Otoya Yamaguchi

In this Japanese name, the surname is Yamaguchi.

Otoya Yamaguchi
山口 二矢
A photograph taken by Yasushi Nagao of Otoya Yamaguchi attempting to stab Inejirō Asanuma for a second time.
Born(1943-02-22)22 February 1943
Taitō, Tokyo, Japan
Died2 November 1960(1960-11-02) (aged 17)
Nerima, Tokyo, Japan
Cause of deathSuicide by hanging
Resting placeAoyama Cemetery, Minami-Aoyama, Tokyo
Known forAssassination of Inejirō Asanuma

Otoya Yamaguchi (山口 二矢, Yamaguchi Otoya, 22 February 1943 – 2 November 1960) was a Japanese right-wing ultranationalist youth who assassinated Inejirō Asanuma, chairman of the Japan Socialist Party, on 12 October 1960. Yamaguchi rushed the stage and stabbed Asanuma with a wakizashi-like short sword while Asanuma was participating in a televised election debate at Hibiya Public Hall in Tokyo. Yamaguchi, who was 17 years of age at the time, had been a member of Bin Akao's far-right Greater Japan Patriotic Party, but had resigned earlier that year, just prior to the assassination.[1] After being arrested and interrogated, Yamaguchi committed suicide while in a detention facility.

Yamaguchi became a hero and a martyr to Japanese far-right groups, who as of 2022,[2] have continued to hold commemorations to this day.[3] Yamaguchi's actions inspired a number of copycat crimes, including the Shimanaka incident in 1961, and inspired Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kenzaburō Ōe's novellas Seventeen and Death of a Political Youth.[4][5] A photograph of the Asanuma assassination taken by Japanese photojournalist Yasushi Nagao won World Press Photo of the Year for 1960 and the 1961 Pulitzer Prize.[6][7]

  1. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 252–53. ISBN 9780674988484.
  2. ^ Webmaster (2 November 2020). "山口二矢烈士御命日墓参". 大日本愛国党 (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 12 May 2023. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kapur254 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 257. ISBN 9780674988484.
  5. ^ Weston, Mark (1999). Giants of Japan: The Lives of Japan's Most Influential Men and Women. New York: Kodansha International. p. 295. ISBN 1-568362862.
  6. ^ "The 1961 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Photography". The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  7. ^ "1961 Photo Contest, World Press Photo of the Year". World Press Photo. Retrieved 28 June 2021.