Word: nato
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Dates: during 1935-1935
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...large Tokyo department store shrewd Merchant Hikoichie Nato looked out beneath his large level eyebrows at a pug-nosed intense young man in tortoise-shell glasses who offered to sell him a fat share of a fine, ruthless, patriotic Japanese Revolution. "We need 100,000 yen ($29,000)," explained Revolutionist Tatsuo Amano, a lawyer of nationwide notoriety since he defended the assassins of Finance Minister Junnosuke Inouye and Financier Baron Dr. Takuma Dan (TIME, July 10, 1933). As the merchant hesitated, the revolutionist argued slyly: "Consider the 100,000 yen you contribute to our cause as an investment. Sell shares...
...Merchant Nato, realizing that he now knew too much to be safe from assassination if he refused to contribute, grudgingly gave 60,000 yen, prepared to sell short. Meanwhile the plotters approached slackjowled Commander Saburo Yamaguchi, Inspector of Aircraft at Yokosuka Naval Base. Soon this simple officer had been pumped full of a patriotic idea: "Japan must be liberated from Parliament, Capitalism must be crushed, and pure Emperor-rule restored!" Fired with loyal zeal, Commander Yamaguchi agreed to drop bombs upon a Japanese Cabinet session, to blow up Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Station...
Significantly both short-selling Merchant Nato and slack-jowled Commander Yamaguchi "died in jail" before the trial, as did two others who might have blabbed on the fanatical Committee of Revolution. Those tried last week were nearly all raw country youths, dupes of typical Japanese "blood brotherhood" propaganda. On paper the Great Plot had been one of the most appalling in Japanese history. But the only weapons of the plotters, aside from the bombing plane which never appeared, was a collection of Japanese swords and a handful of revolvers obviously useless against the firearms of police guarding the cabinet...