Akahata Incident - Clash of Ideology and Power in the Taisho Democracy Period (1908)

Akahata Incident - Clash of Ideology and Power in the Taisho Democracy Period (1908)

The Akahata Incident was a suppression incident involving a socialist rally in Tokyo in 1908. The socialists gathered around the "Heiminsha," or "commoners' society," and raised the "red flag" as a symbol as they appealed for workers' liberation and class struggle. This red flag was an international symbol of the socialist movement, and for the Japanese officials it was nothing less than a challenge to the systemic order.

The authorities considered this a serious threat and even mobilized the army to forcibly disperse the rally. Participants were rounded up and socialists, including Koutoku Akisui, were imprisoned. In the process, harsh interrogations and torture were carried out, and the ideological movement was temporarily devastated. After the incident, socialist activities disappeared from the public stage and were relegated to underground activities or exile abroad.

The historical background was the embryonic period of Taisho democracy, when urbanization and labor problems were becoming more serious, while the nation was facing financial difficulties and social unrest after the Russo-Japanese War. As party politics gradually developed, socialism and anarchism were viewed as hostile and subject to suppression as "dangerous ideas that would disrupt public order. In particular, the Security Police Law enacted in 1900 severely restricted the labor movement and assembly and association, and the Red Flag incident was the most symbolic example of its application.

The Aka-hata incident caused a serious setback to the movement, but at the same time it left a strong public impression of socialist ideology as being in "head-to-head confrontation with power. The movement of the nonprofit movement thereafter remembered this incident as a symbolic starting point, and developed within the framework of repression and resistance.