Mishima Incident

Visit and restraint of commander character was written in hiragana . The Eastern Army Headquarters, that was located here, was relocated to Camp Asaka in 1994. At around 10:58 am, on November 25, 1970, Yukio Mishima (age 45), along with four other members of the Tatenokai, Masakatsu Morita (age 25), (age 22), (age 22), and Hiroyasu Koga (age 23), passed through the main gate (Yotsuya Gate) of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force at , Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, by their car, and arrived at the main entrance leading to the Commandant General's office on the second floor of the Eastern Army Headquarters. They were guided up the front stairs by Major , who had greeted them, and then shown to the Commandant General's office by Colonel (age 50), head of the Commandant General's Office of Operations. This visit had been booked for November 21, and Sergeant of the Operations Office had contacted the guard post via internal line, saying, "Mr. Yukio Mishima will be arriving by car around 11 o'clock, so please give him a free pass." The gatekeeper, Sergeant , simply exchanged salutes with Mishima in the passenger seat and he was allowed through.) for a tenugui (traditional Japanese thin, strong towel) to wipe off the oil, saying, "Koga, a handkerchief", which was a prearranged signal to begin action. However, General Mashita made an unexpected move by heading toward his desk and saying, "How about ?" Mishima immediately drew his military sword, Seki Magoroku, and slashed at their backs and other parts of their bodies. The melee left a sword cut near the door handle. The time was about 11:20 am. Hiroyasu Koga threw small tables and chairs at the men, and Masahiro Ogawa fought back with a . When Colonel Kiyono threw an ashtray at Chibi-Koga, who was watching the General Mashita, Mishima attacked with his sword to Kiyono. The staff members who had retreated outside, broke the window of the Commandant General's office from the hallway at around 11:30 am to discuss with Mishima. {{Blockquote|text= (1) All JSDF personnel of Camp Ichigaya to be assembled in front of the main building by 11:30 am. (2) Listen quietly to the speeches as set below. :(a) Mishima's speech (scattering our Geki) :(b) Participated students announce their names. :(c) Mishima's instructions to the remaining members of the Tatenokai (3) The remaining members of the Tatenokai (who are unrelated to this incident) must be quickly summoned from the Ichigaya Hall to make them attend in line. (4) For the two-hour period from 11:30 am to 13:10 pm, there to be no obstruction of any kind. As long as no obstruction of any kind is done, we will not launch any attacks. (5) Once the above conditions have been fully complied with and two hours have elapsed, the Commandant General will be handed over to him in safety. He will be escorted by two or more our guards and handed over to you at the main entrance of the main building while still restrained (to prevent him from committing suicide). (6) If the above conditions are not met, or there is any risk that they will not be met, Mishima will kill the Commandant General at once, and will commit suicide. The senior staff officers decided to accept Mishima's Demands, and at around 11:34 am, Lieutenant Colonel Yoshimatsu told Mishima, "We have decided to assemble the JSDF personnel." Mishima asked him, "Who are you? What authority do you have?" General Mashita, whose hands were numb, asked the rope to be loosened a little, then tried to persuade Mishima by saying, "Why are you doing this? Do you hate the JSDF or me? Depending on the content, I may give the speech on your behalf." He then said, "I have come today to give the JSDF the greatest stimulation and rousing themself." At 11:40 am, an announcement was made over the microphones within the Camp Ichigaya, repeatedly saying, "Those who are not interfere with your operations should assemble in front of the main building entrance." By this time, the first reports of the incident had already been broadcast on television and radio. Confusing information was exchanged among them, with some reporting that "a mob has broken in and someone had been slashed," Riot Police Unit members carrying duralumin shields, and the vehicles belonging to newspaper and television reporters were also gathered in the front yard. On that day, about 30 members of the Tatenokai had come to the Ichigaya Hall in Camp Ichigaya, located only about 50 meters from the Eastern Army Headquarters building, for their regular meeting, but the JSDF senior staff officers did not accept Mishima's demands and instead confined them inside the hall, placing them under police guard and not summoning them to assemble in front of the main entrance of the Eastern Army Headquarters building. A skirmish broke out between the Tatenokai 30 members, who were upset by the ominous situation, and police or the JSDF, and the members of Tatenokai were subdued with pistols. A siren announcing noon rang out in the sky above Camp Ichigaya, and Mishima stood on the balcony, When a heckler shouted, "Why did you hurt our comrades?", Mishima immediately responded with fierce forceful voice, saying, "It's because they resisted our demands." "There were parts where I couldn't hear what he was saying because of the heckling, but emotionally I understood that Mishima might have had a point," he said, making an assertion that once the command had been given to gather the troops, they should have lined up properly by unit and listened. One has speculated that Mishima cut his speech short because he caught the wind of the Riot Police Unit make to storm into the first floor then. After wrapping up his speech, Mishima and Morita headed towards the Imperial Palace and chanted three times. Based on Morita's information, Mishima mistakenly thought that only the regimental commander was absent. Mishima did not use a microphone because he placed an emphasis on getting as close as possible to the spirituality of the Shinpūren rebellion by the , one of the parties formed by samurai with the philosophy of Sonnō jōi. He adhered on using his own voice to roar, without using a microphone or loudspeaker. The Weekly magazine reporter and NHK reporter had been contacted in advance by Mishima and were promised to come to Ichigaya Hall at 11:00 am on the morning of the day. When Tokuoka and Date arrived at the hall, they were each given an envelope containing Mishima's letter, Geki, and the last commemorative photo of the five men, via and , respectively, of the Tatenokai members who were close friends of Masakatsu Morita. Mishima had entrusted it to them in case the Geki was confiscated by the police and the incident was covered up. "Why didn't they calm their minds a little more and listen?" Nippon Cultural Broadcasting was the only station to record the entire speech. By tying a microphone to a tree branch, they managed to capture a clear recording of Mishima's voice shouting angrily at the JSDF personnel, "Are you really bushi at all like that!" amid the roar of insults and the noise of news helicopters, and this became a scoop. Committing seppuku At around 12:10 pm, Mishima returned to the Commandant General's office with Morita from the balcony and muttered to himself, "I probably spoke for about 20 minutes. It seems my message didn't get across." Then, on the red carpet about three meters away from the General Mashita, with his upper body naked, holding the tantō in both hands, sat seiza-style facing the balcony, then tried to dissuade Morita from committing suicide by telling him, words: "Morita, you must live, not die.", "You stop dying." According to the plan, Mishima would write the character "" on a piece of with the blood of seppuku, so Chibi-Koga handed the paper over to Mishima, who replied, "I don't have to do that anymore," with a sad smile, and handed him the expensive watch he was wearing on his right arm, saying, "Koga, I'll give this to you." During the war, Mashita served as a staff officer in the Imperial Japanese Army, and just after the war ended he was once asked for observer of the committing seppuku, from his close friend and colleague, Major . As they were being taken away in a patrol car from the main entrance where a crowd of reporters was waiting, some JSDF officers punched the three on the head, so the police officer stopped them, shouting, "You idiots! What are you doing?" Sassa rushed to the scene from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, but was too late in time to stop Mishima from committing suicide. Although the plan called for Chibi-Koga, Furu-Koga and Ogawa to live, there was always the possibility of something unforeseen developing which might require them also to die. Their death poems are as follows: {{Quote frame |quote= 散るをいとふ 世にも人にも さきがけて 散るこそ花と 吹く小夜嵐 (Chiru wo itou Yo ni mo Hito ni mo Sakigakete Chiru koso Hana to Fuku Sayoarashi) A small night storm blows / Saying 'falling is the essence of a flower' / Preceding those who hesitate. Storm winds at night blow / The message that to fall before / The world and before men / By whom falling is dreaded / Is the mark of a flower. Aftermath of the day Among the about 30 members of the Tatenokai who were under guard by police and riot police in the Ichigaya Hall, those in Morita's friend group were upset when they heard about the incident, and violently resisted, demanding to be allowed to go to the scene, leading to three of them, who were , , and , being arrested for . The members who remained in the hall were asked to them, and after lining up and singing the national anthem "Kimigayo", and chanted three times, they were taken to . He misread the kanji characters , in the news flash captions, "介錯" (kaishaku) for , and was upset and resented the doctor, wondering why Mishima died despite being given care. Meanwhile, Mishima's mother, , and his wife, , who heard about the situation while out, rushed home, and the family was thrown into chaos as if it were a bolt from the blue. A little after 12:30 pm, at the press conference held inside the Eastern Army Headquarters, an excited exchange began between the Metropolitan Police Department official who first announced that the two men had committed suicide and the newspaper reporters who were rapidly asking about whether they were alive or dead. Groans and murmurs spread among the reporters, when they learned for the first time that the two men's heads had been decapitated. Over nine right-wing groups flocked to the front of the Camp Ichigaya. At a press conference held at the Defense Agency from 12:30 pm, Minister of Defense Yasuhiro Nakasone called the incident "a very regrettable incident" and criticized Mishima's actions as "an enormous nuisance" and "destructive to democratic order." Prime Minister Eisaku Satō, who heard the news at the Prime Minister's Office, was also surrounded by reporters and commented, "I can only think that he has gone mad. This is out of the ordinary." One British journalist, after hearing the words of politicians such as Nakasone and Satō, tearfully told a literary critic , "Why is there not a single politician who defends Mishima? Mishima has never seemed so great and Japanese politicians have never seemed so small." After being released, General Mashita appeared before the JSDF personnel and greeted them, waving his left hand high and saying, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but as you can see, I'm doing fine. Please don't worry." Surrounded by reporters, Kawabata, looking stunned and exhausted, said, "I am simply shocked. I never imagined something like this would happen – It's a shame he died in this way." Ishihara commented to the assembled press corps, "It can only be described as modern-day madness," and "It was a very fruitless act that risked his young lives." At 2:00 pm, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department set up the "Special Investigation Headquarters for the Case of the Tatenokai's Infiltration into the JSDF, Illegal Confinement, and Seppuku Suicide" within . One of the JSDF highest-ranking officers concluded his impressions of that day by saying, "The reaction of the JSDF personnel after learning of Mishima's suicide changed completely. Some ethnic nationalist students and other right-wing groups came to the Police Station to pay their respects, and a temporary altar was set up, but it was soon removed. Shortly after 10 pm, the Metropolitan Police Department began searches of Mishima's residence and Morita's apartment. A large number of reporters were crowded on the street in front of the closed gate of Mishima's residence, and behind them, female students who were Mishima fans could be seen crying and embracing each other's shoulders. The autopsies determined that the cause of death for both men was "Disconnection of the neck due to a split wound," with the following findings: Also, a former Imperial Japanese Army Sergeant , the president of Shibuya's and the donor of "Seki Magoroku", saw during questioning at Ushigome Police Station that both ends of the had been crushed to prevent the blade from being pulled out. Sword appraisal expert determined that the sword crest on Mishima's sword is not "", but "," and that the base fabric of the sword is quite soft, different from the method used by "Seki Magoroku". {{Blockquote|text= Your mission is to escort the hostages together with comrade Hiroyasu Koga, and after safely delivering them, be arrested as a criminal and make an honorable statement in court about the spirit of the Tatenokai.This incident was planned, devised, and ordered by Mishima, the captain of the Tatenokai, and student leader Masakatsu Morita participated in it. Mishima's is only natural given my responsibilities as captain, but Masakatsu Morita's jijin is a brave and solemn act that he voluntarily represents all Tatenokai members and the current patriotically motivating young people of Japan, also sets an example and try to demonstrating the spirit of youth to which should be able to make the weep.Regardless of Mishima, you should spread Morita's spirit to later generations. The three suspects, Masayoshi Koga, Masahiro Ogawa, and Hiroyasu Koga, were sent to prosecutors on November 27 on suspicion of six offenses: , , , Assault, , Possession of Firearms or Swords and Other Such Weapons. On December 17, they were indicted on five offenses: Participation in Assisted Suicide; Consensual Homicide, Criminal Injury, , Assault, . == After the incident ==

Reactions Reactions to the incident came from a wide range of people, including newspaper reports, relations of the Self-Defense Forces, political activists, writers and cultural figures. Funerals, memorials, trials, etc. November 26 to the December 1970 After an autopsy was completed at on November 26, the day after the incident, the heads and bodies of both Mishima and Morita's corpses were neatly sutured. Just before 3 pm, Mishima's corpse was handed over to his younger brother, , in the morgue, and Morita's corpse was handed over to his older brother, . However, he found his son's head and body had been sutured neatly, dressed in the Tatenokai uniform, with a guntō firmly clutched at his chest, The Tatenokai uniform and guntō were in accordance with Mishima's will that he entrusted to his friend, , and the funeral makeup was applied with special care by police officers on a voluntary, they saying, "We applied the makeup carefully with special feelings, because it is the body of Mishima Sensei, whom we have always respected secretly." On 26, the same day, at the main gate of Waseda University, where Masakatsu Morita studied, a large signboard mourning Mishima and Morita was erected by the and the Waseda University National Defense Club, and portraits of the two men and an incense burner were also placed there. Morita's was also held by the Tatenokai members at around 6 pm on November 26 at in Yoyogi. Morita's posthumous Buddhist name was . Some of the members suggested that if one member committed suicide every year, it would be possible to continue making an appeal to society. Morita's second wake was held the following day, November 27, at his family home in Yokkaichi-shi, Mie Prefecture, and the funeral was held on November 28 at Catholic Church, at the request of his Catholic brother Osamu, and Morita's cremains were interred at around 4 pm. This was the origin of the memorial service, which would later become an annual event on Mishima's deathday. On the same day, a "Gathering to remember Mr. Yukio Mishima" was held at the Sankei Hall in Osaka, organized by 10 people including Fusao Hayashi, and was attended by approximately 2,000 people. On January 24, a clear, sunny day from the morning, Mishima's funeral and farewell ceremony was held at Tsukiji Hongan-ji from 1 pm. {{Blockquote|text= To me, you were an irreplaceable mentor. Your blood painted the whole polluted skies of modern Japan in brilliant color like a burning rainbow in the evening glow. (Omitted)Sensei, you were always caring us, without showing it. You showed us the possibility of simultaneously possessing burning passion and a cool-headed intellect. Your clear flame was the light that always guided us. (Omitted) That beautiful flame that you lit with your own body will never go out, but will continue to burn above the heads of those who love and respect you. Other attendees included Taisuke Fujishima, Kishin Shinoyama, Tadanori Yokoo, Toshiro Mayuzumi, Hiroshi Akutagawa, Kosuke Gomi, Nobuo Nakamura, Akiyuki Nosaka, Yasushi Inoue, Masatoshi Nakayama, and Takao Tokuoka. A temporary nursing facility and a toilet car were set up at the funeral hall, and 100 plainclothes and uniformed police officers, 50 riot police, and 46 security guards were on guard. The next day, on January 25, the chairman of "Japan Students' League" announced its plan to launch the , The words "," "," "," and "" were inscribed on the monument. On February 28, the Tatenokai's dissolution ceremony was held at the in , Arakawa-ku, attended by Mishima's wife Yōko and 75 members. Yōko's family, the Sugiyama family, had deep ties to Shinto and connections to the Shinto Misogi Daikyokai, so the ceremony was held there. , a 1st generation member and the leader of 2nd team, read the "Statement", and announced the dissolution of the Tatenokai, conveying the contents of Mishima's will, in which stated, "With the uprising, the Tatenokai will be dissolved." In addition to the families of the three defendants, and Azusa Hiraoka, Yōko, and lawyer , the executor of Mishima's will, attended the hearing. The poem was also introduced and recited by Mishima's friend Toshiro Mayuzumi during the trial in response to a question about Mishima's reputation abroad. As they had admitted to the crimes and there was no risk of them destroying evidence or fleeing, the three were released from the Tokyo Detention House at 5 pm and were greeted by Yōko. They held a press conference at the Akasaka Prince Hotel from 7 pm. The was by Yōko Hiraoka (Sign name was Yōko Mishima). The 14th court hearing was held on December 6, and Minister of Defense Yasuhiro Nakasone, who was the chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party's General Affairs Committee, took the stand to testify. Nakasone stated that when he said "it's an enormous nuisance" immediately after the incident, he was speaking in his capacity as a public figure, and that he did it to prevent any disturbances within the JSDF. He also stated that while he did not fully agree with Mishima's views, he believed that Mishima had done it "with the unavoidable Yamato-damashii, knowing that this would happen if he did this," and that he wanted to accept and digest the incident in his own way as a politician, said that "I feel more compassion than hatred." That was the day he was scheduled to hand over the preface to his disciple for the Judicial record of the "Mishima Incident" to be published in May, but the preface had been not written. On April 27, 1972, the 18th and final court hearing of the "Tatenokai Incident" trial, in which a variety of people such as Yasuhiro Nakasone, Takeshi Muramatsu, and Toshiro Mayuzumi had testified as witnesses from the first to the 17th court hearing, was held, and three men, Masayoshi Koga, Masahiro Ogawa, and Hiroyasu Koga, were sentenced to four years in prison sentence. And, since 1972, a memorial service named by Tsutomu Abe after Morita's death poem has been held annually on November 24, sponsored by Issuikai and who had been a 1st generation Tatenokai member as a celebrant. The reason the memorial service is held the day before, rather than on the anniversary of his death, is to reflect on Morita's state of mind as he was about to uprise the next day. According to Mashita's eldest son, , Mashita did not resent Mishima until the latter end, and yearned him calling "Mishima-san." After their release, the three went to meet and apologize to the JSDF officers who were injured in the incident, together with Morita's older brother Osamu. After Hiroyasu Koga was released, he studied Shinto at and qualified as a Shinto priest at in Tsurumi-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka Prefecture. Other former Tatenokai members began to gather at the place where Koga and 2 others held the memorial service for Mishima and Morita at same name shrine in Kanagawa Prefecture, from then on, "Memorial services for Mishima and Morita," conducted only by the former Tatenokai members, began to be held every year. After that, the "Mishima Morita Office" was established as a liaison office between the former members and the Hiraoka family. On March 29, 1975, , a writer who, like Mishima, viewed the February 26 incident in a positive light and who had strong sympathy for the Mishima Incident, committed suicide slashing the carotid artery in his own throat with a Japanese sword at his home. On December 16, 1976, Mishima's father, , died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 82. After being persuaded by Yōko, they surrendered and the incident came to an end. On August 9, 1980, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper carried the full text of Mishima's suicide note addressed to Kiyoshi Kuramochi, a 1st generation Tatenokai member, in which he apologized for being unable to act as matchmaker at Kuramochi's wedding due to the incident. On November 24 of the same year, Colonel and several former members of Tatenokai held a "10th Anniversary Memorial Service for the Martyrs Yukio Mishima and Masakatsu Morita" at the in Ichigaya. Shinjuku-ku. The inaugural issue of the weekly photo magazine Friday, published in November 1984, featured a close-up of Mishima's severed head. In response, his widow, Yōko, strongly protested to the publisher Kodansha, which prevented publication. On October 11, 1999, Tsutomu Abe, a founder of Issuikai, died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 53. On July 18, 2001, died at the age of 82. On April 7 and 8, 2001, a memorial symposium, was held in Rome, Italy. The background to the realization of this event was that , a professor at Kyoto Sangyo University, had introduced and Mishima in his native Italy, which led to research into the values shared between Ancient Rome and Mishima, and Mishima's popularity also increased in Rome. 2010 to present On November 25, 2010, a was erected at in Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture, as the shrine that formally enshrines Mishima and Morita by former Tatenokai members. On November 26, 2018, , a former Tatenokai member and participant in the Mishima Incident, died of heart failure at the age of 70, the day after the anniversary of the deaths of Mishima and Morita. Ogawa's funeral and farewell ceremony was held from 11 am on November 29 at a funeral home in Hamamatsu-shi, Shizuoka Prefecture, where he lived. The chief mourner was his eldest son, . Ogawa referred to Mishima as "" throughout his life. == Mishima and the JSDF (The process leading up to the incident) ==

Mishima's relationship with the Japan Self-Defense Forces started in 1966, and after that, the founding of the militia Tatenokai and other events led to the search for a plan to turn the Self-Defense Forces into a national army, which ultimately led to the Mishima Incident. == Mishima's suicide notes addressed to the Tatenokai members ==

The suicide note Mishima had written to the Tatenokai member (whose married family name was Honda), a 1st generation member and the leader of 2nd team, was handed to Kuramochi by Mishima's wife Yōko on the night of the incident. Mishima had been asked by Kuramochi to act as the matchmaker at his wedding and he had gladly accepted, so Mishima wrote that it would have been impossible for him to "lead Kuramochi down the path of ruin and death" or to "betray your fiancee and make you act," and he left a will expressing his wish that Kuramochi live a happy life. Kuramochi read the letter in a room in the Mishima residence and was moved to tears by the kindness of his mentor, who had died so concerned about his private life. {{Blockquote|text= My small uprising was the result of much deliberation, and after taking into consideration all the conditions, that I fed our only way into it. At the same time, the way was to one that is predetermined definite death. As someone who had criticized the lack of responsibility of the left-wing students' actions, I had no choice but to take the one path I should take. That is why I had to be extremely strict in selecting the members involved, and I had no choice but to consider keeping the them to a very small number and minimizing the number of casualties as much as possible.How I had longing for and dreaming of rising up for justice together with the all Tatenokai members. However, the situation had already made this impossible, and since that had happened, I thought it would be humanity not to inform non-participants of anything. I in no way think that I have betrayed you guys. (Omitted) I hope that you will understand my feelings, get a job, get married, and make your way through the waves of life, which is like a vast ocean, without forgetting your true ideals as you grow up. The envelope containing the letter to Kuramochi was enclosed a suicide note addressed to all Tatenokai members too, which was passed around and everyone read, at Masakatsu Morita's wake held on November 26, the day after the incident. The members who read it recalled that they felt Mishima's consideration for those left behind. {{Blockquote|text= Just as I have often tested your aspirations with harsh words, the dream in my mind was for all Tatenokai members to come together, rise up for justice, and realize the ideas of the association. This was the greatest dream of my life. The Tatenokai should have pooled all its strength to return Japan to its true form. (Omitted) Rejecting the empty theories of the revolutionary youth, we have striven for the path of the warrior, with actions spoken before words. If the time had come, the true worth of the Tatenokai could have been proven before the eyes of the entire nation.However, the right time was not come, and we lost the opportunity to act together for our ideas. Under the semblance of stability, Japan was showing signs of irreparable cancer in its soul with each passing day, and we had to sit idly by. At the time when we most needed to act, the situation was not on our side. (Omitted) Even if Japan sinks into the depths of decadence, you are the last young people of Japan who have learned the spirit of the samurai and been trained as samurai. When you abandon your ideals, Japan will perish. I have only thought of teaching you the pride of being a man. I hope that you have once joined the Tatenokai, you will never forget for the rest of your lives what the words mean. What you gain in your youth is your lifelong treasure. You must never abandon it. == Various views on the meaning of Mishima's death ==

There are many different views about Mishima's death, including that it was an aesthetic suicide for the artist's sake, or that he was politically serious, and while many knowledgeable persons are eager to share their opinions about the mystery of his death, some of his fellow literary figures and left-wing intellectuals at the time remained silent and said nothing, or even chose to ignore the incident, feeling guilty for not taking any action themselves. == Others, episodes etc. ==

About Mishima In the one hour-long interview dialogue with , held at Mishima's residence in , Ōta-ku, on the evening of November 18, one week before his suicide, Mishima had repeated two or three times, "You'll see," when the topic turned to the Tatenokai, and when Furubayashi had asked him about his future plans after The Sea of Fertility tetralogy, he had said, "At the moment, I have no plans for next work." It is said that the image of Petronius that Mishima had in his mind was come from Petronius in Henryk Sienkiewicz's historical fiction Quo Vadis. About other After the Mishima incident, there were newspaper articles about several high school students and young men who followed in his footsteps and committed suicide. On September 9 of the following year, 1971, the Mainichi Shimbun reported that a high school student in Hachiōji-shi, had poured gasoline over himself and set himself on fire in the schoolyard, carrying two of Mishima's books. The following year, on February 11, 1974, National Foundation Day, Hijikata's nephew, a 25-year-old young man named , a former Kokushikan University student from Hiroshima-shi, Hiroshima Prefecture who also admired Mishima, committed seppuku at the of Yasukuni Shrine. Also, a young editor at Shinchosha left the company, saying, "With Mr. Mishima's death, my life came to an end too." (It is unclear whether he subsequently committed suicide.) In the case of the that occurred in 1949, the real culprit was inspired and reformed himself by the Mishima Incident, and came forward to the police in 1971. As a result, a man who had been serving a prison sentence on a false charge was later acquitted in a retrial. Naoki Inose, who was a New Left student activist at Shinshu University, came to Tokyo after the Anpo protests, and started a temporary staffing business through an acquaintance to take on the final stages of cleaning and tidying up building construction sites. According to Inose, around 1972, he worked for a few days in a lumber warehouse along the Sumida River with S, a quiet hippie who had come to him in response to a part-time job advertisement. According to Tadanori Yokoo, who was close to Takakura or Mishima, the concrete plans were being finalized and Takakura traveled to Los Angeles many times. and 50 years after the incident he even told, "They were really beautiful. They showed a natural, nice look, different from his usual intimidating expression." The building of the Eastern Army Headquarters (Building No. 1), that contained the Commandant General's office at the scene of the Mishima Incident, was demolished in 1994, but part of the building, including the Commandant General's office, has been recreated and preserved as the in another corner of the ground, and three sword marks made by Mishima on a pillar during the fight with the JSDF officers still remain there. According to Boris Akunin, who published a Russian translation of Mishima's Patriotism and an essay about Mishima's life in a magazine in 1988, a prisoner in Minsk committed seppuku by a spoon after reading the essay and Patriotism. Also, Russian writer Eduard Limonov was influenced by Mishima and the Tatenokai, and formed the National Bolshevik Party, earning the nickname "Russian Mishima." == Japan-related Social events before and after the Mishima Incident ==

• 1958 • November 9 – Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi told NBC reporter Brown that "It is time to abolish Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution". • December – Communist League was formed. – • 1959 • November 27 – 20,000 demonstrators shouting "Stop the U.S.–Japan Security Treaty" stormed into the National Diet Building. • October 12 – Japan Socialist Party Chairman Inejirō Asanuma was stabbed to death by right-wing youth Otoya Yamaguchi. – Assassination of Inejirō Asanuma • 1961 • February 1 – Over the publication of Shichirō Fukazawa's short story , a right-wing youth Kazutaka Komori broke into the private home of Chuokoron-Shinsha president Hōji Shimanaka and killed his housekeeper and his wife. – Project 596 • 1965 • June 22 – The Treaty on Basic Relations Between Japan and the Republic of Korea was signed. • 1966 • May 16 – The Cultural Revolution had begun by Mao Zedong in People's Republic of China. • June 28 – The Sanrizuka Struggle had begun. • December 17 – The three factions of the All-Japan Federation of Student Self-Government Associations was formed, which consists of three factions: the Chukaku-ha, the , and the Japan Socialist Youth League, Liberation Faction. • February 28 – Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata, Jun Ishikawa, and Kōbō Abe issued statements of protest against China's Cultural Revolution. • April 15 – Ryokichi Minobe, recommended by the Socialist Party and the Communist Party, was elected governor of Tokyo. • June 17 – The People's Republic of China conducted its first hydrogen bomb test. – • August 28 – The Red Army Faction of the Communist League was formed. The New Left launched a campaign to prevent Eisaku Satō from visiting the U.S. • March 14 – September 13 – The Japan World Exposition was held in Suita, Osaka Prefecture. • August 3 – A huge brawl broke out in Shibuya, between the Chukaku-ha and Kakumaru-ha. • November – 100,000 people and Chukaku-ha participated in a general strike against the Okinawa Reversion Agreement. – , • 1972 • January 24 – Former Sergeant, Shoichi Yokoi was found in Guam. • February 3–13 – The 11th Winter Olympics was held in Sapporo-shi, Hokkaido. • February 19–28 – A hostage taking incident by the United Red Army occurred at a mountain lodge in Karuizawa-machi, Nagano Prefecture. – Asama-Sansō incident • February 21 – US-China Reconciliation. – 1972 visit by Richard Nixon to China • April 16 – Yasunari Kawabata committed suicide by gas at his workplace in Zushi-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture. • May 15 – Okinawa was returned. – • September 29 – Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka visited the People's Republic of China, and Japan–China Joint Communiqué was signed. – == Works based on or inspired by the Mishima incident ==

Film • Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters directed by Paul Schrader (1985) • Starring: Ken Ogata as Yukio Mishima • 11/25 The Day Mishima Chose His Own Fate directed by Kōji Wakamatsu (2012) • Starring: Arata Iura as Yukio Mishima TV • produced by TV Asahi (1984) • Narrator: Kei Satō • Witnesses: Shigeru Amachi, Donald Keene, , Shūsuke Nomura, Akihiro Miwa, others Manga, Anime • Yuuyake Banchō Volume 15 written by Ikki Kajiwara and Illustrated by (1971) • (2004, Production I.G) Literary works • written by Kenzaburō Ōe (1971, Gunzo, later same title book published in October 1972 by Kodansha, • ) written by Tetsuji Takechi (1972, Toshi shuppan, ) • A mysterious tale of Mishima's head flying over the Kantō region and arguing with the head of Taira no Masakado. • written by Renzaburō Shibata (1972, Shinchosha) • written by (1978, Shueisha) • written by (1993, Kawade Shobō Shinsha) • written by Kō Machida (2002, Gunzo, later included in published in March 2003 by Kodansha) • written by Tomoyuki Hoshino (2007, Shueisha) • A story that the of Mishima, who died at the Camp Ichigaya, floating and looks back on his life. • written by (2015, Kodansha) • Disguise performance as Mishima • ) performed by Yasumasa Morimura (2007) • ditto Poetry • Harakiri written by István Bálint. • 12 Haiku poems. Appendix of 's book translated into French. • written by Emmanuel Rothen (1970) • written by (1971) • described at the conclusion of the eulogy "Rainbow Gate". • & Haiku written by Genki Fujii (2007) • Reading at the 38th , 37th Anniversary of His Death. • lyrics by , composition by Masao Koga, singing by Hisao Itō (1971) • A memorial song for Masakatsu Morita. • lyrics/composition and singing by (1971) == See also ==