21 Facts About Bin Akao

Bin Akao was a Japanese far-right politician who served as a member of the House of Representatives of Japan during World War II.

Bin Akao was elected to the House of Representatives as an independent in 1942 and espoused a unique type of Japanese nationalism characterized by support for the United States and opposition to the Pacific War.

Bin Akao founded and became the first president of the far-right Greater Japan Patriotic Party in 1951 and continued to adamantly champion pro-United States and anti-communist stances in post-war Japan.

Bin Akao was born on 15 January 1899 in Higashi Ward, Nagoya, the son of a hardware dealer.

Bin Akao was sickly as a child and he contracted tuberculosis while a student at Aichi Third Junior High School.

Disillusioned by the failure of his experiments with communism, Bin Akao returned to the mainland and settled in Tokyo, where he began to dabble in socialism under the influence of Toshihiko Sakai, Hitoshi Yamakawa, Sakae Osugi, and Motoyuki Takabatake.

Bin Akao was arrested and imprisoned for a speech critical of Japan's Emperor system after being conscripted into military service.

In 1926, Bin Akao "converted" to ultranationalism while still imprisoned and began his foray into right-wing Japanese politics.

That year, Bin Akao became cofounder and president of the Kenkokukai, a major ultranationalist organization of the 1920s that ultimately reached a nationwide membership of around 120,000.

Bin Akao was a close associate of legal scholar Uesugi Shinkichi, who allowed him to run the Kenkokukai from his home after the withdrawal of several prominent members left the organization without the means to fund their headquarters.

One consistent aspect of Bin Akao's thought was his respect for the power of the United States, having opposed the Pacific War from a nationalist perspective on the grounds that the United States was too powerful for Japan and therefore that fighting a war with it was foolhardy.

Nevertheless, Bin Akao won the election and received the second most votes in Tokyo and the fourth most votes of anyone in Japan.

Bin Akao was defeated for re-election in 1945, and shortly thereafter was purged by the US military occupation of Japan as a wartime leader.

Bin Akao's purge was reversed in 1951 as part of the Reverse Course and he vowed to return to elected office.

Bin Akao's use of noise trucks and street corner speechifying was a model for later right-wing movements in Japan.

In 1960, during the Anpo Protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty, Bin Akao became convinced that Japan was on the verge of a communist revolution and sought to rally right-wing groups to engage in counter-protests.

Bin Akao continued his activism and took to flying the American flag and the Union Jack on his noise trucks alongside the Hinomaru, and strongly supported the revised Security Treaty and the US-Japan alliance.

Bin Akao was a strong supporter of South Korea, mainly for its anti-communism, and advocated close alliance between South Korea and Japan.

Bin Akao once stated that the Liancourt Rocks should be blown up as the dispute over the islets represented an obstacle to friendship between the two countries.

In 1989, following the death of emperor Hirohito, Bin Akao ran for a seat in the House of Councilors for a 15th time, at the age of 90.

Bin Akao died of heart failure on February 6,1990, at the age of 91, in Toshima, Tokyo.