Native name 清原 康平 Name Yasuhira Kiyohara Years of service 1935-1936 | Allegiance Empire of Japan Died April 7, 2001 | |
Rank Second Lieutenant of infantry
Joined the February 26 Incident and sentenced to life, later got amnesty | ||
Service/branch Imperial Japanese Army | ||
Yasuhira Kiyohara (14 January 1914 – 7 April 2001) (married name Yasuhira Yukawa) was a Japanese second lieutenant of the Imperial army who was sentenced to indefinite imprisonment for directing a mob in the February 26 Incident of 1936. He belonged to the 3rd company, 3rd Infantry Regiment. He was given amnesty in December 1941.
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Life
He was born in Kumamoto Prefecture in 1914. After amnesty, he became the president of an airplane company. After the war, he was engaged in various enterprises related to Korea since he was acquainted with Korean President Park Chung-hee.
Attempted coup d'état (February 26 Incident)
The February 26 incident was an attempted coup d'état in Japan, from February 26 to 29, 1936, carried out by 1,483 troops of the Imperial Japanese army who believed that those around Emperor Hirohito were morally corrupt. Several leading politicians were killed, and the center of Tokyo was briefly occupied by the rebelling troops. The coup, however, was a failure, being rejected by the strong will of Emperor Hirohito.
Seicho Matsumoto and Kiyohara
Seicho Matsumoto (松本 清張, Matsumoto Seicho) was one of the influential writers of the history of modern Japan as well as mysterious novels. In his Showa Shi Hakkutsu 『昭和史発掘』,Matsumoto cited what Yasuhira Kiyohara later revealed in 1986, in characterizing the incident, that Kiyohara led his group of soldiers to the front of the Imperial Palace without any machine guns or weapons. Matsumoto saw in this fact that they were so immature and misunderstood Emperor Hirohito. Kiyohara said in a round-table discussion that "it was our program that we enter the Palace with the permission of Emperor Hirohito through Military Officer General to his Majesty Honjo. However, Emperor Hirohito was very furious at our coup d'état."
Konpaku
He wrote a book titled Konpaku in which he describes the coup and Chizuko Mifune, a younger sister of his mother.