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The Anpo Protests were a series of massive protests in Japan from 1959 to 1960 against the renewal of a revised United States-Japan Security Treaty ("Anpo"), which would allow for the United States to maintain military bases and nuclear weapons in Japan. In June 1960, hundreds of thousands of leftist students surrounded the National Diet on a daily basis, storming the building on 15 June, resulting in the death of student activist Michiko Kanba. In the aftermath of the incident, President Dwight D. Eisenhower cancelled a visit to Japan, and Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi was forced to resign in shame. With Kishi's resignation and the ratification of the treaty, the protests died down, and the fears of a communist revolution in Japan were relaxed.

History[]

On 19 January 1960, President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower and Prime Minister of Japan Nobusuke Kishi signed a new mutual security agreement in Washington DC, renegotiating the US-Japan Security Pact of 1952. America would continue to maintain bases in Japan, just as it had done under the terms of the 1952 Treaty of San Francisco, and America pledged to come to Japan's aid if the latter was attacked, while Japan had no such obligation to the United States. Kishi was more than willing to outsource Japan's national defense to the Americans, but the pact angered many Japanese, as it allowed American forces in Japan to be equipped with nuclear weapons, and allowed the USA to take action within Japan if the Japanese government requested aid to quell any internal disturbances.

In the spring of 1960, the 1 May shootdown of an American U-2 plane by the Soviet Union led to concerns in Japan that U-2 bases in Japan would serve as magnets for Soviet bombers should the Cold War escalate. By March 1959, a progressive coalition opposed to the treaty, the People's Council for Preventing Revision of the Security Treaty, had already been founded, uniting labor, education, women's, and Marxist groups; however, Anpo drew its troops primarily out of Tokyo's huge student population, from the leftist movement known as Zengakuren.

On 19 May 1960, amid a series of massive public demonstrations by the Anpo protesters, the LDP took the extraordinary step of physically barring the socialists from the Diet chambers and ramrodding the treaty through to ramification. All that remained was the formal signing in June. This was to coincide with a state visit from President Eisenhower. However, the demonstrations did not subside. By the 19 May ratification, frequent fighting between demonstratros and police or, often, rightist thugs had become the norm. There was a certain restraint on both sides and no loss of life on either, and, with Eisenhower's visit imminent, the LDP turned to the underworld in the hopes of fashioning a criminal reserve army comprised of the yakuza and the far-right. Yoshio Kodama pledged his support and assured the politicians that this could indeed be accomplished, and the LDP's welcoming committee chair Tomisaburo Hashimoto met with gangster bigwigs such as Kinsei-kai boss Kakuji Inagawa, Sumiyoshi-kai boss Yoshimitsu Sekigami, and tekiya boss Kinosuke Ozu, all of whom agreed to help.

In preparation for Eisenhower's 21 June arrival, 15,000 Tokyo police were mobilized, and plans were made to requisition police from cities hundreds of miles away for additional security. Three rightist coalitions were also called upon for troops, including Tokutaro Kimura's New Japan Council (a source of nonviolent counter-protesters in support of Eisenhower), the All-Japan Council of Patriotic Organizations (composed of rightists and gangsters), and 300,000 members of the Japan Veterans League (including some of the ultranationalist wartime leaders). The final plan called for the deployment of 18,000 yakuza, 10,000 tekiya street vendors, and 10,000 veterans and members of rightist religious organizations to Tokyo, and they would be supported by government-suplied helicopters, Cessna aircraft, trucks, cars, food, command posts, first aid squads, and $2.3 million in "operational funds".

On the evening of 15 June, the demonstrations outside the Diet building reached another peak, with gangsters and rightists battling the students seriously injuring a number of protesters and killing a young coed from Tokyo University, Michiko Kanba. The Japanese government was forced to withdraw the invitation to Eisenhower, fearing more deaths and even greater embarrassment. Three days later, 300,000 leftists moved through the streets of Tokyo shouting "Anpo hantai" ("down with the treaty") and "Kishi taose" ("Overthrow Kishi"), but, at midnight on 18 June, the treaty was automatically afforded final ratification, and Emperor Hirohito approved the pact on 21 June. Both the LDP and Washington were satisfied, but, on 23 June, Kishi was forced to resign to defuse the demonstrations and answer for the massive anguish and disruption the country had suffered through. The LDP returned to office by a wide margin at the next election, and the security pact remained in effect.

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