The execution of Lieut-Col, Saburo Aizawa in Tokyo Military Prison for the murder of Lieut-General brings toon episode which at one time, threatened to have serious repercussions throughout the whole of the Japanese army. The Government of Japan have shown that their determination to enforce a proper respect for discipline and authority among the imperial troops is not an empty boast, and that the era of comparatively trivial punishments for offences committed under the inspiration of mis-nided patriotism has been ended. 'The murder of General Nagato was fa direct outcome of the replacement of General Z, Mizaki by General J. Watanabe as Inspector-General of Military' Edueation—a move which angered a section of the army that favoured what in other countries would be described as a form of national socialism under the imperial aegis, Col. Aizawa was among the most ardent of this movement's supporters, and it was with the object of making a public protest against the removal "of General Mizaki, who was popularly supposed to" sympathize with the move-za|ment, that he committed his crime. Reports of the proceedings Col. Alzawa's trial which have filtered through the screen of offlelal secrecy reveal that the defence id _not spare the Government or the capitalists, freely alleging that members of the Government were hand glove with Japan's leading industrialists, and charging them with collusion and corruption. The Elder Statesmen also came in for condemnation and were Mnked with the group {o which the late General Nagato belonged as "neo-bureaucrats" and a menace 10 the safety and progress of the empire, One of the-leeding financiers Japan was compared with the senior minister in the 'Tokugawa shogunate, who conspired to prevent the Mefji' restoration which changed the emperor from a mere cipher into fan active factor in the imperial administration. In the light of these Deliets, which Col, Aizawa seems to have held with a fanaticism dificult for the West to understand, any act designed to accelerate the "Showa restoration"—as the object of his party was known—could be interpreted in the light of an act of patriotism, no matter what it involved.
The killing"of General Nagato was, nevertheless, murder. Col. Aizawa has paid the penalty and the Government has vindicated its resolve to preserve respect for constituted authority.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.