Pioneer Assassin

Japanese who assassinate their Premier, always from the most patriotic motives, now enjoy such popular eclat that the Orient marveled last week at the excessive modesty with which No. 1 Assassin Konichi Nakaoka emigrated from Japan to the wilds of her vassal state Manchukuo.

Arriving at Harbin, the jumping off place for Manchukuo pioneer homesteaders, Mr. Nakaoka tut-tutted the idea that among the Japanese homesteaders he will enjoy any special prestige or influence because he was the very first person ever to assassinate a Japanese Premier, polishing off Premier Hara in 1921 for the now fashionable reason that he was "spineless."

"What I did," said modest Assassin Nakaoka "most people have surely forgotten."

Until this winter the Premier-killer sat in jail, was let out after the Sublime Emperor joyously decreed a general amnesty to celebrate the birth of Crown Prince Tsugu-no-Miya (TIME, Jan. 1).

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