Inukai Tsuyoshi (犬養 毅, April 20, 1855–May 15, 1932) was a Japanese politician and the 29th Prime Minister of Japan from December 13, 1931 to May 15, 1932.
He was born in Okayama Prefecture. Initially working as a journalist, he turned to politics and became Minister of Education in 1898. In 1929 he became president of the Seiyukai party and was elected as Prime Minister in 1931.
Inukai’s assassination by young naval officers in Tokyo on May 15, 1932 was a key event in Japanese history, known as the go ichi go jiken (May 15 incident). It marked the end of party political control over government decisions until after World War II.
Interestingly, in the original assassination plot, the plan included killing Charlie Chaplin, the film star who happened to be visiting Japan at the time. When the prime minister and his family members were killed, his son Ken Inukai was watching a Sumo wrestling match with Charlie Chaplin, which probably saved Ken.
Awesome post, very cool trivia.
Here’s one more bit of cool and timely trivia.
Let’s call it Six Degrees of Charlie Chaplin.
Last night I went with Ms. Saru to see a performance of the Eugene O’Neill play, Anna Christie. Not knowing much about O’Neill or his work, I turned to Wikipedia and discovered that O’Neill renounced his third daughter for marrying none other than Charlie Chaplin!
In 1943, the 54 year-old Chaplin (one year younger than Eugene O’Neill) wed Oona O’Neill. The marriage as apparently long and happy, resulting in the birth of eight children.
This is somewhat ironic given that the play’s main character, Anna, falls in love with (and eventually weds) a man of whom her father vehemently dissaproves. (But the play was written in the early 1920s.)