ABSTRACT
Matsumoto was released from prison on 26 December 1931, eleven months before the end of his sentence, and was on probation for the next year. He was 44. This was a different Japan, a different political environment, to that which he had left in May 1928. Most of the optimism that had accompanied the era of Taisho¯ Democracy had evaporated. Although the JCP often had a divisive effect on the social movements it tried to embrace, was muddled in its approach and was always ultimately subservient to the requirements of the Soviet Union, it had a theoretically informed view of the world and a vision of revolutionary change that gave direction to many involved in the social democratic movement. However, the Japanese authorities had always regarded the JCP as a dangerous, subversive threat and between the start of 1928 and the end of 1931 strove to eradicate its influence.
