Untimely Death

Walking stiffly and erect as became an old soldier of many medals and a onetime Prime Minister of the Imperial Son of Heaven, grizzled, rheumatic Baron Giichi Tanaka, 66, last week entered his Tokyo house late one night after a state banquet. To the house boy who helped him off with his shoes the courtly Tanaka bade goodnight with disarming cheerfulness, eased his rheumatic limbs into bed, fell immediately and heavily to sleep. Waking suddenly in the night, he summoned the house boy who roused the Baron's family. To them the Baron quietly announced that he felt "very sick," clutched at his heart, collapsed. Before dawn he was dead.

Thus simply and suddenly to a waiting niche in Japanese history passed one of her ablest military leaders and one of her most famed politicians.

Son of a Samurai (sword bearer) and protege of the great feudal lord Mori, Soldier Tanaka mastered early the intricacies of warfare, proved a keen staff officer in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese war. Thrice Minister of War, he was a valued member of the Supreme War Council when he died. Released from the Army for the State in 1925 by special edict of the late Emperor Yoshihito, General Tanaka devoted himself to the then important Seiyukai (Conservative) Party --reputedly oldest in Japan. He soon became its sagacious leader and led it to power once more as Prime Minister (1927-29).

Untimely seems the death of every great leader. Most untimely for Japan and the Seiyukai Party last week, was the death of Statesman Tanaka, whose determined methods had sometimes brought him the name of the "Mussolini of Japan."

Not within a decade has Japan suffered so thorough a political scandal as has been uncovered since Prime Minister Tanaka's resignation last summer (TIME, July 8). A dozen petty Tanaka office holders have been imprisoned by the present Liberal Government of Prime Minister Yuko Hamaguchi, on charges of corruption and bribery. Likewise jailed has been Naoyoshi Amaoka, the Tanaka president of the Board of Decoration, indicted specifically for selling "honorary decorations" to vain Japanese during the Imperial enthronement ceremonies last November and December. Sadly has the honest, industrious Seiyukai Leader watched his old ministry gather ill-fame. Tanaka, "the frank, magnanimous, indulgent and unreserved," as his countrymen frequently referred to him, found it hard to believe his "Seiyukai soldiers" could betray him thus. Most crushing denunciation of his regime fell three days before his death, when his right-hand man, Heikichi Ogawa, vice president of Seiyukai, was put to prison, after his bank account showed 2,000,000 illicit yen ($960,000) purported to be derived from promotion of private railways projects while he was Minister of Railways.

In a fiery statement to press correspondents on the morning of the state banquet the usually genial Baron angrily denied the rumor that he intended resigning from politics. Forgetting the caution he was wont to observe on account of a weak heart, the elderly soldier waxed in vehemence. "A soldier never deserts! I will stand by Seiyukai and I will defy my enemies, whoever they are!"

Snatched of its leader, muddied by its vice president, a depressed and disorganized Seiyukai made desperate efforts to mend itself for the impending national elections in January.