Peace Preservation Law
Peace Preservation Law 治安維持法 | |
---|---|
National Diet of Japan | |
Passed | April 22, 1925 |
Repealed | October 15, 1945 |
Status: Repealed |
The Peace Preservation Law (治安維持法, Chian iji hō) was a Japanese law enacted on April 22, 1925, with the aim of allowing the
Passage
Following the
Provisions
The law provided:[2]
Anyone who has formed an association with the aim of altering the kokutai or the system of private property, and anyone who has joined such an association with full knowledge of its object, shall be liable to imprisonment with or without hard labor, for a term not exceeding ten years.
By using the highly vague and subjective term kokutai, the law attempted to blend politics and ethics, but the result was that any political opposition could be branded as "altering the kokutai". Thus the government had carte blanche to outlaw any form of dissent.
Consequences
In 1927, a sub-bureau, the "Thought Section," was established within the Criminal Affairs Bureau of the Special Higher Police within the
Renewed underground activity by the banned
By 1933, coerced "ideological conversions" (転向, tenkō) had become the main means of enforcing the Peace Preservation Law, rather than judicial punishment.[3] In order to elicit tenkō from prisoners suspected of ideological radicalism, the police employed physical torture, as well as psychological torture and familial pressure.[3]
In the 1930s, with Japan's increasing
From 1925 through 1945, over 70,000 people were arrested under the provisions of the Peace Preservation Law, but only about 10% reached trial, and the death penalty was imposed on only two offenders, spy Richard Sorge and his informant, Hotsumi Ozaki. The Peace Preservation Law was repealed following the end of World War II by the American occupation authorities. The repeal was effected on October 15, 1945.
References
- ISBN 0393041565.
- ^ Richard H. Mitchell, "Japan's Peace Preservation Law of 1925: Its Origins and Significance." Monumenta Nipponica (1973): 317-345.
- ^ a b Tipton, Elise K. (1997). "The Tokko and Political Police in Japan, 1911-1945". In Mazower, Mark (ed.). The Policing of Politics in the Twentieth Century: Historical Perspectives. Berghahn Books. p. 234.
Further reading
- Minichiello, Sharon. Retreat from Reform: Patterns of Political Behavior in Interwar Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 1984).
- Mitchell, Richard H. "Japan's Peace Preservation Law of 1925: Its Origins and Significance." Monumenta Nipponica (1973): 317–345. online
- Mitchell, Richard H. Thought Control in Prewar Japan, Cornell University Press, 1976