March Incident

The March Incident (三月事件 Sangatsu Jiken) was an abortive coup attempt in Japan, in 1931.

The March Incident of 1931 may be traced back to the autumn of 1930, when the Sakura Kai (Cherry Society) was formed secretly under Lt. Col. Kingoro Hashimoto and Captain Isamu Cho. The cherry blossom was symbolic ofr self-sacrifice. The Sakura Kai group sought political reform: the elimination of party government by a coup d'etat and the establishment of a new cabinet based upon state socialism, in order to stamp out Japan's allegedly corrupt politics, economy, and thought.

The group consisted of active-duty officers, including many staff officers from the War Ministry and the Japanese Army General Staff, plus civilians such as Ikki Kita and Shumei Okawa. As of October 1931, there were reportedly several hundred members of the Sakura Kai.

Three-phase plans were laid in early 1931: to instigate massive riots in Tokyo; to cause the call-out of troops, the proclamation of martial law, and the execution of a coup d'etat; and, lastly, to form a Cabinet under the premiership of the then-War Minister, General Kazushige Ugaki. Led by Kanichiro Kamei, a commotion was fomented outside the Diet Building late in February 1931. The disturbance failed of its purpose and, on March 18 (two days before the main plot was to be carried out), the whole affair disintegrated.

Okawa had by now written to Ugaki (on March 3).demanding the call-out of troops and action on the general's part. Ugaki, however, now apparently underwent a change in heart, faced by increasingly grave developments. He proceeded to hush up the whole collapsed affair, although the punishments were far too mild to nip the extremists' ambitions in the bud.