翻訳 66 (w)
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%BE%E3%83%AB%E3%82%B2%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6
The Sorge Incident (ゾルゲ事件, zoruge jiken) is the name given to arrests that took place between September 1941 and April 1942 [1] of members of a Soviet Union spy ring as a result of their espionage and conspiratorial activities in Japan. Chiefly among those arrested was the spy Richard Sorge, as well as Ozaki Hotsumi, former Asahi Shimbun reporter and so-called brains behind the Konoe Fumimaro government who promoted the Second Sino-Japanese War.
1 Events
1.1 Espionage activities
1.2 Investigation
1.3 Arrests
1.4 After the arrests
1.5 Trial
1.6 Involvement of Prime Minister Konoe
1.7 Execution
1.8 Aftermath
2 Documents
Events
Espionage activities
For information about the intelligence activities of Sorge and others, refer to the pages of Richard Sorge, Max Clausen, Ozaki Hotsumi and the Sorge intelligence network.
Investigation
Since the 1930s, the Tokkо̄ (特別高等警察, also known as the Special Higher Police) had gathered information on various Japanese members of the Communist Party USA, using, among other sources, FBI documents and information from Communist Party officials in Japan who had been arrested. They had also conducted secret investigations into members such as Miyagi Yotoku and those surrounding him. Aside from Miyagi, their targets included Communist Party USA member Kitabayashi Tomo, who returned to Japan in 1939. It is said that the spy network was uncovered during these secret operations related to Communist Party officials, and that it led to the subsequent launch of an investigation.
The Tokkо̄ inferred that radio signals were being sent from Tokyo to the Soviet Union, and continued an employment drive for spies. According to a Tokkо̄ investigator report (特高捜査員褒賞上申書) by the Home Ministry Police Affairs Bureau that was confiscated by the Soviet Union from Manchukuo military police and kept in Russia, the investigation into Sorge and others began on June 27, 1940 [2]. In April 1941, the Soviet Union and the Empire of Japan signed the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact. Germany went on to attack the Soviet Union, leading to the outbreak of war between the two countries.
Arrests
Starting with the arrest of Kitabayashi on September 27, 1941, months before the start of the Pacific War, the Tokkо̄ detained and arrested those involved in the spy ring one by one [3]. Miyagi contacted both Sorge, visiting his home under the pretext of being a Japanese teacher, and Ozaki Hotsumi, former Osaka Asahi Shimbun employee and advisor to the Konoe cabinet, visiting his home under the guise of his daughter's art teacher [4], though on October 10, Miyagi was arrested in a boarding house in Ryūdo, Azabu (modern day Roppongi) and taken to Tsukiji police station. It was the evidence discovered in the house search conducted at the time that made investigators realize the significance of the case.
On October 13, Kutsumi Fusako and Asayama Kо̄ji were arrested after visiting Miyagi's boarding house. While under questioning by the Tokkо̄, Miyagi jumped from the window of an upstairs interrogation room, intending to take his own life, though he went on to be treated at St Luke's International Hospital and ultimately had to resume questioning on the third day after his arrest. The Tokkо̄ were able to conclude from his statements who the other spies were, such as Ozaki and Sorge, who had resided in Tokyo under the cover of being a reporter for the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
It led to many musicians also being accused of being spies, such as Japan based Russian violinist Alexander Yakovlevich Mogilevsky; pianist Leo Sirota; Beate Sirota Gordon, Sirota's daughter who later went on to be one of the writers of the Japanese Constitution; Klaus Hubert Pringsheim, the second son of conductor Klaus Pringsheim; and vocalist Sekiya Toshiko [5].
When it was established that some of the targets of the investigation were foreigners, the Tokkо̄ First Division and Foreign Affairs Division of the Metropolitan Police's Tokkо̄ department also became involved in the investigation. As it was feared that if all the foreign suspects such as Ozaki, Sorge and the others were not all arrested simultaneously, they would flee the country, take refuge in an embassy, take their own life or destroy evidence, the Metropolitan Police sought approval from the public prosecutor for the arrests to be simultaneous. However, they did not accept the Metropolitan Police's argument that the Supreme Court public prosecutor's office should take into account diplomatic relations between Japan and Germany and start by arresting Konoe Fumimaro, who was soon to resign as Prime Minister, and his friend Ozaki, then, having gained confidence, subsequently arrest the foreign suspects.
Ozaki was arrested on October 15, and on October 18, the day Minister of War Tо̄jо̄ Hideki became Prime Minister, Sorge and the other foreign suspects were simultaneously arrested. On October 18, the Foreign Affairs Division divided up their arrest teams and arrested Sorge, Max Clausen and Branko Vukelić at the same time. A radio was discovered as evidence at Clausen's home [6]. In 1942, the following year, Ozaki's colleagues at Asahi Shimbun were arrested: Tanaka Shinjirо̄, head of political and economic affairs at Asahi Shimbun's Tokyo headquarters, was arrested on March 15, and Isono Kiyoshi, who worked in the same department, was arrested on April 28.
After the arrests
After the initial group was arrested, hundreds of people were questioned as witnesses, including Ozaki's friend Inukai Takeru, who was a member of the House of Representatives and advisor to the Wang Jingwei regime; Saionji Kinkazu, another friend of Ozaki's and advisor to the Konoe Fumimaro administration; and Robert Guillain, colleague of Sorge and Vukelić and French special correspondent and reporter at the news agency Agence Havas. Konoe's involvement was naturally suspected, but with his subsequent resignation and the outbreak of war with the UK and the US, it was left largely unquestioned.
It should be noted that Sorge was from Germany, which was a Japanese ally at the time, and been friendly with ambassador Eugen Ott and Josef Albert Meisinger, police liaison officer attached to the German embassy in Japan and Reich Security Main Office officer. The previous year had seen the case of Melville James Cox, special correspondent for the British news agency Reuters, who was arrested on suspicion of being British spy and who reportedly jumped to his death while under questioning from the Tokkо̄. The interrogation of the foreigners in particular was conducted carefully.
After Sorge's arrest, Meisinger reported to the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin that the allegations against Sorge by the Japanese authorities were entirely lacking in credibility [7]. Ambassador Ott, who considered himself a personal friend of Sorge and had bestowed on him the position of unofficial press officer attached to the German embassy, was part of a group including the Tokyo branch of the NSDAP (Nazi Party) and German special correspondents living in Japan who issued a statement objecting that Sorge's arrest was unwarranted [8].
Immediately after Sorge's arrest, Ott and Meisinger used various diplomatic channels to urge the Japanese government to release Sorge, arguing that it was an unjust arrest committed against a friendly nation. However, before long, Ott was granted a special meeting with Sorge, and learned directly from Sorge himself that he was a spy.
As a result, ambassador Ott submitted his letter of resignation to Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, though this was rejected. In December 1941, war began between Japan and the Allies, as well as between Germany and the US, meaning that routes to return to Europe closed. With Germany having already declared war against the Soviet Union, returning home via the Trans-Siberian Railway had become impossible. Ott remained busy in his work as an ambassador, and was finally dismissed as ambassador to Japan by Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in November 1942. Together with his family, Ott went on to Peking, which was at the time ruled by the Wang Jingwei regime, and lived there until the end of the war.
Meisinger was not charged with any crimes by the Japanese government and continued to work as the police liaison officer attached to the German embassy in Japan and Reich Security Main Office officer until Germany's defeat in May 1945. He was put under house arrest in a hotel by lake Kawaguki by the Japanese authorities until Japan's defeat in August 1945. Meisinger was arrested by the US Armed Forces not long after the end of the war, and received the death penalty for authorizing a massacre in Warsaw.
Trial
Sorge and others were prosecuted in 1942 for violations of various laws, including the Law of the Preservation of Public Peace for National Defense, Military Secrets Protection Act, Military and Naval Resources Secrets Protection Law and Peace Preservation Laws [9]. The first trials lasted from September 1943 to March 1944 and took place at Tokyo District Court's Ninth Department. Presiding judge Takada Tadashi and judges Higuchi Masaru and Mitsuda Fumihiko passed the following judgments. The majority of the defendants including Sorge and Ozaki appealed to the Supreme Court, but all appeals were dismissed and the defendants sentenced [10].
Richard Sorge, death penalty (executed November 7, 1944)
Branko Vukelić, life imprisonment (died in prison on January 13, 1945)
Max Clausen, life imprisonment (released October 9, 1945)
Anna Clausen, imprisonment for seven years (released October 7, 1945)
Ozaki Hotsumi, death penalty (executed November 7, 1944)
Miyagi Yotoku, died in prison awaiting trial (August 2, 1943)
Ojirо Yoshinobu, imprisonment for fifteen years (released October 8, 1945)
Taguchi Ugenta, imprisonment for thirteen years (released October 6, 1945)
Mizuno Shigeru, imprisonment for thirteen years, (died in prison on March 22, 1945)
Yamana Masami, imprisonment for twelve years (released October 7, 1945)
Funakoshi Hisao, imprisonment for ten years (died in prison on February 27, 1945)
Kawai Teikichi, imprisonment for ten years (released October 10, 1945)
Kawamura Yoshio died in prison awaiting trial (December 15, 1942)
Kutsumi Fusako, imprisonment for eight years (released October 8, 1945)
Akiyama Kо̄ji, imprisonment for seven years (released October 10, 1945)
Kitabayashi Tomo, imprisonment for five years (became critically ill in January 1945 and died two days after being let out on parole on February 9)
Kikuchi Hachirо̄, imprisonment for two years (release date unknown)
Yasuda Tokutarо̄, imprisonment for two years (suspended for five years)
Saionji Kinkazu, imprisonment for one year and six months (suspended for two years)
Inukai Takeru, innocent
Involvement of Prime Minister Konoe
Officials in the Army Affairs Bureau were opposed to arresting Ozaki, having had a special relationship with him. In his role as a newspaper reporter, Sorge had succeeded in gaining the confidence of the German ambassador in Japan Eugen Ott, and similarly with Sorge's case, the army were opposed to pursuing him, and sought to halt the investigation. After the resignation of the third Konoe administration, Tо̄jо̄ Hideki assumed the office of Prime Minister, and first learned of the close relationship between Ozaki and Konoe as a result of the investigation into Ozaki. Thinking this affair would eliminate Konoe in one fell swoop, Tо̄jо̄ ordered an exhaustive investigation.
At this point in time, immediately after the outbreak of war between Japan and the US and UK, the prosecution took into account that banishing Konoe and those in his proximity (i.e. people in key positions at the highest levels of Japanese politics) as a result of this affair would have an enormous effect on the political situation. Therefore, the scope of the investigation had to be limited merely to violations of the Law of the Preservation of Public Peace for National Defense, in a struggle to avoid their conspiratorial activities as much as possible.
On November 18, 1942, Konoe was formally cross-examined briefly by examining court judge Nakamura Kо̄zо̄, though concealed his close relationship with Ozaki, repeatedly saying, “I don't recall” [11]. However, while being cross-examined by the prosecution on March 17, 1942, former Communist Party USA member Miyagi Yotoku testified, “As Prime Minister Konoe was an advisor to the anti-communist league, I took him to be an anti-Soviet. I came to know that actually he was Soviet enough that he thought it acceptable to make peace with Soviet Union in order to solve the problem of China” [12]. Prior to this, Hatoyama Ichirо̄, a politician vehemently opposed the destruction of constitutional liberal parliamentary democracy caused by the National Mobilization Law and Imperial Rule Assistance Association, wrote in a diary entry on November 1, 1940,“In the age of Konoe, the institution of government is entirely based on the thesis of the Comintern. It is truly frightening. I acutely sense the time approaching when I must sacrifice myself to serve the people.”
Execution
After sentencing, Sorge and the others were detained at Sugamo Prison. Sorge and Ozaki were held there until November 7, 1944, the anniversary of the Russian Revolution, when they were executed.
It is said that immediately before the execution, Sorge said in Japanese, “These are my last words. Long live the Soviet Red Army and international communism!” The next year, in January 1945, Vukelić died in Abashiri Prison in Hokkaido, while married couple Max and Anna Clausen were released by the Allies, and were able to return to East Germany.
Aftermath
Joseph Stalin ignored the events surrounding Sorge, and it was only on November 5, 1964, after Nikita Khrushchev lost power, that the Soviet government awarded him the title of “Hero of the Soviet Union.” Even after the collapse of the USSR, it has been customary for the Russia ambassador to Japan to pay a visit to Sorge's grave in Tama cemetary in the outskirts of Tokyo. It is an indication of how much the Soviet Union and Russian government have valued Sorge's achievements. It is said that Vladmir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, saw a French film about Sorge when he was a boy, and set his sights on becoming a KGB spy [13].
It was decided that the Soviet government would award Miyagi The Order of the Patriotic War (Second Class) on January 19, 1965, with the same honor also being awarded to Ozaki. As Miyagi died in prison in 1943, and the whereabouts of any relatives were unknown, it was only in January 2010 that the medal was presented to his family, after contact was made with his niece [14].
Documents
Ōhashi Hideo, the Metropolitan Police assistant police inspector who conducted Sorge's interrogation, retained several thousands of documents relating to the investigation, including memos, notes and letters from Sorge to Ōhashi. These documents went on to be presented to Okinawa International University by Sorge's family, with plans to display them to the public [15].
