotoist nonsense about theoretical struggle is more important than practical one, but nuts to that. The incident with students from Sophia University refusing to pay homage at Yasukuni in 1932 is a decent, if a more contained, example. However the Taisho era protests in schools and universities against military education is a much more decent comparison to these events imo. However, unlike OTL, you don't have Fukumotoism kneecapping these sentiments in TTL. Instead you get the 1926, or whatever year the anti-Tanaka Giiichi reforms were in KR, reforms and most importantly for the purposes of this AAR the 1937 constitutional reforms. Hope this ramble helped.

When you take a bunch of people that are politically and intellectually engaged and have a lot more flexibility in their schedules than other segments of society...I think there are good reasons that 'student unrest' seems to be something that flares just about everywhere in the world, and pretty frequently across modern history.

Now, conscript them all into penal battalions and send them to China until they learn to shut up. (please, please don't actually do that).

It won't happen, but thanks for the grimdark idea.

More seriously though we are just getting started with the protests and the ride ain't stopping for a bit now. This as well as the next chapter were originally one part until I got the crazy idea that I had enough text to make it into two.

By and large you are right about the student protests, as I mentioned in my comment to RV-Ye. But in reading up on this topic, I've also came across some statements from Waseda alumni about the perceived lethargy within the current student population at that Uni and how they would've done this and that in regards to the current events. This, along with perhaps existing biases, has lead me to believe that maybe there is something more there than political and intellectual engagement as well as flexibility with time. Those are of course very important things to ensure that such a movement gets off the ground, but I would throw in that academic noblesse oblige that I suggested. This feeling of superiority rather than being just another cog out of a machine that produces thousands of cogs just like you, as far as the labour market is concerned. In many ways the events at Nihon can be considered a last hurrah, since the reality of what higher education has and will become has yet to settle in.

Or perhaps not and maybe I've spent too long concocting nonsensical theories about how general access to education, the potential comparison for our period being access to the internet and social media, doesn't actually make the general public more capable of handling these things.

 

[Health]

1968 - Big Trouble in Little Nihon (Part 2)​

Unlike its counterparts at Nanterre, the events at Nihon University would not would not kick off with a flashy protest or even an occupation of campus buildings to promote their manifesto, although the protests would eventually see both. Rather the students at Nihon initially seemed to take a page from the book used by German student protesters and took their first step by simply asking questions. These queries would first be raised by student unions existing, despite the ire of the university administrators, both as a concession to the students and to have better control over their actions. The student union of the Faculty of Humanities and Sciences would be the first to awaken - presenting a letter of inquiry to their respective faculty meeting on the 23rd of April requesting to known more about the veracity of the allegations of siphoning off funds being levelled at university staff by not just journalists, but government officials. Faculty members, already embarrassed about the incident and not at all amused about seemingly being talked down to by their students of all people responded in a curt manner. The staff claimed that the faculty meeting had nothing to do with nor any direct power over matters of accounting. More importantly, the faculty members also went onto deny any wrongdoing on behalf of their departments, claiming that even if something like this happened this could not have happened under their watchful gaze. While the answer seemed to please many in the union, a small number of radicals remained unconvinced. Disappointed with the result of the letter and inspired by the ongoing protests at Tokyo Imperial University, a number of the student union members that were more invested in the matter began to prepare material and fliers calling for student unity in this matter. Most of their efforts would however fail to attract much initial attention, as the materials themselves as well as mimeographs smuggled onto campus began to mysteriously go missing. At the time some would suggest that university officials had a hand in this or even blame other students for these seeming acts of sabotage, but nothing conclusive would be proved. Due to these alleged suppression efforts, as well as the helpful nature of dispersion it would take some time, before these efforts would begin to bear fruit.

Mimeographing equipment had found widespread use on campuses for the production of newspapers and fliers,
leading many to wrongly assume that the appearance of more equipment would not be noticed.
​

The wait would be agonising, but not eternal as on the 18th of May the student union of the Faculty of Economics would try to present a question similar to the one presented by the humanities students. Their message was a lot more direct, also wishing to know what the university knew about the dead accountant and most important of all they tried to slightly push the boundaries by requesting the right to present their question verbally at the faculty meeting, rather than sending it by letter. It goes without saying that this was turned down with the faculty meeting stating that any and all inquiries should be presented in written form, as agreed upon in the rules guiding the actions of student unions. Although fully within their rights to do so, this refusal did not go over well at the student union prompting a number of the more invested union members to begin unauthorised demonstrations calling for the university to let them present their message. The first of these took place on the 21st of May and gathered hundreds of economics students at an underground auditorium, proving to be something of a success. However it would pale in what was to follow with the follow-up protest on the 23rd going down in history for its role in kicking off the 1968 protests at Nihon University. Campus staff had first attempted to weed out students belonging to other faculties, claiming that they had no right to attend the meeting of another student union. This was primarily done in an attempt to control crowd size, but inevitably failed causing staff to offer talks in exchange for an end to the illegal demonstration. This also proved unsuccessful with the student leaders burning the notice they had been delivered to cheers, leading to the university officials to deploy their final weapon. Despite the fact that Nihon was far from alone in its use of loyal students against protesters, the deployment of loyalists during the protests on the 23rd has been called one of the most memorable events of the early stages of the 1968-69 protests. It began, when a group of athletic students attacked some of their protesting counterparts, who had been trying to leave the demonstration, allegedly without provocation. Had it just been a small scuffle between students nothing would have likely come of it, but on this fateful day the university staff openly sided with the attackers and attempted to lock the two groups in together by lowering the shutters on the doors leading to a full on brawl. This blatant favouritism would not just end there, as all of the athletic students were subsequently let go with little beyond slaps on the wrist, even as 16 demonstrators would receive long suspensions for their part in the events of the 23rd of May.

Photograph taken during the demonstration on the 23rd before the fight broke out.
​

Although barred from access to the campus, the cause that the '16 Martyrs' had begun would live on. Rallies soon kicked off calling for the reinstatement of all those that had been suspended. Just like the scuffle on the 23rd they would not just be limited to the Faculty of Economics with students from the nearby Faculty of Law and the aforementioned Faculty of Humanities quickly joining in on the action. As this initial core of protestors continued to grow, quickly reaching around 3000 in number it began attracting quite a bit of attention and coverage due their bold opposition to the officials attracting even more students from other faculties to throw their lot in with the cause. This would culminate in the formation of the first Zenkyōtō of the 1968-69 protests on the 27th of May, despite the continued efforts to stamp down the protests by the university and ongoing clashes with the athletic students. The creation of the Zenkyōtō would be followed up by what would become the byword for the demonstrations at Nihon as the students leading the movement first called for 'mass negotiation' between their organisations and the university on the 31st of May. In reality the the term was little beyond a more 'radical' term for collective bargaining, a norm in the trade union movement from which seemed to have inspired the Zenkyōtō. Their demands were not that egregious, barring the demand for all trustees to resign, consisting primarily of calls for the university to disclose all of its accounting to the public and for university officials to explain themselves to the students. The administrators were far from interested in such negotiations and instead they countered the proposal from the by calling for them to disband as they were an unauthorised as well as unlawful organisation and to push their requests through the student union. The refusal to negotiate would not be taken lightly by the students with further demonstrations breaking out across various faculties. The officials would respond by sending right-wing and athletic students to do their dirty business, as they had thus far, leading to frequent brawls and the hospitalisation of many, primarily demonstrators.

The protests against punishing the '16 Martyrs' lead to the students to march out into the streets
and resulting in the so-called 200 meter march from a nearby park to the university campus.
​

Nihon would end up backtracking rather quickly from their initial position, when a crowd of more than 10 000 students gathered on the main campus on the 4th of June to demonstrate against the crackdowns. Given that the staff was unwilling to tolerate the extreme amount of violence that dispersing such a crowd would necessitate and fearful of it growing further, the administrators agreed to come to the negotiating table. Talks broke down quickly as it became obvious that neither side was willing to make any concessions, the trustees of the university for instance outright refused to resign, claiming that they had done nothing wrong both in regards to the suppression of demonstrations and the corruption charges instead proposing to continue working towards a better tomorrow after this "short period of difficulty". The peaceful veneer the university had adopted would quickly begin to peel off after it became clear that the negotiations were not going to lead anywhere, especially after the crowd began to shrink after the 4th of June. This is why when faced down with a much smaller demonstration on the 11th of June, the university decided to act. Loyalists seemingly swung into action on their own accord sealing all access points to the main building, where the talks were being held, and demonstrators showering the demonstrators showing their support outside the building with various objects from the roof. They would be the lucky ones, as most managed to run for cover those that had the misfortune of having been inside the building, after it was locked down, were assaulted with all manner of sporting equipment from swords, both wooden and real, to shot puts as the athletic students cleared the building of all opposition. This 'incident' resulted in the hospitalisation of more than 40 students with many more being injured less severely. Perhaps seeking to add insult to injury, riot police forces were quick to arrive to the scene. However the cheers of the protestors were short-lived, as the riot police ignored the athletic students assaulting them and indeed began dispersing the demonstration. The end of the day would see 6 student leaders taken along by the riot police for allegedly interfering with police duties. More than anything else the incident served to illustrate to a number of student leaders that they were not going to get their way peacefully. Henceforth the demonstrations would be more active in making themselves heard with the first steps going into effect on the very same evening, as more than 300 students from the Faculty of Law seized Building No. 3 on their campus and barricaded themselves inside. The betrayal would also prompt the Zenkyōtō to call for a general indefinite student strike, a decision, which would mark the transfer of real power into the hands of the Zenkyōtō as it effectively rendered the student unions ineffective, leading to them being disbanded on the 13th of June.

Aftermath of the protests on the 11th of June, note
the wrecked tables and chairs thrown from the roof.
​

-----------------------------------------

 

[Aussie Perun]

Funny, how a few smashed chairs and tables is probably as much of a threat to the Japanese status quo as a hundred thousand Chinese troops, but that's often the way of it. Internal dissent can be far more dangerous than external pressures so far as regime survival goes. That said, the scale of these outbursts is probably still far too small to be a real concern. It needs to be more than just students if you're going to make the Government sweat.

 

[JodelDiplom]

Yeah, it's just one of those instances of young men being rowdies. Boys will be boys.

I'd think that, to the general population, even a general student strike isn't more than an oddity in the newspapers. But of course for the future generation of leaders it may be a formative event. And it may be the spark for greater upheaval, if there is even potential for that among the docile and obedient Japanese population, still riding high on living standards that the previous generation could not dream of. But we haven't yet seen proper draft riots, have we

 

[Health]

1968 - Long Summer (Part 1)​

The events unfolding at Nihon University did not escape the notice of those at Tokyo Imperial University. While it is said that time heals all wounds, the wounds of the 'future elite' seemed too fresh and the events at the 'plebeian university' only served to rub salt in them. Likely in an attempt to not be outdone and, perhaps more importantly, seeking to break the stagnation that their movement had reached, given that school life had largely returned to normal after the opening ceremony with the notable exception being the still ongoing student strike in the medical faculty, radicals belonging to the Zentōi of the Faculty of Medicine took advantage of a seeming lull in the guard of the university staff and once again threw themselves onto the barricades. On the 15th of June, they once again seized control Yasuda Auditorium and beginning fortification efforts. Following a brief attempt to convince the students to leave the Auditorium, as the leadership at Tokyo Imperial University still hoped to appear in media in a positive light, when compared to Nihon, Ōkouchi Kazuo, the President of the University, once again reached out for help to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. Approximately 1200 riot police officers arrived on the 17th of June and established a cordon around the Yasuda Auditorium. Faced with the possibility of a fight with the police, the 'elite', unlike their compatriots at Nihon, scattered to the wind and agreed to end the occupation rather than face the consequences that conflict with riot police officers might bring. Although this event represented the second deployment of riot police forces onto the grounds of Tokyo Imperial in the span of a single year, for many this and not the previous time was the breaking point. This particular line of thought was also not just limited to students, as many educators also rallied against it seeing it as dangerous pattern and an attack on the traditions of academic freedom and independence of universities.

Although Japan lacked the long tradition of independence for universities, the privileges and traditions,
which stretched back to the Meiji era and had grown considerably since then amid political liberalisation,
had become very precious to all universities, but especially the Imperial ones.​

The event had a much more profound aspect to it beyond just further radicalising existing radicals and providing talking points for 'hip' members of the staff. The fact that the university chose to force an open confrontation between students and staff, like at the more repressive Nihon, instead of adopting the thus far common "boys will be boys" rhetoric served as a rallying call for students across Tokyo Imperial University. The event was quickly turned into the Tokyo equivalent of the '16 Martyrs' at Nihon, with the students that had been at the centre of it earning the nickname martyrs, whether they were actually punished or not, and attracting massive crowds at rallies. A single decision by the university leadership caused all of the pressure that had built up in the university over the first quarter of the year to start bursting out. The 'sitzkreig' at Tokyo, as the stalemate became nicknamed many student radicals, had seen medical students extensively reach out to like-minded individuals at other faculties in order to cultivate support for bigger action. Whilst some had joined their actions, most faculties had remained conflicted. The general student population outside of the Faculty of Medicine was not necessarily convinced by the cause, at least not enough to potentially put their bright futures in jeopardy. Thus the radicals believed that a symbol of injustice against the whole student-body was necessary to rally them against their teachers and the reaction of the university officials to the second occupation of Yasuda Auditorium worked just perfectly as that rallying call. It shattered the stalemate that the movement had reached at Tokyo and saw students from a number of faculties band together on the 18th of June and announce the foundation of the Zentōren (All-Campus Struggle Union) of Tokyo Imperial University. The work that the radicals among the medical students had put into creating the foundation for the Zentōren quickly started to pay dividends, as 8 out of the 10 university faculties held a one day solidarity strike on the 20th of June. The medical students were also present, but not included due to still maintaining that they were on indefinite strike and the students from the Faculty of Law still refused to participate due to continued doubts about the message.

The demonstration attracted around 6000 students and was officially targeted against
the attack on academic freedom that the deployment of police forces represented.​

The size of the one day strike significantly spooked the officials at Tokyo Imperial University, who for a moment even began to consider reaching out to their counterparts at Nihon University given their larger degree of expertise in repressive actions. Given that they lacked the established 'loyalist' base available to the administrators at Nihon, the officials at Tokyo quickly abandoned this line of thought in exchange for tactics, which sought to avoid open conflict with the student-body and instead tried to outlast them in a battle of attrition. Any student demands would not necessarily be ignored, but responses to them would be as round and as stalled as possible with plans being drafted to offer a longer summer vacation for potential troublemaking departments. Previous experience had taught the leaders at Tokyo Imperial that student action rarely survived summer break and that in all likelihood blue skies, white clouds and the sea wind would temper spirits for the upcoming autumn. For the meantime however, the continued refusal to negotiate prompted a decision by the Zentōi of the Faculty of Humanities on the 26th of June to join the Faculty of Medicine in their indefinite strike. Although staff had expected this to happen, the growth of the protests still reflected badly on the university leadership and made media headlines. Seeking to avoid further growth of the protests President Ōkouchi took a decisive step and announced that on the 28th of June, he would be holding an impromptu questions and answers session with the student body being free to ask him whatever they wished. Keeping to what Ōkouchi had promised, the university leadership allowed everyone to ask whatever questions they wished from the president, who proceeded to answer the questions given with the grace of a decades long educator. Although it seemed to calm some, the session has since been criticised for not going far enough in halting the protests altogether. The truth of the matter is that it was never supposed to do that and instead served as measure for the Fabian tactics employed by the university staff.

The negotiations have since been called the first instance of 'mass negotiation' between students
and university administrators, although it achieved no real compromises from either side.
​

Indeed, if we were to purely consider the event by the same standards as applied those of concerts and other live performances, then it can only be considered a massive success as it reached more than 5000 students with 3000 present in the auditorium and the rest listening or watching in across the campus. But, given that it was not just a regular live or concert, the event was to be held to different expectations about which it can only be said that it failed to live up to, as on the 2nd of June more than 250 students stormed Yasuda Auditorium for the third time this year. Convinced that an attack to retake the hall was imminent, given their previous experience, the students began extensive fortification efforts. Despite their paranoia, it would not come as unlike the second capture of Yasuda, the exhaustion tactics employed by university staff had lead them to decide to allow the students to keep hold of the hall. This decision has also been criticised in hindsight given subsequent policy, but it was probably the right one given the situation at Tokyo at the time. For the time being, the 5th of June saw the the Zentōren of Tokyo Imperial University rebrand itself to the Zenkyōtō. This event also coincided with a decision by the Zentōi of the Faculty of Liberal Arts announcing their decision to join the picket line. This rebranding decision was largely inspired by the fame or infamy of the Zenkyōtō at Nihon University, which had seen quite a bit of media coverage. In sharp contrast to its 'inspiration', the branch at Tokyo Imperial had much more grander aspirations. Instead of just being content with simply coordinating the dozens upon dozens of disparate student groups that made up the student protests at Tokyo, the leadership there styled themselves as a first among equals. The Zenkyōtō, or it under different names, had spread to the various polytechnics, colleges and universities dotted across the country rather than just in the headlines of papers. Despite this rapid spread, the movement lacked really anything unified, as the efforts of the Zenkyōtō at most universities were largely focused on keeping the groups at their own university from infighting and it is into this coordinating role that Tokyo Imperial stepped into. The leadership there reasoned that the movement was not dangerous, when divided and could be quickly wiped away. Their message of cooperation to further the cause appealed to a great number of Zenkyōtō with even Nihon being more than glad to ceded their 'senior position' to Tokyo. This decision had more to do with internal issues, rather than some great recognition of the superiority of the students at Tokyo Imperial University, as the occupation efforts at Nihon University had lead to students 'liberating' documents detailing lists of those that had bought entry and the National Tax Agency had revealed that approximately half of the slush-fund had been spent on tax-free wages to the more than 2000 staff of the university implicating nearly everyone and destroying what little trust remained between the radicals and staff. Perhaps more surprising and infuriating than that revelation, however was the continued unapologetic tone of the university trustees, who maintained that they had had no part in any wrongdoing.

The three flags of the Tokyo Imperial University Zenkyōtō flying
over Yasuda hall following its 'rebranding' on the 5th of June.​

-----------------------------------------

Funny, how a few smashed chairs and tables is probably as much of a threat to the Japanese status quo as a hundred thousand Chinese troops, but that's often the way of it. Internal dissent can be far more dangerous than external pressures so far as regime survival goes. That said, the scale of these outbursts is probably still far too small to be a real concern. It needs to be more than just students if you're going to make the Government sweat.

True problems do often rise internally, rather than externally. Usually the external factors jut prove to be the final tipping point, as you've so correctly stated. As to the scale and making the government sweat, well... Give it time, the year is still young after all. Students, if put into the correct place can still cause a lot of trouble and who knows, some parts of the message they spread might even prove attractive to parts of the general public, who might just be somewhat tired of the corruption as well. At least if nothing bad happens.

Yeah, it's just one of those instances of young men being rowdies. Boys will be boys.

I'd think that, to the general population, even a general student strike isn't more than an oddity in the newspapers. But of course for the future generation of leaders it may be a formative event. And it may be the spark for greater upheaval, if there is even potential for that among the docile and obedient Japanese population, still riding high on living standards that the previous generation could not dream of. But we haven't yet seen proper draft riots, have we

Nothing as serious as draft riots, just some protest against the draft or to be more specific protests by some lads against them being drafted. Given that there are not that many exemptions for students and co, you can count it as a bit of overlap.

 

[Health]

1968 - Long Summer (Part 2)​

While the coordination offered by Tokyo was welcomed by some, especially those associated with the Japanese Communist Party, who saw in it a vanguard to lead the student movement, in reality it largely fell on deaf ears. The necessity of a vanguard would become one of the main points of debate among the student protestors. Those closer to the JCP and whatever was left of Syndicalist Orthodoxy believed that the increasing number of heterodox views as well as the focus on local rather than class issues was undermining the achievements of the movement. Its opponents however dismissed them outright or argued that the differences of opinion stemmed from the post-Syndicalist thought that had become the root of the protest movement, claiming that a plurality of views was the whole reason why the demonstrations had gotten as far as they did. In suggesting this they were quite correct, as even within the universities themselves the reasons for demonstrating had stemmed from a rather eclectic mix of different views and demands by different groups. These suggestions however did little to decrease the growing gaps between the various vanguardist groups and the 'post-Syndicalist consensus'. The movement would increasingly become defined by disagreements and bickering between the protesters themselves from this moment onwards, disagreements which eventually would become even more commonplace than conflict with university staff, riot police or right-wing students. All of this still laid ahead, but the process would be accelerated following the explosive growth of the student movement as it spread from Tokyo to the rest of the country. Universities all across the Home Islands from Karafuto to Taiwan were affected by the spread of the Zenkyōtō with local branches developing at nearly all universities primarily due to various rather local reasons. The participation of Tokyo would inspire the spread of the protests even to other Imperial Universities with students at Tōhoku rallying against rising tuition costs and those in Kyushu against the war. Kyushu is perhaps most interesting as it came closest to the ideals of the vanguardists, but even there the movement would primarily take a more provincial colour as students joined locals in protests against the operation of a military airfield after an IJAF fighter jet crashed into the university computer centre on the night of the 2nd of June.

IJAF fighter jet over the campus of Kyushu Imperial University on the day following the crash.
​

Local issues would also give tone to the protests in private and non-imperial institutions with students at Kanagawa Polytechnic, Beppu Women's University, Doshisha and Waseda calling for a full blown democratisation of the universities and their counterparts at Chuo, Nagasaki University and Hanazono Polytechnic demanding that the institutions hand control of student association buildings over to the student body. Kansei Gakuin, Meiji, Keio and Sophia University would rally around rising tuition costs just like Tōhoku with Sophia completely shutting down in June as all departments declared an indefinite strike. This is however not to say that the vanguardist students in these universities did not attempt to divert the protests into a more orthodox path and rally against the war, just that these attempts were rather minor and unsuccessful. Take for instance the failed attempt at establishing a 'Quartier Latin' in Kanda on the 21st of June. The event had began first as an anti-war and anti-imperialist demonstration organised by vanguardist students from Nihon, Meiji and Chuo Universities. Hoping to emulate the initial successes of the French protests and seeing the 'liberated zones' that French students had established in Paris as vital part of that the demonstrations quickly turned into an attempt to 'liberate' the area around the Ochanomizu railway station, where the demonstrators had gathered for their picket. The quick arrival of riot police, called onto the scene of the protest by local railway police units, however saw the protestors forced to retreat to the nearby campus of Meiji. Many have seen this failure as the reason behind the third storming of Yasuda Auditorium, as there had been calls for the establishment of a guiding Zenkyōtō in this liberated zone. It seemed as if the protestors had began to grasp the traditional independence of universities offered them a degree of safety from police raids, that was not present on the streets. The decision to base the lead Zenkyōtō at Tokyo Imperial University also stems from this belief, given that the administrators at Tokyo had become somewhat unwilling to call in support from riot police forces. Thus in many texts from the time Yasuda and other occupied university buildings or campuses are named liberated halls or districts.

Meiji University students preparing barricades in the road towards their campus at Kanda. The masks
and helmets that would become the trademarks of the protesting students are already on full force.
​

Perhaps more noteworthy than the creation of the lead Zenkyōtō is the fact that throughout June and July more and more junior members of university staff began to join the previously student dominated protest actions. These actions would of course kick off at Tokyo Imperial university, where on the 24th of July the foundation of the Zenkyōtō of Research Assistants was announced. Similar to its student counterpart, this Zenkyōtō also took an active role in expanding itself into more universities in addition to dealing with internal squabbles. The fact that the assistants first rallied around the flag at Tokyo can largely be put down to two reasons. Firstly the fact that the Zenkyōtō at Tokyo was largely centred on graduate students, which meant that the the age gap between the two groups was considerably smaller. Secondly, unlike its private counterparts, most notably Nihon, there was still a considerable amount of good will between the students and staff, kidnapping incident aside. The more liberal atmosphere at Tokyo, as well as the smaller class sizes, meant that students and teachers knew each other and the smaller age gap meant that there was a considerable amount of 'fraternisation' between the 'ranks. The formation of the Zenkyōtō of Research Assistants was however not set in stone and instead rather triggered due to rumours about cutting back on research staff on temporary contacts for the time being. More senior officials had posited that due to the large amount of departments on indefinite strike and the difficulty of conducting research there was no need for so many research assistants, who could be quickly recalled once students returned to calls. This combined with a wish to get actual access to the tenure track strengthened the appearance of the protests as an academic gekokujō, as younger staff increasingly began to feel that they stood more to gain from siding with the students and putting pressure on the older staff and their employers than from siding with the latter. The demands of the junior staff would largely echo those of the students, but focus ever more intensely on the replacement of older staff and allowing for younger voices to take control of the university through permanent contracts.

The 'handshake' photograph between students and research assistants has since become
widely circulated, as a symbol of unity between the younger generations against the older.
​

Thus, although summer break got closer by the day, the formation of a staff Zenkyōtō caught the eye of government officials. For many bureaucrats, especially those in the education ministry the ongoing protests were a massive embarrassment and thus university staff began to feel increasing amounts of pressure to solve the demonstrations and abandon their 'Fabian' tactics. The pressure would most strongly be felt at both Tokyo and Nihon, which were both seen as the roots of the problem, forcing university staff to return to the negotiating table. At Tokyo Imperial, the Zenkyōtō demands had grown to 7 and now included the resignation of all senior medical staff as well as public self-criticism and apologies for bringing the riot police onto university grounds, while at Nihon, the initial list of three demands had grown to 5. Most The resignation of all trustees still remained the most problematic for university staff, but given the revelations of the National Tax Agency demands for the publication of accounting had taken a back seat and instead been replaced by general demand to honour the rights to freedom of speech and assembly as guaranteed by the Meiji Constitution and confirmed in the 1937 constitutional reforms. Both Zenkyōtō also called for a blanket immunity for all protestors to protect them from persecution due to taking part of these events as well as well as the revocation of already existing punishments enforced due to the events. The staff at Tokyo seemed more accepting of the list of demands delivered by their local Zenkyōtō with university officials privately agreeing to all but one of the demands. Keeping their cards close to the chest the university staff did what they could attempting to force the students to drop the demand they disagreed with. The administrators at Nihon were not that much different, but rather than debate the actual terms they were primarily focused on debating semantics - claiming that the athletic and right-wing students would not accept 'mass negotiation' with the Zenkyōtō. Whilst on the 4th of August, the Nihon staff would eventually cave and agree to 'mass negotiation', demonstrators celebrating the start of negotiations once again found themselves attacked by riot police. The university would call the negotiations off on the same day, as angered protestors assaulted a taxi containing university president Furuta Jūjirō. Negotiations would also come to an end at Tokyo, where staff unilaterally announced on the 10th of August that the negotiations had come to an end and they had agreed to six out of the seven demands. Rather than quell protests however the unilateral declaration saw all departments, barring the law faculty, that had yet to enter indefinite strike join the picket line.

There was some truth to the argument that the right-wing students were unwilling to accept any negotiation with their
left-wing counterparts as it inevitably put them at a disadvantage. Leading to violent intervention to stop such possibilities.
​

-----------------------------------------

 

[Aussie Perun]

I bet everyone here is shocked that everyone didn't calm down and go home after the previous update.

 

[Health]

1968 - Long Summer (Part 3)​

Contrary to the hopes of the university administrators across the country the alluring summer did little to temper spirits of the general student body. While some local Zenkyōtō, such as the one at Nihon University, had already called for volunteers to man the barricades across the summer, a general call would go out after the 8-10 Notice by the Zenkyōtō coordinating council at Tokyo Imperial University. Summer vacation would also see the support for the student protests reach its apex among the general public and nowhere was this more obvious than at Nihon. Student demonstrators began to carefully leave the campuses and take to the streets once more, now for the most part for approved demonstrations, bearing posters and slogans with messages such as "Our tuitions are the fruits of our parents labour" attacking the university officials. The non-violent methods employed alongside with the legal nature of the demonstrations and the strength of the message attracted quite a bit of sympathy from even adults with fundraising campaigns organised by the students gathering large amounts of support. Unexpectedly even police officials would begin to show sympathy towards the students, this was particularly true of officers charged with regulating the protests with more senior officials making derisive remarks towards the levels of camaraderie beginning to form between the two groups. The previous 'wrongdoings' on behalf of the students seemed to matter little in the face of very blatant corruption by administrators at Nihon as well as the continued unwillingness to show remorse for their actions.

The administration at Nihon University was not blind to this change in public sympathies and did make attempts to win back public support by making the protestors seem unreasonable in their continued demands. Making their equivalent to the 8-10 declaration at Tokyo Imperial University on the 24th of August, just as summer vacation was starting to coming to a close. This attempt was doomed for failure largely due to the fact that the staff at Nihon had not learned from the mistakes of their counterparts at Tokyo. That is they repeated the pattern at Tokyo Imperial almost step by step, simply putting forth a unilateral declaration of the terms to which they agreed to and expected the students to be pleased and disperse. The Zenkyōtō at Nihon would react to it similarly to the one at Tokyo, announcing its extreme displeasure and declaring that the situation had reached a point, where it could no longer be solved by unilateral declarations as the student body could not trust the university to follow up on that. Instead it could only be solved by mass negotiation between university officials and the Zenkyōtō as the only qualified representative of the students at the university. Unlike their counterparts at Tokyo Imperial, however this decision had not come easily for the Zenkyōtō at Nihon as tensions between students themselves began to reach a breaking point. The most often cited cause for these tensions are the voluntary efforts to man the barricades throughout summer. In order to attract students to stay, the initially strict regimens and discipline employed during the school year began to be relaxed, especially as it became blatantly obvious that neither the police nor the 'loyalists' were planning to retake the buildings and had instead largely left for home for rest and recouperation.

Had the concessions not been made then the sharp contrast between manning the barricades
and the summer would have likely seen the movement die during summer vacation.
​

These concessions are often cited for allowing factional squabbling to develop into a serious issue across the Zenkyōtō at Nihon. Students with nothing better to do began actually discussing their views on the world around them and where the saw the movement going, leading to a number of disagreements between one another. This was as true of those students on the barricades, as it was of those who had risen to lead the protests. The main issue that rose to the forefront can largely be summed up with the simple question of where the movement was to go from here on out. The 'reformists', students often associated with Taishūtō many of whom had joined a movement dominated by those rather hostile towards their views in hopes of furthering social democracy in Japan, posited that the demonstrations had reached their zenith and now needed to be consolidated in preparation for toppling the ruling Seiyūkai in the upcoming elections in order to bring Japan into a new era. These views did little to endear them to the more radical students, both the 'vanguardists', who increasingly associated more closely with the JCP as well as the 'guards' that increasingly espoused Browderite Red Guard rhetoric. These two groups actively came to blows with the Taishūtō associates on a number of occasions, as well as between each other, but usually were more than pleased to just label those against their views as traitors to the cause and the working classes. Instead they argued that the moment was ripe to begin preparations for an armed struggle to bring Japan to the brink of revolution. They posited that the reformists were nothing, but fantasists if not 'bourgeoisie lap dogs playing at politics' in their hopes that those in power would ever give them a chance to truly change the Imperial System for the betterment of the working classes. The only way that they saw change coming was, if the students as the vanguard took this power by force. In contrast to the two groups of more politically oriented students stood, the 'hisei' (non-political) students, who had begun to see the struggle as largely won, as the universities seemed to back off and were seemingly starting to come around to their demands. Continuing on the current path of non-violent resistance, they reasoned, would be the most likely way for the students to actually achieve what they had wanted. Not ephemeral revolution, but actual material and social improvement. This point of view was also shared by a number of post-Syndicalist reformist groups.

Infighting between the politically aligned students had been a problem in every demonstration that had featured
Japanese students. In fact the many were surprised that it took this long for tensions to flare once more.
​

The actions of those preaching violence would however win out over the wishes and voices of those cautioning against a more radical turn, as the beginning of autumn saw the radicals take an evermore aggressive stance in furthering their cause. On the 28th of August, 200 students stormed and occupied the main building of the Tokyo Imperial University Faculty of Medicine. The radicals declared that the university itself was to be torn down and smashed into pieces, as it represented little more than an imperialist tool of oppression and indoctrination. These radicals, largely belonging to the Browderite strain, also called for the returning student body across Japan to occupy and barricade each and every campus and bring the University system to a grinding halt. These efforts lead them into opposition with the general stance of most Zenkyōtō causing the group responsible, and its associates in other universities, to be expelled from from their local Zenkyōtō and lead to the foundation of a rival organisation on the campuses known as the Revolutionary Council of Universities, also known by its Japanese shorthand - the Daikakuren. Splintering would not be the only by product of the more aggressive stance pursued, as the 4th of September would mark the first death of the protests, as despite the serious bodily harm caused by the 'loyalists' nobody had yet to die in the attempts at suppression. The event in question took place at dawn in Nihon University, when riot police officers arrived to fulfil a warrant to end the illegal occupation of university property on the campus of the Faculty of Economics. Instead of withdrawing, the students manning the barricades began pelting the police officers with various objects from the roof and windows. In this peppering, one member of the riot police was hit square on the head by a 16 kg block of concrete thrown from a fourth floor window. The officer in question suffered severe injuries and was quickly rushed to hospital, where despite best efforts he passed away on the 29th of September. The incident sent a shock wave throughout the Empire and most importantly marked a change in attitudes at not just the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, but among police across the Empire. This change in attitudes is perhaps summed up by the speech of Murakami Ken, Chief of the Public Safety Department at the Tokyo Metropolitan PD, where after expressing his regret for the incident he declared - "In the past, the Metropolitan police might have believed that the students had something of a point and that boys will be boys, but this incident leaves us no possibility of treating them as just wild youth."

The welcoming party on the barricades peppered the riot police with not just objects, but also water.
​

The change in attitudes also brought in a rolling change in policy, which can by and large be summed up as beginning to single student protesters out from a seemingly wider crowd of protesters. This meant abandoning the seemingly unsuccessful practice of arresting just some radicals in key positions and instead adopting a policy of rooting out the entire movement whenever possible. A practice, which had been prototyped at the Tokyo Higher School of Industry and Commerce to seemingly positive effect. This would be put to test over the coming weeks, as the police forces returned to the campuses of the economics and law faculties of Nihon on the 5th of September and succeed in pushing the students out of the buildings, but their victory proved only temporary. As soon as riot police packed up their equipment the students retook the buildings, often with the support of radicals from other universities. This would begin a back and forth between police and the radicals that would effectively continue until the 12th of September, when the two groups came to blows near Jinbōchō in Kanda causing a large amounts of property damage to the local shops. This event also marks a turn local opinion against the protesters, as the image of righteousness to be replaced by a visage of riotous troublemakers, a sentiment intensified by negative media coverage. This mattered little for the radicals, who continued to take even more aggressive steps to further 'the cause' to the detriment of group unity, leading to a number of students to begin to waiver. Medical seniors at the Tokyo Imperial University were the first to break, in truth they had broken over the summer even before the radicals had become violent. Parental pressure and personal worries about their future began to pile up, as they saw no change forthcoming about as time continued to tick by mercilessly. A round of secret negotiations were held with the university staff over the summer, leading to a deal whereby the university would organise a secret graduation exam for the medical seniors. Much to the disappointment of the university officials that had hoped to get rid of all of the 105 potential graduates, only 45 showed up to the exam with the rest leading a boycott. The shortage of graduates as well as a protest rally organised at Tokyo Imperial a week later, which saw more than 1300 students and instructors call for the results of the exams to be nullified, put the university officials in a difficult situation. Eventually, hoping to not annoy the students further an emergency faculty meeting of the medical faculty agreed to nullify the results of the exam, much to the dismay of the 45 that had taken the exam. Those that were revealed to have "betrayed the cause" were largely subjected to ostracism as few wanted to incur the wrath of the radicals, who even subjected some of the "traitors" to rounds of 'self-criticism'.

The large presence of schools at Jinbōchō saw the protests on the 12th reach massive
proportions, eventually peaking at around 10 thousand demonstrators.
​

-----------------------------------------

I bet everyone here is shocked that everyone didn't calm down and go home after the previous update.

Lying in shock I would imagine.

Anyway, this is me just blabbering out here for a bit. We are ever so certainly inching towards the finale. Unless I decide to break a long chapter apart again we got around 3 more weeks of 1968 at the current pace and then we get to 1969. That is probably not going to be as through to the point of overdoing it as this has been, since I have only have some key points that I want to cover there before I close off. This means that I am now thinking that we'll be done by the end of this year with the exception of the whole... Their life goes on conclusion sequence either a few years into our Heisei era and the rule of Emperor Akihito or our Reiwa era and the rule of Emperor Naruhito. So in laymans terms either the '90s or the '20s. Still leaning more on the 90s though, but we'll see then.

Also, since spending another three weeks purely only on the intensifying infighting within and suppression of the Japanese student movement seems a bit dull, I've sprinkled at this point one week worth of content about other potentially more interesting stuff from 1968 into there as well.

 

[JodelDiplom]

I didn't even know that much about the 1960s student movement in my country, let alone in Japan

My parents are a bit too young to have been part of it, and my grand parents too old. The protests of the 1968 era and the side effects around it used to be more myth and prehistory than real events... Although of course for the people of that generation who actually did take part in these student activities / protests / organizations it must have been a pretty defining time of their lives. I know the term "he's a 1968er" just to be very common in political journalism to refer to those people, and in wider journalism to refer to all kinds of (since then) outrageous practices in communal living, debate culture, and sex life.

But that generation is now mostly retired or dead so they're really not much featured in the news except every now and then when a withered greybeard insists that his generation did the most for democracy and freedom of any postwar generations.

So it's interesting to read these chapters, and learning about how things went down in Japan. How much of the scale of protests, and their methods, is invented, and how much is real history? The many pictures seem to suggest that the whole thing really did happen in Japan, or did it?

 

[Health]

I didn't even know that much about the 1960s student movement in my country, let alone in Japan

My parents are a bit too young to have been part of it, and my grand parents too old. The protests of the 1968 era and the side effects around it used to be more myth and prehistory than real events... Although of course for the people of that generation who actually did take part in these student activities / protests / organizations it must have been a pretty defining time of their lives. I know the term "he's a 1968er" just to be very common in political journalism to refer to those people, and in wider journalism to refer to all kinds of (since then) outrageous practices in communal living, debate culture, and sex life.

But that generation is now mostly retired or dead so they're really not much featured in the news except every now and then when a withered greybeard insists that his generation did the most for democracy and freedom of any postwar generations.

So it's interesting to read these chapters, and learning about how things went down in Japan. How much of the scale of protests, and their methods, is invented, and how much is real history? The many pictures seem to suggest that the whole thing really did happen in Japan, or did it?

Glad to see that people other than me enjoy it. For me this is the generation of my grandparents, given that all four were born after the War ended and were in their 20s around this era. Not that they took part in this lifestyle or these protests, considering that all of them were born in the "unbreakable union of free republics" and that only two of them went to university, but still. The 60s of the East would however come to be around the time of my parents generation, where the aforementioned union proved fairly soft and breakable, but that is a topic for another time and place.

These popular swells of dissent are indeed intensely mythologised though for much the reasons that you mentioned now and have suggested beforehand. It is a pivotal and formative moment for a generation, the fact that this is one of the biggest age cohorts in recent memory in the Western world however means that it is probably more mythologised than any of the more recent ones that the same age cohort has had a hand in suppressing, but again another story for another time.

I sort of believe that an intense focus on butterflies causes a lot more pointless confusion than it helps. Also that history is the greatest writer in the world. Hence, a lot of the stuff is historical, but fiddled with so as to a reflect TTL and the changes that have come from this world. The scale is slightly bigger since there would be more university students from across the Empire and even some from abroad together in Tokyo than there would be in the 60s Japan of OTL. I've tried to keep the triggering events for the Japanese protests because I'm still kicking myself about largely glossing over young Danny le Rouge and the 22 March Movement. As to the methods... Well they are historical, but it's not like there is much replacement for barricades if you are trying to occupy something. In conclusion, the '68 protests did indeed happen in Japan on a fairly big scale. Sadly however it is nowhere near as photographed enough as I would like it or tend to suggest. Archives from papers do help quite a bit, but I'm still cursing Asahi for requesting payment to access their archives.



Now follows a rant about the possibility of such protests in Japan, I don't discuss anything that I haven't mentioned in previous comments over here and will likely go around in circles a lot. There is no practical reason to read this, I just sort of want to get it out there to permanently clog the tubes with more text.

Spoiler: Rant

There is this trend in Japanese historiography that really rubs me the wrong way. The blatant revisionism of course, but also the fawning over the post-war Rechtstaat and this constant need to portray the entire era from the Meiji Restoration to the end of the Pacific War as these dark ages. Primarily the lack of comparisons to other states of the same time period, but with modern Japan. Going over and trying to find secondary school attendance rates has been an indescribable pain in the ass. Also pulling out the police state boogeyman known as the late Imperial Japan to justify that Japan remains in stasis in regards to the Rechtstaat enforced by the Peace Constitution and that no change can ever happen again. Trust the public would you.

Resistance to the government is nothing new in regards to Japan, the Meiji era is littered with these examples as is the Taisho Democracy and even the early bits of the Showa. Indeed there is a point to be made that the student protesters during the 60s, both during Anpo and the later ones in 68-69 are just a modern reflection of the disaffected junior Army and Navy officers that terrorised the state during the 30s. Just because there was this big release of public dissent from behind the dam that had been built up to facilitate the China Incident and the Pacific War does not wipe away what came before. A Japan that had managed to retain the general trend of liberalisation that kicked off after the death of the Meiji Emperor into the Showa era and not fall into militarism would have faced much the same trends that the OTL Japan did. It would not have likely become the workshop of the world, but things like pressure on the educational system etc would have still been present. So we still see the formation of mammoth schools like Nihon and the inevitable burst of dissent there that kickstarts protests. If students during the Taisho era could and would protest against military officers on the campus for military education, then those during the Showa would have sure as hell rallied against the less than perfect conditions they found facing them at the universities. Maybe I've been a bit too protective of the students and perhaps the police would have been quicker to suppress it, but again the Empire is a Rechtstaat not a police state. Of course it isn't the Rechtstaat of the post-war era, but it is a different one. Hell the Communists are de facto legal at the moment, which is probably the most ahistoric part of this whole affair, but at least on the Home Islands this isn't a Japan where dissenters get sent to some sort of black site as the first measure and where the Kenpei patrols the streets on a regular basis.

 

[Health]

1968 - Long Summer (Part 4)​

The decision to meet the demands of the student demonstrators in regards to the medical students attempting to graduate did little to dampen the increasingly loud calls by affiliates to the Daikakuren to dismantle the universities themselves. Indeed this cause would prove rather popular within the Zenkyōtō itself, as more radical Zenkyōtō members took up the call to barricade and dismantle by seizing control of the general surgery department of the Tokyo Imperial University Hospital on the 22nd of September. This occupation would only serve to drive an ever bigger wedge between those seeing the demonstrations as a jumping board towards revolution and those, primarily the hisei, that were just along for the ride. The incident would also prompt calls by the various political groups to expel one another beginning with proposals by the Taishūtō affiliates to expelling anybody still thought to be affiliated with the Daikakuren from the Zenkyōtō for undermining the cause. These would be followed by calls by the former seeking to expel either the 'weak-hearted reformists' affiliated with the Taishūtō and hisei or just the former from the Zenkyōtō for much the same reasons. Despite large amounts of agitation by both groups, all of the motions for expulsion would inevitably prove unsuccessful. The fact of the matter was that following the expulsion of the Daikakuren, the voting process needed to be changed to maintain that no Daikakuren affiliates votes. Due to this, as well as the fact that Daikakuren members managed to mostly get around any system that the Zenkyōtō thought up, the previously simple system of ballots had been replaced with an increasingly convoluted system of passwords and shibboleths before the students were allowed to cast their ballot. In real terms this meant that the decision to expel the Daikakuren had by and large rendered the 'guiding' Zenkyōtō at Tokyo Imperial University incapable of controlling the protests within itself, whilst still maintaining a degree of success in its 'external ventures'. This was less due to some unified cause and more due to the reason that the ambiguous role that the organisation held caused fewer factional disagreements. Amid the continuing decline of the operability of the Zenkyōtō at Tokyo Imperial there were still signs of hope as the Faculty of Law finally declared its support for an indefinite strike, making it the first time in the history of the university that the students of all 10 faculties were on strike against the university administration. Some support would also be found among some educators, as staff at the neurology department of the medical faculty had called for the university to guarantee wages to all interns. The doctors in the department claimed it inherently immoral to refuse to pay wages for medical professionals for their work and claimed that their patients would feel insecure being worked on by such residents.

Following the call to occupy campuses, the number of student controlled buildings shot up drastically,
as the radicals continued to take a more aggressive stance towards the university leaderships.
​

The initially small waves caused by the ongoing issues at Tokyo would soon begin to become increasingly larger waves as Zenkyōtō in all of the universities spread across the Japanese Empire began to struggle controlling the protests within themselves. This would of course not be an instant change with the developing 'anarchy' taking some time to take root in those places where the demonstrations had not had not lasted as long as at Tokyo Imperial and thus had had less time for internal tensions to begin flaring out. Indeed if one were to suggest that the movement would begin to fall apart at the beginning of October, then that person would have likely been called mad or highly optimistic as September had seen victories for the students even at Nihon, where fighting had been the hardest and the university officials equally unyielding. Even though with the help of the riot police, the university may have regained full control over the buildings belonging to the Faculties of Economics and Law departments, a number of students holding key positions amid the protesters in these faculties continued to evade captivity, as they had holed up at different faculties or even other universities across Tokyo in hopes of rallying other radicals to retake their buildings. The continued pressure from not only the student protests, but also government officials to solve the situation put the university leadership into an increasingly difficult position, as they still hoped to avoid caving to the students. Their breaking point would finally arrive on the 29th of September, announcing that all protesters were invited to a a university wide 'rally', which was to be held at around noon on the following day at the Ryōgoku Auditorium, a building which also functioned as a concert hall as well as sumo, boxing and wrestling ring. The university officials had planned the rally to be something similar the questions and answers session that Tokyo Imperial University had held in June, planning to hold the event for just two hours and promising to not bring any 'special equipment' to the event, if the students agreed to do the same. Robbed of their supporters and enforcers, the university leadership walked into the lions den hoping to still emerge whole. While the Zenkyōtō members had met the request of the staff and had left their helmets and Gewalt staves, wooden or bamboo poles used in fights, at home, they had other methods to make sure that their demands were not just heard, but that they were to be finally be fulfilled.

Urban legends from the day suggest that the number of students
was so great that it caused cracks to form in the floor of the hall.
​

University officials were astounded by the stomach churning attendance rate and saw their initially laid plans fall apart rather quickly. It quickly became obvious that this event was not to end in the two hours that had been thought to be more than enough to address the concerns of the students as two quickly turned to four and then eight with no end still in site. The negotiations, because yes the first thing that the students had forced the agree to was that the event was the mass negotiation that they had demanded, eventually concluded after twelve hours of negotiation. This was only due to the fact that the constant 12 hour long slog of negotiations saw most of the leadership of the university leadership carried off backstage for recouperation after collapsing from heat exhaustion and the student leaders pleased with what they had gained. The negotiations saw the university once again concede the 6 conditions that they had agreed to in their unilateral declaration - the 8-24 Notice. Although it seems difficult to grasp how getting agreement from the university on these topics that they had already agreed to could take the better part of 12 hours, much of this is down to internal arguing on behalf of the students as well as the demand that each of these conditions be negotiated conclusively so that there was no one would have any doubts about what was to happen. The 6 agreed to by the university leadership on the 30th of September were as follows - rescinding all punishments given to students that participated in the demonstrations, essays criticising their actions for their decisions to punish the students involved in the protests as well as for introducing riot police onto the campus, dropping the bans and limitations on free assembly as well as allowing for all student events to be organised without permission, abandoning restrictions on free speech in student publications and at student demonstrations. Additionally, the university would halt all special collaboration with the athletic students seeking to pit them against the Zenkyōtō and in doing so agree to dissolve the Special Athletic Council as well as last, but not least introduce voluntary management to dorms and all buildings used by students for extracurricular activities. Each demand was confirmed by a written agreement, ostensibly so as to limit the possibilities of the university leadership going back on their word. The event was finally concluded with a final written agreement accepting calling for further negotiations on the 3rd of October to determine the future of the final condition - the resignation of all trustees.

The events of the 30th of September and the very public capitulation of the university leadership
left many with the impression that the students might get what they were after.
​

This glorious victory would however be short lived as the negotiations caught the attention of government officials and the staff from Nihon University were called in for a round-table conference with the Prime Minister about the ongoing strike as well as the results of the negotiations on the 1st of October. During the meeting the Satō Eisaku made it very clear that he was not pleased with the way that the university had chosen to solve the protests previously as well as currently. The Prime Minister went onto call the mass negotiations a "deviation from common sense" stating that collective bargaining was a right open only to legal trade unions affiliated with the Central Labour Board and not for purposes such as this. Furthermore Satō berated the university leadership for agreeing to negotiations on the day that the police officer had succumbed to his wounds in the hospital, suggesting that that event had changed the issue into a political problem, given that it constituted "an attack on the rule of law". Given that few among the university staff present at the meeting actually wanted to go through with the demands the officials decided to concede to government demands and following a board meeting on the 2nd of October the university announced that they were withdrawing from the planned mass negotiations on the 3rd of October. Some trustees would still argue that they ought to resign to prevent further demonstrations, but given that there was no unanimous agreement the trustees would stay in place for the time being. While the mood of the Zenkyōtō leadership, as well as the radicals, can best be described as furious the same could not be said about the general student body. Many had seen the negotiations as the end for a mess that had gone on for quite a bit now and were rather frustrated, when they realised that the protests would need to continue. Government intervention as well as rumours suggesting that companies were conspiring to not hire any applicants that had taken part in the strikes at Nihon University, if they were to continue lead many to apathy as the size of what they were up against became clear. protests continued. This hit seniors the hardest, as many had still hoped to graduate and gain meaningful employment despite having taken part in the demonstrations and lead them to seek any terms with the university to save their fleeting futures. Calls to rise up against this grand betrayal, thus fell on deaf ears as only 2000 students showed up for the protests on the 3rd of October. Further action at Nihon would be hampered by the fact that the Metropolitan Police Department had issued warrants for the arrest of the local Zenkyōtō leadership for their part in the death of the police officer as well as more wide-reaching charges about undermining their Metropolitan Public Safety Ordinance.

The threat of limiting employment access seemed to work better at starting to normalise
the situation at Nihon University under control than any act of violent repression.
​

-----------------------------------------

As I mentioned last time, I interspersed some other events in between the ongoing student narrative in Japan. Next time is one of these moments.

 

[Aussie Perun]

With the mainline students breaking off from the radicals, I'd be concerned about the whole thing running out of steam if I were one of the activists. Still a dick move by the Govt to intervene and undo negotiations that are already bargained and done.

 

[Health]

Interlude - Flame Ever Lasting​

The reverberations of the events that unfolded in 1968 would deeply touch nigh every part of human life in the developed world with even the Olympics not free of the marks that the protest movements and the reaction to them carved into that year. Whilst the winter games held in February in Grenoble to recognise the slow but steady normalisation of France would predate the events in May, the atmosphere at the event was already thick enough to cut with a knife as in anticipation of what was to come, even as the country that has most often been blamed for kicking off the debacle - the AUSS began its long leave of absence. The summer games in Buenos Aires would not be so lucky. Perhaps most interesting about the Olympics in La Plata is the long and arduous road that the nation undertook to gain the right to host the Games. Buenos Aires had been a candidate for hosting the Olympics even before the outbreak of the Syndicalist War, but the intervening decades had brought nothing but embarrassment and millions of pesos wasted on a string of failed bids. Geography and the realities of international travel would prove to be the biggest enemies of La Plata in this regard, just like they had been for the Japanese Empire. The general sentiment in the very European dominated International Olympic Committee was that the Olympics were something more special and ought to take place primarily on the Continent, where it came into existence. They were also deemed much more important than a football tournament, which is what most associate with South Americans. Thus, although the decision to hand the 1964 Games to Japan was tinged with another note of failure for the Argentinian government, it also held a hidden glimmer of hope, as it seemed to represent a break in the Eurocentrism of the IOC. The persistence of the Argentinian government, learning from the Japanese efforts as well as a renewed European interest in reinforcing their presence in the region following the Second Mexican-American War, would finally pay off and fulfil the long standing dream of the Argentinian leadership as the IOC decided to hand them the right to host the 1968 Olympics at a meeting in 1963. However, even as the government celebrated seeing the Games as a good chance to raise the profile of the nation and attract more investors as well as tourists, the general public back home was not necessarily convinced. In an attempt to portray the best image of South America, large amounts of public funding were poured into building facilities at a time when much of the public saw other priorities as more important. Reports of corruption in handing out the contracts only served to sour more among the public, as opposition to the '68 Olympics began to grow.

Despite being increasingly difficult to tell apart from the European states that it sought to mimic,
below the surface La Plata stood out for quite a few anachronistic tendencies and traditions.
​

The Argentinian civilian government had always had a fractured relationship with the military, but two events served to solidify something of a military dominance and veto over civilian government leading them to be unofficially and often jokingly recognised as 'Defenders of the Republic'. Those events would be the victory in the Second Great South American War as well as the collapse of the old United States and United Kingdom to Syndicalism. Although the loss of its erstwhile protectors and economic dominators to the Reds would contribute to a slight growth in anti-Syndicalist sentiments among the public sphere, it would be the war against Red Brazil and Bolivia, as well as the border conflicts in northern South America against the pseudo-Syndicalists, that saw the country openly adopt rabidly anti-Syndicalist sentiments. This stance would also be reinforced by the increased Argentinian dependence on Mitteleuropa and the rising Japanese Empire to maintain its primarily export focused economy. These events would raise the future 'Defenders of the Republic' to the status of heroes, a role which they would frequently abuse, as post-war La Plata was mired with military interventions as the military, acting as a bulwark against Syndicalism, often stepped in and overturned electoral victories by more left-wing leaning parties. Ironically, the military itself usually had little interest in long term junta rule, as had happened in Chile, and would usually give way to new elections after a few years allowing the cycle to repeat once more. This is of course after those deemed a threat to the Republic had been proscribed resulting in every party left of the Radicals having been officially banned by the late 60s and meaning that even the latter had policies that could be most politely described as market friendly. The working class that had lead to the electoral victories of the Socialists, then the Justicalists and later others was far from pleased by these self-proclaimed 'Defenders', leading to growing apathy on one hand and radicalisation on the other. American influence in South America, during the period between the end of the Second Mexican-American War and the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, had even seen some of these radicals take up arms and form guerilla groups aiming to overthrow the system oriented around La Plata. For the most part however the vast majority of the radicalised public would remain generally non-violent and instead attempt to pressure the government through trade unions, which had for the most part escaped total repression due to being seen as a valuable tool for guiding dissent. In the run-up to the 1968 Olympics, the trade unions would prove that they still had a degree of fight left in them, despite the government meddling as they mounted the events that would become known as the Labour Offensive of '68. The shattering of the union confederations meant that in reality the action was uncoordinated, at the beginning but began to quickly ripple out after the initial protests kicked off and were not repressed outright. Union leaders had hoped and gambled that the increased international coverage of La Plata in the lead-up to the Olympics would make government officials think twice before repressing their demonstrations and had proven partially right.

Resurgent American interest in South America had lead to the Argentinians putting an increased effort in reinforcing
anti-Syndicalist tensions in its sphere as well as fighting the Yanqui over there rather than back at home.
​

Their gamble would pay off greatly, as the general climate in the country was very receptive to the message of fighting against the social injustice. This meant that the strikes spread like wildfire across the industrial heartlands of La Plata and even managing to reinvigorate parts of the much larger working class that could best be described as apathetic. The spread of the protests would also see a consolidation of the movement under a collective leadership and a transition from sporadic and local affairs into the form by which the Labour Offensive is more commonly known by among the general public. Given the prevalence of the youth and students in the events of '68 around the world, it is not surprising that when it comes to the Labour Offensive a lot of attention is also showered on its student participants. Although first centred on vocational schools, the student action would expand with the general expansion of the movement and also spread to a number of 'academic' secondary and tertiary institutions. A hesitant response from the Radical lead government would also contribute to the mythologization of the role of students in the protests as independent action by police officials lead to the death of a number of students on the 21st of May and a swelling of the demonstrations right in the aftermath. This hesitancy can largely be explained by the ongoing rightward transition of the Radical party and internal struggles caused by more left-leaning members, who tried to stop this attempt to institutionalise the party. All of this meant that what was initially nothing but uncoordinated action by local forces quickly transformed into a full-blown national crisis, as more and more students across the country joined the the National Strike Council, that had risen to coordinate industrial action in the place of the disbanded confederations, and even formed their own organisations. The formation of these organisations however only saw police crackdowns intensify with hundreds of students and thousands of union members being arrested across the country due to allegations of participation in a Syndicalist plot to undermine the Republic and lead to calls for the military to step in. The intensification of the crisis was viewed with a degree of concern, but little surprise across the world. Experts in papers across the world spent precious column space theorising about the possibility of a Red victory in South America, while even the British diplomats, usually brimming with revolutionary zeal, expressed their nervous reservations about the events and hinted at American involvement these events. This was despite the fact that they knew from high-ranking American defectors, who had joined the British due to fears of persecution back home, that the country was currently not capable of pursuing something like this. Most importantly for the Argentinian government, the deterioration of stability within La Plata also prompted a rather aggressive debate within the IOC and lead to the organisation to threatening the Argentinian government with suggestions of relocating the events unless the situation was brought under control.

The improvised nature of the Labour Offensive meant that the event was difficult to decapitate
quickly and effectively, as it lacked a single leader or even group of leaders.
​

The threat to move the Olympics tragi-comically proved to be the final straw for the military, which had in truth been one of the greatest patrons and supporters of the Games, as they saw it as important for the nation. Military brass would subsequently pressure the Radical lead government to authorise them to step in. Their threats of doing so regardless, just with less Radicals would prove pivotal and thus the 'solving' of the demonstrations began in September. Soldiers across the country were given orders to break apart all unauthorised protests with little regard for the cost in lives, but told to avoid excessive casualties if at all possible. Thus schools, colleges and universities were stormed in force by infantry battalions, often made up of men not older than the students in there, and cleared of resistance largely without casualties, as most students proved 'eager' to hand over ringleaders when faced with the threat of being dealt with themselves. Some students would offer resistance to this campaign without provocation, at least according to an official report produced by the La Platan government, leading to some additional deaths among the student population and the consolidate the mythological role of students in these events. The same fate would befall demonstrations in plazas across the country, which participants have vehemently insisted to have been totally peaceful after the fact, as the military brought its full force to bare against the general public. Martial law was declared, curfews set and raids conducted to arrest anyone and everyone even suspected of having played a key role in the protests. Hundreds are thought to have died and disappeared in the suppression efforts and many more in the repression efforts that followed. Regardless of the casualties and what it meant for the future, the heavy-handed response would bring the protests to an end with almost no time to spare, ending just ten days before the Olympics were scheduled to start. Although subject to some media coverage, aftermath would see relatively little coverage in non-Syndicalist countries and fall out of the news cycle quickly even among Syndicalist states. The '68 Olympics, lasting from the 12th until the 27th of October, would therefore largely succeed in its attempt at portraying a new image of La Plata and South America, leading to a growing influx of tourists into the 'Granary of the World' as well as much hoped for investments. It would however bring about unavoidable consequences that would ultimately change the face of South America to what we know it as today.

Argentinian armoured vehicles in a city plaza, despite not being the first military intervention the suppression
of the Labour Offensive proved to be an important turning point for the history of South America.
​

-----------------------------------------

With the mainline students breaking off from the radicals, I'd be concerned about the whole thing running out of steam if I were one of the activists. Still a dick move by the Govt to intervene and undo negotiations that are already bargained and done.

You'll see a few attempts to build back momentum, how they will do... Well that's still ahead.

Don't disagree, but then again the gears of government turn in strange ways, perhaps a bureaucrat saw this as a dangerous precedent or perhaps the minister in charge of the department advised the PM to intervene as he saw it as a bridge to far. Either way the government is involved now and given that it has gotten a taste, who knows what this means for the future.



On a completely different topic, you might notice that this post did not arrive at the time that I'd hope you'd come to expect recently. It's later in the day and perhaps more importantly, it is Monday. What could this mean? Well I'll tell you, since a certain mad man with two thumbs - me - decided that he did not need 8 hours of sleep, he finished the final chapter. Now barring any weird urges from my side to write any further the actual story is done and I have but to find the pictures as well as post it. In light of this, I am going to increase the pace to a post a day. Not that I haven't enjoyed my time with you, but I just want to get this done.

This also means that around about Sunday you are going to see a map of the world in the year 2000 AD or 2660 under Imperial reckoning, tentatively Heisei 12. I will be taking a slight break from this "marathon posting" after Sunday to gather my thoughts to give a conclusion to what became of the Japan Empire in the intervening 3 decades, but if anyone among you has any other nation or region they want to know about then don't be afraid to ask and if at all possible I'll try and find a slot of them as well.

 

[Specialist290]

Looks like we're moving into the home stretch. Glad to hear that you've already gotten most of the heavy lifting done

I'll admit that I did feel a little swamped wading through the ins and outs of the student protests, but I did find the level of detail fascinating. I can't help but feel that the whole thing is foreshadowing a major sea-change in the Empire coming down the pipeline - perhaps (hopefully!) a subtle and not overly-violent one, but a major shift nevertheless.

 

[Health]

1968 - Amid the Embers (Part 1)​

1968 was something of a special year for the Japanese Empire, as it represented the 100th year since the ascension of the Meiji Emperor and thus 100 years since the rebirth of Japan as a modern nation. Initially, some Diet members had even lobbied to abandon the Japanese bid for the 1964 Summer Games and to instead try to attain the 1968 Games instead to celebrate the 100th year of the Japanese rebirth with style and dignity. This plan drew very heavily from the grand plans put in place to celebrate the 2600th year of Imperial Rule in 1940 with the Olympics and Tokyo Expo, but as is obvious the outbreak of the war in Europe and America lead to those plans flying out of the window. The Olympics were see a replacement in the form of the East Asian Games, but the failure of long term planning for such a grand event remained firm in public memory. Due in part to fears that the conflict in China might spiral out of control, the general consensus in government remained firm to hold the games as soon as possible, leading to the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games and all that came along with them. In light of happening after the Tokyo, as well as under a more fiscally austere budget as pursued by Prime Minister Satō Eisaku, the celebration of the 100th anniversary since the beginning of the Meiji Era was far from as pompous as the planned ceremonies in 1940 or those that had been realised in 1964. That is not to say that sizeable expenses were not made to demonstrate to the public what that 100 years had brought about. Just that the focus of the demonstrations was more pointed at bringing forward events that were more possible to fulfil within the year, such as the first Japanese expedition to reach the Geographic South Pole and the first Japanese spacewalk, rather than anything backbreaking such as a Japanese lunar expedition. The Satō cabinet did also end up making concessions about the Shinkansen project, as it became the centre of the demonstrations of modernity, and ended up having its arm twisted into approving at least some expansions to the current system. These expansions would primarily be aimed westwards and largely would benefit the popularity of the PM and his constituents in Yamaguchi. The closer that the 23rd of October, the day that marked the beginning of the Meiji era in 1868, got the more concerned that government officials got about the continued protests and the stronger that pressure on university officials grew. The student protests were regarded by many officials as a blemish on an otherwise great celebration of the modern Empire. Unfortunately, the changes in first police and later government sentiments towards the protesters would come too late to prevent what was to follow, as the events culminating with the incident on the 23rd of October began to unfold.

Even though exploration of Antarctica no longer possessed the 'wow' factor that it had decades ago, the first
Japanese expedition to reach the Geographic South Pole were still greeted as heroes on their return to the Home Islands.​

The arrest warrants put out to round up the leadership of the Nihon University Zenkyōtō would retrospectively prove somewhat counterproductive. Although it forced the established leadership underground and thus hampered the movement, the warrants also more or less handed the Zenkyōtō to radicals that had thus steered clear from direct association as leaders of the movement. The radicals in question would exploit their shot at power and ran roughshod over the now seriously weakened 'constructivist' side of the student movement. The warrants also helped secure the continued splintering of the Zenkyōtō movement, as the power struggles saw increasing out of students regard the organisation as out of touch with what they believed, especially as the fighting between political groups took up ever larger amounts of the time. Many of the radicals that took power at Nihon were nostalgic for the brief moment, when the general public seemed to rally behind them offering not just moral, but also financial support. Together with those that shared their line of thinking from other institutions, the radicals at Nihon began hatching a number of schemes to try and revive that public support as well as to trigger a revolutionary moment to overthrow the Imperial System. Due to the number of incidents in Kanda, this rebuilding of support could not happen there. The 'Battle of Jinbōchō' had massively soured relations with the locals of that district with not only shops, but also shrines openly refusing service to all students even suspected of association with the Zenkyōtō. Thus the the radicals continued to dart around Tokyo until their attention finally fell upon Shinjuku. The decision to go to one of the major transport hubs of the capital as well as the centre of organised crime, did not come easily for those now in control of the movement. Many argued that going to Shinjuku was tantamount to suicide and that if that was the decision then they might as well hand themselves over to the police directly, at least that way the protesters could be slightly more sure that they made it back alive. Others however saw Shinjuku as not only the right place, but as the only correct place to rebuild the shattered reputation of the movement. Not only was the region removed from most of the universities themselves, and thus likely less hostile towards them, but the also was thought to have something of an anti-government streak, what with the organised crime and the 1967 protests following the Army fuel train fire.

Organised crime had carved out a stable niche for itself in the Japanese Empire, growing alongside the rest of the economy and serving as useful tools to facilitate indirect 'crisis resolution', where ever the government needed it. In exchange for this service, campaigns aimed at decapitating groups largely focused on the uncooperative groups, rather than those most flagrantly flaunting laws.
​

The noteworthiness of 1968 had not gone unnoticed among the radicals either and the upcoming celebrations on the 23rd were seen as a way to broadcast their message into the general public and to truly make themselves be heard. This is another reason, why the choice of Shinjuku would be important, as it stood in close proximity to the centres of the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of modern Japan - Shibuya, more specifically Meiji Shrine. Given the lack of other elaborate international events occurring in Tokyo at around the same time, the festivities for the day itself were rather simple and surprising local for such a relatively important day for the modern Japanese nation. After much bartering the priests at the shrine had been convinced to begin the traditional autumn celebrations earlier than normal with the date of the first day of this festival beginning on the 23rd of October and lasting until the 3rd of November, the regular ending date. Given the nature of shrine festivals, all of this information was open to public record and thus inevitably came to the attention of the student radicals now in control of the Zenkyōtō. Plans were quickly drafted to organise a march starting at the Hibiya Concert Grounds near to the Imperial Palace in Chiyoda Ward and concluding at the Meiji Shrine. The plan was not necessarily a complex one, but then again the successes of the movement up until this point had not come through any particularly complex action, but rather through the direction of large masses of people. It was the hope of the leaders of this march that tens of thousands of people, not just students, would attend to voice their dissatisfaction with the government and to support the students in their struggles against the universities. However issues soon started popping up, which began casting clouds of doubt over the planned procession. Firstly and most importantly, the demonstration itself was not approved by the Metropolitan authorities, who were under pressure from higher officials to keep any student demonstrations outside of universities to a minimum, especially on the 23rd of October. Although an unlawful demonstration did appeal to the extreme fringes of the student movement, it did not play over well among the larger mass of 'hisei' students, who were rather worried about their futures should they take part in this demonstration. This meant that the protest was bleeding participants before it had even had the chance to begin.

The planned celebration at Meiji Shrine was preceded by a grand ceremony at the
Nippon Budōkan, located a spitting distance from Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park.​

These minor setbacks did not stop the demonstration from taking place, as at noon on the 23rd of October students affiliated to Daikakuren as well as more radical Zenkyōtō affiliates began to gather at Hibiya in preparation for the march. The presence of helmeted radicals wielding wooden poles near the Imperial Palace and Kasumigaseki did also attract lot of attention. Most of this would be unwanted and culminate in the quick deployment of riot police forces. Most students fled at the sight of riot police vans, but some stood their ground and ended up becoming the first catch for a rather busy day. This failure would be followed by another attempt, this one at Meiji Shrine itself later in the day, but the incident at Hibiya had caused police forces in the city to be put on high alert and thus the large police presence nipped that attempt in the bud. During all of this chaos, some students had also began to gather at Shinjuku station in a more peaceful manner, but were pushed out of the station after threats by the railway police. Rather than leave totally, the students remained in the immediate proximity of the station, gathering instead near a plaza located near the east exit of the station. Slowly, but surely the crowd began to grow as radicals that had managed to flee from the failed gatherings at Hibiya and Meiji Shrine began to pass through Shinjuku station. At around 21:00 the crowd numbered about 2000 and an attempt to vent their frustration at the failures of the day boiled over. The crowd, lead by some more aggressive radicals, stormed into Shinjuku station once more and began to vandalise it. Quickly, the event turned from simple vandalism, into a full blown occupation as benches were stripped of wood to start fires as well as to construct barricades at exits to the station and stones were lobbed at trains and traffic lights. Seeing the chaos unfolding an estimated 20 000 rubberneckers joined in on the acts of vandalism, quickly engorging the crowd. Due the severity of the situation, riot police forces were quickly mobilised, but the swelled crowds saw their actions at controlling the demonstration hampered. While most rubberneckers fled at the sight of the advancing police forces, some, particularly those later suspected for affiliation with the Japanese Communist Party, remained firm and helped support the student radicals to repel the police charges. Eventually however they too would concede defeat and the morning of the 24th of October would see Shinjuku station, although a shell of its former glory, returned to government control. The riots paralysed not only Shinjuku, but also a very large chunk of the Japan National Railways operations across Tokyo, as Shinjuku station would only return to active service at around 10:00 on the 24th. This was only after emergency repairs saw it deemed safe to pass through. Overall around 1.5 million passengers were affected by the events and 743 protestors would be arrested at Shinjuku alone on the 23rd of October. Some would simply be charged with rioting, whilst others attracted higher accusations such as sedition and even treason. The presence of communists at the event was also something the government would not easily forget.

The Shinjuku Riot served to demonstrate to the public what had been going on the campuses and has such
subsequently been blamed as a false flag attack, particularly due to the large amount of onlookers involved.
​

-----------------------------------------

Looks like we're moving into the home stretch. Glad to hear that you've already gotten most of the heavy lifting done

I'll admit that I did feel a little swamped wading through the ins and outs of the student protests, but I did find the level of detail fascinating. I can't help but feel that the whole thing if foreshadowing a major sea-change in the Empire coming down the pipeline - perhaps (hopefully!) a subtle and not overly-violent one, but a major shift nevertheless.

It is quite a sense of relief to be done with something that's been going on for quite a bit now.

Ah, no biggie, the protests always were an utter mess even in our timeline. They do play a rather important role in my view though and I sort of find it interesting to compare it to their modern equivalents. As to changes... Well I've never been a massive fan of "and then nothing happened" conclusions.

 

[Health]

1968 - Amid the Embers (Part 2)​

The Shinjuku riot, alternatively referred to as that little incident in Shinjuku in accordance to the political views of the person discussing it, would in many ways mark the beginning of the end for the Zenkyōtō movement. Rioting on the campuses was to be expected to a degree, but halting vital things like transport was a step too far. The police efforts at suppressing the demonstrations finally got full legal authorisation after the 'Act on Temporary Measures concerning University Management' was rushed through the Diet in late November with cross-party support. The presence of communist agitators at the scene also presented the Seiyūkai with all the excuse that they needed to ban yet another front organisation of the Japanese Communist Party. This front organisation, that had its roots all the way back in 1951, was banned in December with a very large amount of its candidates, primarily frontmen acting according to directions from the real party leaders in the Republic of China, arrested on the campaign trail. Whilst the Shinjuku Riot seemed in many ways enough to necessitate such a response, a few additional incidents would take place that would confirm the end of the Zenkyōtō in the manner that it ended and as some argue, do irreparable harm to the Taishūtō. Whether it was the liberal streak or a lack of attention to the things going on outside of its campuses, in late October the leadership at Tokyo Imperial University seemed to be still quite eager to resolve the conflict with the least amount of force possible. Its faculty was so convinced that the students would drop the strikes after a few more concessions that the entire leadership - all the deans, the head of the university hospital and even the president of the university, had been convinced to announce their joint resignation on the 1st of November. This resignation represented the final elusive demand that all attempts at mass negotiation had failed to produce in all universities across Japan. Yet here it finally was and as far as the general student-body was concerned, it had been brought about through their effort and without the 'negotiations' of the Zenkyōtō, at least that is how the faculty hoped that the students saw this decision as. Hoping against all odds that this decision would be enough to rebuild trust between students and teachers, weaken the resolve of the wavering students and to send the organisation into a terminal spiral of splintering all of which would hopefully reinforce a return to the normal state of affairs. The board of trustees would name Katō Ichirō as acting president of the university, as well as acting Dean of the Faculty of Law, on the 2nd of November, who immediately called for an emergency meeting for the acting deans for the 4th of November. The results of the meeting are not open to the public, but the results seemed to suggest that the university would abandon its Fabian tactics in exchange and agree to negotiations on a few conditions.

The appointment of the 46-year-old Katō took both the protesters by surprise, especially given
that the new president seemed to demonstrate willingness to find a negotiated solution.
​

The conditions for this call for negotiations are however, where problems began to arise once again. The Zentōi of the Faculty of Literature, or more specifically the radicals within it, were the first to express their dissent, declaring that they refused to negotiate or even accept the appointment of any acting leadership. They were not alone in this either with the idea finding quite a bit of support within the Zenkyōtō leading to an, unofficial, call for the resigned deans to "not run away from their responsibilities" and that whether they resigned or not ought to be determined through mass negotiation. The increasingly split nature of the Zenkyōtō at Tokyo Imperial University, meant that the organisation said nothing official about it and that it remained purely the domain of specific radicals across various faculties. The displeasure would quickly boil over into action as on the 5th of November, radicals belonging to the Daikakuren burst into a staff building for the Faculty of Literature and took nine professors, including the Hayashi Kentarō the aforementioned acting dean of this faculty, hostage and forced them to engage in mass negotiations on behalf of the university. The demands here were fairly simple, the radicals demanded that the acting deans resign and that the old leadership return to implement an school-wide electoral system for senior positions, granting blanket immunity from repression for their part in this incident and releasing the minutes of the acting deans meeting held on the 4th of November. The professors, even acting dean Hayashi, claimed that this was something that they could bargain with as they did not have the authority to do so, thus resulting in a standstill. Due to medical issues a number of professors would continue to be released over the 7 days that the hostage crisis took place, finally concluding after acting dean Hayashi was also released and for hospitalisation due to serious medical concerns. Similar to the earlier kidnapping incident at Tokyo Imperial, the incident had become front-page news in papers across the Metropolis. The length of the incident also resulted in the drafting of a letter by 35 cultural heavyweights demanding the release the professors as well as a plan by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department to rescue Hayashi. The acting dean was made aware of this plan to rescue him, but refused all help from police officials simply stating - "Although I agree with deploying riot police to tear down the barricades across the campuses, there is no need to deploy them to in order help me. I am currently in the middle of a lecture."

Hayashi Kentarō in the middle with his wife following his appointment to acting dean of the Faculty of Literature.
​

Perhaps the most important thing to arise from the confinement incident was the final shattering of any unity for the Zenkyōtō at Tokyo Imperial. Its inability to offer a clear response would signal its impending doom. Although the movement would almost certainly have splintered regardless of which side the decision came down upon, the lack of any decision meant that the organisation began to increasingly be seen as a spent force. This would cause students with political allegiances to begin efforts to abandon direct affiliation to the organisation practically overnight, whilst still attempting to guide it from the outside. The communists would be the first ones to go, announcing the creation of the Democratic Youth League of Japan, Minsei, and followed quickly by the Taishūtō supporters, who dared not be outdone by their rivals sponsoring the creation of the Socialist Youth League of Japan, Shasei. The two groups would quickly come into increasing amounts of conflict between one another, as well as with the Daikakuren. From Tokyo, the splintering began to spread to ever larger amounts of with the Zenkyōtō increasingly becoming a tool for guiding the hisei students, over which the three political factions vied. The post-Syndicalists and the hisei that had also would largely be left to pick up the pieces and spent the rest of November and December trying to organise elections for a unified leadership interested more interested in evolution rather than revolution. This leadership was necessary, if any chance at negotiations with the university leadership were to happen. The splintering would also intensify the distancing of the apathetic students, as well as those eager to end up on the winning side. The Faculty of Law would be the first to take this step, voting to return to class on the 14th of November and they followed on the 19th by the Faculty of Engineering. During this time the different factions, particularly the political ones, also began to drive one another out of different buildings across the campus, claiming these places for themselves and excluding anybody of suspect loyalty. The ongoing collapse of the Zenkyōtō at Tokyo Imperial would however not mean an end to the strikes or occupation in general or really even a dampening of spirits, as a joint 'victory' rally was held on the 22nd of November with students from Nihon University, as a replacement for the traditional May Festival which had not been held for understandable reasons. The celebrated the shared struggle between the students at the different universities and even lead to the creation of a manifesto, which called for the immediate dismantling of the modern university as conveyor for the creation of slaves.

As was to be expected, the celebrations also saw a number of fights between the various factions,
leading to constant interventions by non-political students to break up fights on a number of occasions.
​

The good face being put on by Tokyo at the event would however pale compared to the one that the students at Nihon had adopted. Actions by the radicals on campus had gotten increasingly violent after their 'victory' at Shinjuku and had begun to push back hard against the 'loyalists' This had culminated in the detainment of the captain of the karate club, who had lead a 'loyalist' raid on some barricades of the Faculty of Arts. The young man in question was beaten half to death and had most bones in his body broken before being thrown back outside. The investigation into this incident was conducted almost fully by the riot police, who arrived on the 18th of November and solved the case with the virtual destruction of the Zenkyōtō support base in the Faculty of Arts, as everyone and anyone even suspected of association with the organisation or the incident were arrested. The event also served to worsen what fleeting chances remained for negotiations. This was despite the fact that the university had finally admitted their fault for causing the ongoing demonstrations at a meeting of the parents' association on the 10th of November, where in exchange for their admission of guilt the association had called for all classes to resume immediately. While there was little love lost for the men that had allowed this situation spin so out of control, the parents were much more concerned about the future of their children on the labour market, than the about the resignation of the university leaders. Seeing this outpouring of support, the staff at Nihon took matters into their own hands and began to ensure that they would not fumble this chance. The Faculty of Economics would be first to act, announcing on the 24th of November, the creation of an 'intensive education facility' located outside of Tokyo proper on university property in the surrounding prefectures as well as Western Tokyo, these were places, where third year students that did not wish to postpone their graduation could quickly finish their studies. This example was quickly repeated across the university and most students, apathetic as they already were, agreed to this proposal and left the city campuses, even as the radicals in control of the Zenkyōtō called for all students to boycott these 'concentration camps'. The departure of hisei and other apathetic students to the 'dispersed campuses', as they began to be called, was followed by a large number of raids the riot police, that began to push the remaining students out from all of the campuses that Nihon University had across Tokyo.

The Nihon students that managed to escape police round-ups sought refuge in other universities and continued making betrayal
that had befallen them quite publicly known. but their futile rage could and would not bring back what they had lost.
​

-----------------------------------------

Next time you'll be in for a bit of a treat. Don't forget to pack your pipe and detective hats.

 

[Health]

1968 - The Perfect Crime​

Imagine if you will a normal December day in the Tokyo Metropolis. The largest city in the world is bustling with activity on this Tuesday morning and despite the slight drizzle, it is still a relatively warm 16 degrees Celsius. West of Tokyo Proper, the beating heart of the Japanese Empire, lies the Tama region, the rural parts of the mighty Metropolis whose bordering regions have largely fused together with the city of neon making the border more of an administrative distinction. In Tama, at around nine in the morning three duralumin trunks each containing just under 10 million yen are loaded onto an armoured black Nissan Cedric by four employees of the Kokubunji branch of the Japan Trust Bank. The money contained inside is the annual bonus intended for the nearby Fuchu Factory of the Tokyo Shibaura Electric Company, a Mitsui affiliate and known for its relative independent streak contributing to its use of a bank outside of the Mitsui zaibatsu. All in all, it seems like a fairly normal day for the four bank employees at until 09:21, when a white police bike pulls up next to the armoured car and causes it to come to a halt a mere 200 meters from their destination, on the Gakuen-dori just behind Fuchu prison. The driver of the black Nissan cracks open his window and asks the young looking police officer what is wrong. The officer claims to be carrying an urgent message from the Sugamo police station, stating that the house of their branch manager has just been blown up and it is thought that this car is also laced with dynamite. Given that a threatening letter stating something like this had been delivered to the bank manager just four days prior and the current atmosphere in Tokyo, the four men have no reason to doubt the story. They get out of the car and head for the safety of the prison walls some distance away, as the police officer dives under the vehicle to check for visual confirmation of the dynamite. Moments later, the employees notice smoke and flames rising from underneath the car and then see the officer roll out, shouting that the car is about to explode. Once the employees turn their backs to the car, engaging in a mad dash away from the explosion, the police officer quickly gets into the drivers seat and heads off. The clerks first think the man a hero for risking his life to drive the car further away from them, but as the flames and smoke die down in the pouring rain to reveal a flare and a bank employee familiar with bikes notices that the white bike the policeman rode upon is a completely different make and model from standard issue police bikes a realisation sets in - they have just been robbed. 23 minutes later, around 10 350 police officers across the Tokyo Metropolis are mobilised and put on high alert to find the thief. Traffic stops however yield nothing and the police eventually find the Cedric abandoned in a nearby lot at 10:18. This is the story of the 30 million yen robbery and its aftermath, thus far thee largest heist in the history of the Japanese Empire.

The incident would prompt a number of recreations as well as illustrations, this is one such example.
​

The police investigation would reveal what the clerks had suspected in the aftermath of the theft, that the robbery and its preparation went back quite a bit earlier. Initial efforts as well as media coverage at the time would focus on the threatening letter sent to the branch manager at Kokubunji and indeed an undeniable link between the letter and robbery would be proven, but it would prove to be of no use to the police officers. The letter in question had demanded that a female employee at the branch deliver 30 million yen to a certain location or the house of the branch manager would be blown up. The manager in question wasted no time and took this information directly to the police. On the day of the handover around 50 police officers lay in wait for the author to the letter to show himself, but the stakeout left them none the wiser as the criminal never showed up. Later efforts would also prove a link between these two incidents and a string of 9 separate threats made towards the Tama Farmers' Union between late April and late August of 1968. This link was somewhat less certain, yet given that the fact that the blood types matched, as determined from saliva taken from stamps of the letters, the officers were sure that the author was the same in all these incident. This too proved of little help, as the letters had been made by cutting and pasting. Investigation trying to determine the magazines in question would lead the police astray for quite some time and the line of inquiry would be eventually be closed after it was determined that the two magazines were very different and had thus likely been chosen at random. The fact that one of these magazines would also be found wrapped around the flare at the scene of the crime would also further strengthen the case that all of these letters were in a way linked to the same person. The era of mass production would hinder the police in other ways as well, as most of the items found at the 4 different sites that were thought to be linked to the crime, all just a few meters away from the original scene of the crime, had been produced in massive quantities and would in many cases later prove to be stolen. Witness testimony also proved mostly too late to respond to the situation, although helping point the police officers towards those aforementioned 4 sites and confirming to them that the criminal had changed vehicles multiple times. The massive amounts of uncertainty tied to the case saw the suspect list grow to an unprecedented size, involving nearly 110 000 people who at one point or other passed through police questioning. The large amount of people involved would also necessitate large amounts of police officers with around 170 000 police officers being involved in the case at one point or another and amounting to a cost for the taxpayers of about 90 million yen over the seven years.

At the time of the incident, the average starting wage of a high-school graduate
was about 1600 yen a month with university graduates earning around 2100 yen.
​

The size of the suspect list would be considerably boosted by the fact that this particular part of the Tama region was also home to a large amount of students. This was not only to the fact that Fuchu was in close proximity to Tokyo and that it was cheaper to stay here than there and that indeed the robbery had taken place not just near a prison, but also a university and a secondary school. Given that both the other eye witnesses and indeed the bank clerks had claimed that the 'police officer' in question was young and especially due to the on going events, the possibility that this was the act of Syndicalist student radicals was deemed highly likely. This is at least the theory most often used to explain the large amount of local youths ranking high on the suspect list. Some more conspiratorial theories have also popped up, which suggested that the Metropolitan Police Department abused the situation that the robbery had created in order to further their organisational vendetta against student radicals in the region. Especially as all of this time and effort spent tracking down local youths would bring the officers no closer to finding the actual culprit. The growing bloat of the investigation meant that the amount of information was just too great to effectively process, in regards to forensic evidence, potential suspects and key witnesses. Fingerprints were gathered from the objects left behind at all suspected crime scenes, but the facts that all the items found at the four different locations were mass-produced as well as stolen, meant that the total number of fingerprints on these objects grew massively. These efforts were also hampered by the fact that at the time of the incident only three people that had the knowledge to work with fingerprint data were employed in the forensic section of the Metropolitan Police Department. The efforts of these three people were gargantuan, but would inevitably reveal nothing as comparisons with the more than 6 million fingerprints on file would reveal no matches. This case seemed to stump the new forensics based investigatory efforts, as much as the older less scientific police work, which failed to the suspect, after a mass campaign of sharing the sketch of the suspect, or even any traces of money, following the announcement of specific serial numbers for about 2000 500 yen bills.

Around 1 million of these montage pictures would be spread about the Empire in efforts to locate the suspect.
​

The incident quickly became the subject of myth and legend in Japanese Empire as well as abroad, coming to be hailed as a 'perfect crime' and featuring in numerous amounts of films, books as well as later television series. This myth was reinforced by the continued inability of the police to determine the culprit and the latter refusing to turn himself up even after the case passed the statute of limitations. However what probably fed the incident the most was the fact that although it would live on in the public psyche as the '30 million yen robbery', it was in fact not a robbery, but simple theft. While the reason behind this difference is pedantic, it was this reason that would see the case inevitably thrown out after it passed the statute of limitations. This difference was of course the fact that a robbery requires violence, but theft does not. This lead many to hail the criminal as a mastermind and a modern day, pacifist, Robin Hood. This image would only be strengthened by the fact that no real inherent financial harm would come to anybody involved, at least not in the Japanese Empire. The stolen 30 million yen had been insured and the sum was paid out in full by Japanese insurance companies, who themselves were also insured abroad. The employees at the Fuchu factory would thus receive their bonus a day late, but in full. The 'perfect nature' of the robbery would earn it the euphonic nickname 'nikushimi no nai goto" (robbery without hate) based on the exact sum, 29 347 500 yen, robbed by the criminal. The lack of violence during the incident would, not mean that the incident would end without blood, as a number of potential suspects would commit suicide at later dates as a result of being slandered on mass media and two police officers would die due to overwork trying to bag the criminal behind the incident. The theft would also marked a realisation in the Japanese business world about the dangers related to transporting around such large amounts of cash around. This meant that most large companies would begin to transition away from paying employees wages at their place of work and instead begin to transition to deposit based system, where the employer would directly deposit the money into the bank accounts of the employees in question. This move would both strengthen the zaibatsu banks, who saw most stray affiliates come back home. The companies that resisted this change would find themselves footing ever growing bills for transfer fees, as all large movements of funds outside of a bank would begin to rely on specially trained personnel hired from security companies driving custom-made vehicles instead of regular bank clerks in rebuilt consumer automobiles.

Whilst it would take some time, the transition to specialised vehicles is already visible on this picture taken just a year later in Naha.
​

-----------------------------------------

With this, the very long year of 1968 has finally come to an end. 1969 is going to be a lot more brief, since we just have some important points to round it all off with.

 

[Health]

1969 - With a Bang, Not a Whimper (Part 1)​

The collapse of the Zenkyōtō would not mark the total end of the conflict, indeed in many regards it marked an intensification of the conflict. The various political groups that were born from the corpse of the once united student movement no longer had any particular need to listen to the hisei, or their rivals, causing violence between opposing groups to intensify among the radicals. Although the decision to ban the Communist Party was welcomed by a rather wide portion of the general public, as many had begun to see them as directly responsible for the ongoing chaos, its not directly affiliated youth league took much pleasure in making its opposition to the current situation known, engaging in ever bigger fights and sprees of vandalism. Violence on the campuses had become the norm, rather than the exception at this point in Tokyo and had developed to the point that the Ministry of Education began putting pressure on a number of institutions to abandon plans for spring entrance exams. Tokyo Imperial University and Tokyo Teachers College would be among the first to earn this strange honour. The staff at Tokyo Imperial, particularly acting president Katō Ichirō would continue to work tirelessly to try and have ministry officials overturn these plans, provided that they got the demonstrations under control. Given that the ministry bureaucrats were not necessarily interested in adding new students to the mix, thus potentially restarting the protests and were unsure whether safety for new students could be insured, increasing the amount of students in the first year and unsure, whether safety could be insured, they only agreed to give vague and non-committal answers suggesting that change could happen in this regard, if things the disorder was curtailed by the 15th of January. There was indeed a reason for why Katō believed that the university could be restored to order by that point in time. The student movement had reached its nadir since truly beginning in earnest with the number of occupied campuses having dropped to around 33 compared to 67 just prior to the Shinjuku incident. The role of police forces in this cannot be understated, particularly at a number of smaller private institutions like Sophia, where university officials had regained control of their facilities and instituted 'evacuation' policies like at Nihon, just within their own regained campuses. Other universities had seen deals reached between students willing to negotiate, like the ongoing formation of a leadership committee at Tokyo Imperial by groups of hisei and post-Syndicalists. Giving this false hope to an overly enthusiastic Katō would however prove to be quite a big mistake by the ministry officials, as the man set about on an energetic campaign to ensure that the entrance exams could take place thereby confirming what was to come.

Photograph of the Chichibunomiya talks between university and the normalisation faction leaderships.
​

Initially it seemed that Tokyo Imperial University might indeed be brought under control, as the events seemed to initially favour Katō, as hisei took to maintaining order and breaking up fights between the political students in order to maximise their own position in the negotiations that were to follow. The negotiations themselves, which took place on the Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, between the university officials and students seeking a return to normalcy also yielded fairly positive results with all faculty representatives agreeing to call for an end to the indefinite strikes in exchange for the university agreeing to fulfil the 10 demands that they had promised to do numerous times by this point. Even an attempt at provoke violence amounted to little more than the arrest of 100 or so radicals that refused to recognise the negotiations, even though primarily not being students at Tokyo Imperial. Almost overnight, the radicals that had thus far thrived by hiding out among the masses were forced into the open. This did not mean that they would surrender though, as rather than admit defeat, the hardliners instead doubled down seeking both strength in numbers, as radicals across various universities flocked to Tokyo Imperial, as well as fortifications, choosing to face the inevitably police raids in relative fortresses rather than out in the open. Yasuda Hall, the once de facto symbol of the unity of Japanese student protests in 1968, would once again leave a strong mark in the public consciousness during the Siege of Yasuda. This was despite the fact that it lasted a much shorter period and see less injuries than the Siege of Building No 8, whose defenders would last for more than a week against assaults by both riot police and rival students before being pushed to surrender on the 21st of January. This was primarily due to the large amounts of media coverage that Yasuda received as it was seen as an important symbol by both sides. The 16th of January has often called the start of the Yasuda Siege, as it was on this date that acting president Katō requested that the Metropolitan Police Department to clear out the campuses of Tokyo Imperial University of all barricades. In truth, actual efforts by riot police officers only began two days later. This was due to the fact that a lot of universities in Tokyo had requested such 'clearing services' at the same time and the police had their hands full with this work in addition to the end of the usual holiday rush. The 18th was the first day since the request, when the Metropolitan Police had enough time and resources to mount an attempt to retake the Hall. Thus at around 07:00 thousands of riot police officers arrived on the campus, managing to catch the students by surprise. Their initial efforts would only encounter sporadic resistance, largely due to the fact that most of the radicals had already abandoned all other buildings and withdrawn to Yasuda Hall. Although they had done so, it would still take until approximately 13:00 for all the outlying buildings, which were still thought to be in student hands, to be declared clear of any resistance. These efforts would also net the police their first catch of the day, consisting of the few that still hid out in the mostly abandoned buildings outside of Yasuda and had greeted police officers with rocks and fire-bottles.

The roof of Yasuda Hall would provide an important defensive as well as offensive point for the student radicals.
​

Thus in reality the true beginning of the Siege of Yasuda was at around 13:00 on the 18th of January, at which point police officials had finally managed to surround the building and lock down entry and exit into it. In an attempt to avoid a protracted siege, the police forces tried to assault the barricades, but were repelled as the fortifications at Yasuda proved much stronger than expected, primarily due to the fact that they had recently seen significant touching up. This seemingly headless charge brought about quite a bit of criticism, including some from student radicals that had begun to see themselves as experts of siege warfare due to their previous experience in taking buildings from their rivals. One of the defenders would later recall it as "sloppy" and "a surprising display of ignorance in regards to capturing garrisoned buildings". The failed attempt to push them out as well as an attempt to revive the Kanda Quartier Latin and through it relieve the radicals at Yasuda saw the morale of the defenders rise to unseen heights with some truly beginning to believe that they would be able to not only hold out against the police, but also to push them to retreat and agree to admit defeat. The fact that the second Kanda Quartier Latin fizzled out fairly quickly, after demonstrators went home at around 21:00 following short clashes with riot police, did little to sour the spirits of the defenders. In truth, while there are a number of things to criticise in the police attempts to retake Yasuda Hall, the optimism of the radicals defending it was very much unexplained. When faced with the possibility of casualties among students with rather influential parents, previous grand sweeping statements about "time for games being over" and "not treating the protesters with kiddy gloves" proved to be exaggerations, as the leaders of the operation had made it abundantly clear that their goal was to "inflict as few injuries as possible and to capture everyone inside radicals alive". Thus, many students were surprised when instead of rifle fire their presents - in the form of pavement stones the size of baseball plates, fire-bottles and even liquids such as gasoline and sulphuric acid - were met with water from fire hoses and canisters of tear gas. Whilst both were far from as deadly as bullets would have been, they still thinned out the numbers of defenders on the barricades fairly effectively. The police would attempt a few more unsuccessful assaults until settling in for the night at around 17:40. Although they may have been done for the day, they would strike even earlier the following day with the assaults beginning at approximately 06:30. Exhaustion and thinned ranks on behalf of the defenders meant that the attacks were a bit more successful this time. Slowly, but surely the police began to ascend the building, clearing the third floor auditorium at 15:30 and rounding up the final 90 holdouts on the roof at 17:46.

The police had initially planned to enter Yasuda Hall from somewhere in the middle, after breaking a hole into
the side of the building with a wrecking ball. The threat of casualties and the historic importance of
Yasuda Hall saw those plans scrapped and less harmful methods chosen.
​

The Siege of Yasuda would see a great number of both students as well as police officials rushed off to hospital as many had earned rather serious injuries from the exchange of 'gifts'. The final tally for arrests would number 633 and it is perhaps worth nothing that only 38 of them were students of Tokyo Imperial University with the rest belonging to the various other universities across Tokyo that had already been cleared. In many ways, the capture of Yasuda Hall hailed an end for the Zenkyōtō protests in Tokyo, as most of the radicals were rounded up at Yasuda and many others were caught after the fall of Building No 8, and in Tokyo Imperial University more specifically. The siege would however not mark the end of the Zenkyōtō across the Home Islands, as the results of the siege would have much more interesting consequences than anybody had expected. More than anything else, Yasuda Hall had been a symbol for the student resistance against the universities and the Imperial System. Thus although the barricades would come crashing down across Tokyo, reports of the ferocious fighting that had been undertaken to retake Tokyo Imperial spread across the Empire as wildfire through the medium of television, radio and newspapers. Rather than cow the students, these scenes inspired further resistance with the student demonstrations seeing a short resurgence, as the number of occupied campuses jumped from 33 in January to 111 by April. The centre of the movement would also firmly shift away from Tokyo to Kyoto. Western Japan had seen fewer demonstrations overall and relations between the demonstrators, the public and the university staff were still fairly amicable. Nowhere were these three conditions more fulfilled than at Kyoto Imperial University, where the staff staff rather openly offered their support for the protesters and protected them against police intervention. As mentioned this resurgence would be a short one, as an attempt establish a liberated zone in Central Kyoto prompted active intervention as well as another crackdown by police forces. Having left the protection offered by the campus meant that the staff could no longer protect them and the riot police put a quick end to these events. This failure prompted a domino effect, which would see a heavy police presence during the entrance exams for Kyoto Imperial after which the protests at Kyoto largely began to fizzle out. This tactic would be repeated in universities across the Empire to relatively the same effect, calming down the protests and bringing the more prominent phase of the Japanese student protests in the late '60s to an end. While there would still be attempts to repeat what had happened, the preventative stance taken by the police would nip most of these events in the bud. There is also a line of thought, which has tried to link this end to the demonstrations with the results of the February elections. There is a not a lot of merit to this idea, but it is worth consideration at least in regards to what it meant for the Japanese Empire.

As an alumni of Tokyo Imperial University, Prime Minister Satō took quite a bit of interest in the resolution of the crisis
even visiting the campus after the radicals had been dislodged as one of the final official functions of his premiership.
​

-----------------------------------------

 

[JodelDiplom]

Does the student movement have any leaders? You didn't give any names, so it comes across as quite an amorphous, nebulous, incomprehensible phenomenon that will only be remembered for the disruption to people's lives and and damage to buildings that it caused. (Which is certainly a lot, but buildings can be repainted, while favorable impressions of charismatic individuals can stay in people's minds for a long time)

But surely there were prominent individuals with leadership roles in the movement? Individuals whose statements, attitudes and defiance inspired some, put off others, and left a mark in history? It's so hard to follow the events and understand what they mean, when otherwise it's really quite without high or low points, and no perceivable "progress" towards its mostly academic specific goals.

And what did the student activists really want to happen, in wider society? It was mentioned early on, that there wasn't much resistance against the ongoing draft, which struck me as odd since the one thing that's guaranteed to turn young adults into fighters for their own interests, is to tell them the state will shear their hair, stuff them into uniforms, and order them to become fighters for other people's interests in a far away land. Japan is still embroiled in a quagmire in China, trying to prop up a vicious and half collapsed regime against a genuinely popular republican resistance that likely has world wide support. Wouldn't that rile up students too? Are there any outrageous solidarity demonstrations of Japanese students cheering for the Chinese Guomindang? Famous TV and cinema stars, visiting Guangdong and shaking hands with Madam Sun, to the outrage of the patriotic Japanese press?