ABSTRACT
However, it was foreseen that the incident would be made a special target of searching interpellation and criticism in the approaching session of the Diet. In order to forestall embarrassing onslaughts upon the Tanaka Seiyukai cabinet, unsuccessful efforts were made by the government to prevent making the incident a political issue. Thus, on January 21, 1929, Baron Tanaka (prime minister) pleaded before a group of representative members of the House of Peers not to ask questions on the incident during the approaching session of the legislature.1 Prior to the reopening of the Diet after the New Year’s recess, on January 22, 1929, Premier Tanaka requested a conference of Mr. Takejiro Tokonami, president of the Shinto Club, and Mr. Yuko Hamaguchi, president of the Minseito (chief opposition) party. At this conference he pleaded with them not to make the incident a subject of parliamentary discussion in view of its international significance
1 Statement made in the House of Representatives on January 23, 1929 (Kwampo gogai, Jan. 24, 1929, p. 33).
