Tokko
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- "Tokko" redirects here. For the Japanese anime/manga of the same name, see TOKKO.
- For Japanese Special Attack Units in the second world war, see that page.
Special Higher Police (特別高等警察 Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu?), often shortened to 'Tokko (特高 Tokkō ?) was a police force established in 1911 in Japan, specifically to investigate and control political groups and ideologies deemed to be a threat to public order.
Its main function was as a civilian counterpart to the military's Kempeitai, and it can be considered roughly equivalent to the FBI in the United States in terms of combining both criminal investigation and counter-espionage functions. It has been less charitably compared to the Nazi Gestapo secret police. The Tokko was also known as the “Peace Police” (Chian Keisatsu), or more notoriously by the Orwellian term “Thought Police” (Shiso Keisatsu).
The High Treason Incident of 1910 was the stimulus for the establishment of the Tokkō under the aegis of the Home Ministry. With the Russian Revolution, unrest at home due to the Rice Riots of 1918, increase in strikes and labor unrest from the labor movement, and Samil Uprising in Korea, the Tokkō was greatly expanded under the administration of Hara Takashi, and subsequent prime ministers. The Tokkō was initially concerned with threats posed by anarchism, communism, socialism, and the growing foreign population within Japan, but its scope gradually increased to include religious groups, pacifists, student activists, liberals, and ultrarightists.
After the passage of the Peace Preservation Law of 1925, the power of the Tokkō was expanded tremendously, and it expanded to include branches in every Japanese prefecture, major city, and overseas locations with a large Japanese population (including Shanghai, London and Berlin).
In the late 1920s and 1930s, the Tokkō launched a sustained campaign to destroy the Japan Communist Party with several waves of mass arrests of known members, sympathizers and suspected sympathizers (March 15 Incident).
The Tokkō was comprised of six departments (Special Police Work, Foreign Surveillance, Koreans in Japan, Labor Relations, Censorship, Arbitration). In 1927, a sub-bureau was added, the Thought Section of the Criminal Affairs Bureau, to deal with the study and suppression subversive ideologies.
The Tokkō made use of both uniformed and non-uniformed officers, along with a large network of informants. These informants were often undercover officers infiltrating suspect organizations and acting as agents provocateur, or voluntary informants from Tonarigumi neighborhood associations. Counter-espionage activities also included monitoring external telephone and radio communications inside or outside Japan and nearest areas.
By 1936, the Tokkō had arrested 59,013 people, bringing 5000 to trial; about half of those received prison sentences. Prisoners were forced to write accounts of how they had become involved with "dangerous ideologies," rewriting these essays until their interrogators were happy with the work. These works then were used to prove their criminal involvement.
The Tokkō was abolished in October 1945 by the American Occupation authorities.
