November 4th - Hara Takashi Assassinated

On this day, in 1921, Japan's Prime Minister, Hara Takashi, was assassinated by a right-wing opponent.

Hara was the first commoner to rise to the position of prime minister in Japan. His catchphrase was "commoner and prime minister". He was also the most unimaginative person to ever do anything ever.

His family was of the samurai class. In Japan, this was the class of people who were members of the military nobility. In western countries it gives him a +3 to save in hand-to-hand combat.

At 15, he caught a boat to Tokyo and failed the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy entrance exam. Then he joined a seminary and failed law school. He was ready to become a politician.

Hara was elected to the lower house and was made Home Minister. He didn't believe in the power wielded by non-elected bureaucrats so he spent his days weakening their power by not filling in forms correctly. He also dismissed many bureaucrats from the top levels down to positions such as high school principals. He believed they had only achieved these positions because of their social status.

In 1918, the then prime minister fell from office due the Rice Riots, which are like race riots but but with more carbohydrates. Hara became the new prime minister.

Hara was a cautious prime minister who did not utilise his full power in office. He didn't force through his left-wing agenda and this dissappointed liberals and socialists. Also, because of  his left-wing agenda he wasn't like by conservatives, bureaucrats, or the military. Now that he was universally despised the scene was set for an assassination.

Hara was stabbed by a right-wing railway switchman. He was stabbed right in the railway station. Many wondered why the assassin chose to stab Hara; he should have tied him to the railway track while wearing a tall top-hat and sporting a pointy moustache. The assasin only served thirteen years for the crime, which goes to show how disliked Hara must have been.

Hara is remembered for his undying efforts to create an egalitarian Japan and for his struggle to not be stabbed. He failed at both. He showed that a man of noble descent could call himself a commoner and rise to power based on his newly found popular support. We salute you "psuedo-commoner and ineffective prime minister".