March 9
1932 Emperor Pu Yi, who had abdicated the Chinese throne in 1912, was installed as president of Japanese-controlled Manchuria.
1974 Japanese Lt. ONODA Hiroo surrendered in the Philippines, 29 years after the end of World War II. He wrote about his experiences fighting long after the war had ended in No Surrender, My Thirty Year War. Onoda was born in 1922 and was drafted into the Japanese army in 1942. He was sent to the Philippines in 1944.
Initially, three other Japanese soldiers were with Onoda. One surrendered in 1949 and another was killed in 1954 by a search party. In 1972, police shot and killed Onoda's last man while they were setting fire to piles of harvested rice. Onoda finally surrendered when ordered to do so by his one time superior, a Major Taniguchi.
1996 The Social Democratic Party (Shakaito 社民党) held its first general convention under its recently adopted name. Prior to January, the party was known as the Japanese Socialist Party. JSP chief MURAYAMA Tomiichi (b. 1924) served as prime minister 1994-96. A decade earlier, the socialists were led by DOI Takako (b. 1928), the first woman to lead a major Japanese political party.
1998 Prime Minister HASHIMOTO Ryutaro's (b. 1937) cabinet approved legislation to relax banking, securities, and insurance regulations. Part of a broader economic reform effort, this measure was intended to stimulate financial services competition.
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© 2001 UCLA Center for East Asian Studies