Tokyo, July 7.
IXTEEN Army officers and a civilian have been sentenced to]
death, and five other officers, have been given terms of life imprisonment for participation in the events of February 26, when several Army groups rebelled and assassinated several high government officials, it was announced to-day. The sentences followed weeks of painstaking investigation and a trial surrounded by the greatest secrecy, conducted by a special court—presumably at the Yoyogi parade grounds.
A lengthy official statement, containing some 20,000 words, announced that the sentences had been pronounced July 5, and that a total of 133 convictions had been returned. The remainder of those tried were sentenced to prison terms of varying length.
The statement said that 1,353 persons took part in the revolt, but that more than 1,000 had been exonerated.
The date and the method of the executions for the sixteen Army officers and the civilian were not fixed, but it is presumed that death will be by shooting, and that the penalty will be imposed shortly.
'The statement was somewhat sympathetic to the motives of the rebels,' but declared that any effort to renovate Japanese poli cies forcibly along reactionary lines was intolerable.
Tt also said that the case of Lieut.-Col. Saburo Aizawa, who was executed this week for the murder of Lieut.-Gen. T, Nagato, former director of the Military Affairs Bureau of the War Office, partly influenced the rebels, The statement also revealed that Lieut, Toru Tlagaki, who was not included among those sentenced, had objected to a proposed attack upon Prince Saloni, the last of the Genro, and had won his point, thereby sav-Ing the life of the elder statesman.
Sentences of death were pronounced upon Genichi Manakami, patent attorney, Captains, Kiyosada Koda and Teruzo Ando, Lieutenants Motoaki Nakahashi, "Yasuhide Kurlbhara, Selchu Nibu, 'Tadashi Saka, ru Tanaka, Katsuo Tsushima and 'Tauguo Takasima, Sub-Lieutenants Machiro Hayashi," Taro. 'Takahashi, 'Masaru Yasuda ahd Kanji Nakajima, Captain Takasugu Murana, (retired) Paymaster Asaich! Tsoba' (ret and a former cadet, Zensuke Shikukawa, "Thos given life sentences were Sub-Lieutenants Toshihiko 15 Japanese Mutiny
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.