In practice this means that the!
salers and would-be precipitators of an international incident with probable "grave consequences" 0 seat free. The full judgment of the Court is not available, so that it is not possible to state what reasons the Judge had for pro-nooneing sentences that are not only extremely lenient, but are tantamount to a mockery. The accused pleaded the usual excuse] of having done the deed because Japan had been wronged and that it was done in a moment of excitement and thoughtlessness. This excuse is a favourite one here.
Captain Amakasu pleaded it when he murdered Ohsugi, his wife and nephew; slayers of Koreans and Chinese pleaded it in the shameful atrocities that followed the aftermath of the earthquake; the pirate, Bruré, who has been ' responsible for the slaughter of the entire crews of three Russian and Chinese fishing smacks, pleaded the Nikoluievsk incident in' palliation of his red deeds; and now Rihei Okada and his accomplices urge the court once again to be merciful beau what they did was for the gre story of Nippon. In most of thes cnsos—that of Bxurd is still awh Judice—the accused have managed to get off with their excuse. the Other Case The other care isin connexion with the tial of Kin Shi-she, a Korean, who threw three bombs—all of which but one proved to be duds—on January 5, this year, at] the Twin Bridges, near the entrance to the Imperial Paluce. Kin Shi-she in said to belong to an organization of Koreans, called the Gireteude who have taken solemn vows not to leave a stone unturned until the:
Japanese have been deprived of. theft overlordship of the once: Hermit Kingdom. The attempt made in Shanghai some time ago to General Baron Tanaka, Minister of War, which culminated in a running revolver fight on the Bund, and the death of an American Indy, is also attributed to the Gireteudan.
The attempt to bom> the Imperial Palace was a direct result of the shameful massacre. of Koreans following the earthquake. The bombs used by Kin Shi-she were supposed to have been got from Russian sources, a Japanese bather boy on a tramp vessel consenting, foi a consideration, to smuggle the diabolical missiles here.
Kin, according to his story, did not at first mean to make' any attempt to attack the Imperi Palace. He came to Tokio when it was raining eats and dogs, and, as he wandered up and down, he suddenly thought that bombing the Imperial Palace would be a. very effective means of calling attention, in no uncertain manner, to the slaughter of his fellow-countrymen, "for no other reason than' that ihey.wete Koreans."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.