November 14
1930 In another of the "politics by assassination" incidents that plagued Japan in the 1920s and 1930s, Hamaguchi Osachi, the prime minister, was shot in Tokyo by a right wing zealot. Hamaguchi survived the attack, but he never fully recovered. His government resigned in April 1931 and he died in August 1931.
First elected to the Diet in 1915, Hamaguchi became a leader of the Kenseikai (Constitutional Government Party) and as the head of the recently created Minseito (People's Government Party) he became prime minister of Japan in 1929. He initiated government spending cuts, pushed for industries to cut spending, and returned Japan to the gold standard. These policies only worsened the impact of the global economic depression. Internationally, Hamaguchi and his foreign minister Shidehara Kijuro strove for good relations with Western powers and took a relatively "hands-off" policy in China. The economic troubles and these "soft" diplomatic measures angered the government's right wing critics.
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© 2001 UCLA Center for East Asian Studies