was a Japanese right-wing activist who caused the

Matsue Incident The Matsue incident, also known as the Matsue Riot incident, Imperial Voluntary Army incident, or the Shimane Prefectural Office incendiarism, was an incident that occurred in Japan immediately after the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945. The i ...

in 1945.

Early years

He was born in

Shimane Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Shimane Prefecture is the second-least populous prefecture of Japan at 665,205 (February 1, 2021) and has a geographic area of 6,708.26 km2. Shimane Prefecture borders Yamaguc ...

in 1920. He graduated from Matsue Middle School in 1939 (now Shimane Prefectural Matsue Secondary High School). He worked at the

Shenyang Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu language, Manchu name Mukden, is a major China, Chinese sub-provincial city and the List of capitals in China#Province capitals, provincial capital of Lia ...

branch of Mitsui & Co., Manchuria for two years and developed an interest in

Japanese nationalism is a form of nationalism that asserts the belief that the Japanese are a monolithic nation with a single immutable culture, and promotes the cultural unity of the Japanese. Over the last two centuries, it has encompassed a broad range of ideas a ...

. In November 1942, he returned to Japan and he entered

Rissho University , one of the oldest universities in Japan, was founded in 1580, when a seminary was established as a learning center for young monks of the Nichiren shu. The university's name came from the Rissho Ankoku Ron, a thesis written by Nichiren, a prom ...

with the objective of becoming a

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

Political involvement

Okazaki became a member of ultra-nationalist group

Kinno Makotomusubi Kinno is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Orchowo, within Słupca County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. References
Villages in Słupca County, Kinno {{Słupca-geo-stub ...

. With his own money, he built a house in

Meguro, Tokyo is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. The English translation of its Japanese self-designation is Meguro City. The ward was founded on March 15, 1947. Meguro is predominantly residential in character, but is also home to light industry, corporate ...

. He discussed the news of Japanese reverses in the war with his friends. He suggested that the ruling military

Hideki Tojo Hideki Tojo (, ', December 30, 1884 – December 23, 1948) was a Japanese politician, general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), and convicted war criminal who served as prime minister of Japan and president of the Imperial Rule Assistan ...

Cabinet be overthrown. They tried to obtain weapons for this purpose. When the authorities became aware of the plot in July 1943, Okazaki was arrested. He was given two years of imprisonment with three years of suspension in September He was released from prison in November under the surveillance of

Tokubetsu Koto Keisatsu The , often abbreviated , was a Japanese policing organization, established within the Home Ministry (Japan), Home Ministry in 1911, for the purpose of carrying out high policing, domestic criminal investigations, and Secret police, control of po ...

(political police). After returning to Matsue, he was employed by the Government mobilization office. Because Okazaki sympathized with the families of soldiers, he was in frequent conflict with his superiors. He was ordered to select 75 women to work at the

Kure Naval Arsenal was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy. History The Kure Naval District was established at Kure, Hiroshima in 1889, as the second of the naval districts responsible for the defense of the J ...

, but realized that women of higher status were not part of the selection pool, and leaked this fact. He was forced to resign. He then became a member of Dai Nippon Genron Hokokukai, a right-wing party.

The Matsue Incident

After release from prison

After his release from prison, Okazaki entered the lumber business in Matsue City. He took care of those who had been imprisoned for the war. A right-wing organization, ''Seinen Kodotai'' (Young Pro-emperor organization) formed with him as its leader. In December 1956, the National Union (of right wing organizations) was formed with him as the leader of the Shimane Branch. The group never had more than a small following. In 1961, Okazaki established the juridical educational organization, Shona Gakuen, and assumed the post of director. In 1968, he ran unsuccessfully for the

Upper House An upper house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house.''Bicameralism'' (1997) by George Tsebelis The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smalle ...

in the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paralle ...

. He died in 2006.

Footnotes

References

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Okazaki, Isao People from Shimane Prefecture 1920 births 2006 deaths Japanese activists Japanese nationalists Right-wing politics 1945 crimes 20th-century Japanese criminals Japanese people of World War II