The Life and Death of Yukio Mishima (3 page)

The general, who had returned to the table, stood with Mishima, who handed the weapon to him. He pointed the sword upright and caught the light in it.

“Yes, I see them,” he said to Mishima, as he glimpsed the semicircular, smoky shadows which ran along the blade.

“It's superb,” said Mashita. “I've never seen anything like it in private hands before.”

He handed the sword back to Mishima and sat down. It was 11:05 a.m.

Mishima glanced at the row of students sitting on their chairs close by. Chibi-Koga came forward for the second time. Mishima gave him a look of silent command.

The youth stepped one pace forward, going behind Mashita, and thrust his hands suddenly, clumsily around the general's neck, throttling him.

Chibi-Koga's action was the cue for the others to move.

Furu-Koga and the lanky Ogawa came forward to help him. From their pockets they took two lengths of rope; with this they bound Mashita's arms and legs and tied him to the chair.

Mishima moved to the center of the room, holding the sword in his hands, high in the air.

Morita's task was to fasten the doors. Using wire and pincers, he worked quietly, securing the door handles. There was nothing solid to fix the wire to, and he did not make a good job of it. With the help of the other students he moved up Mashita's heavy desk to block one of the doors; the second door they barricaded with table and chairs, adding a potted palm as well.

Mashita, gagged and bound, observed all this. At first he had thought that this was a commando exercise of Mishima's. When
he looked him in the eyes, however, he realized that Mishima was not rehearsing.

Mishima stood in the middle of the office, eyes blazing, sword aloft.

Unknown to him, there was a peephole into the room. The peephole was close to the entrance door, in the opaque glass window on the left-hand side. It consisted of a piece of transparent tape stuck onto the glass on the corridor side; with this it was possible to see through into Mashita's office, dimly.

Shortly after Mishima's group had struck, their action had been discovered. Major Sawamoto had come out from an adjoining office and had looked through the peephole, to see whether the men were sitting down, ready to take
ocha
(green tea). At first he thought a Tatenokai student was giving General Mashita a shoulder massage. But he looked again, realized that something was up—seeing the rope and the gag—and dashed off to fetch his immediate superior, Colonel Hara.

The two men, having tried the main door into the office and found it blocked, had informed General Yamazaki, the chief of staff, who had been in conference with a dozen officers in the room next to Mashita's. One by one the officers had peeped through the hole and had seen Mashita. Then they assembled in Yamazaki's office again.

From there they could hear furniture being moved about next door, while they decided what to do.

“What kind of game is this?” one officer asked.

“We will go in and find out,” the general said.

By this time the Tatenokai party had done their best with the barricades. Mishima was about to move to the next stage of his plan: to compel the general to order his men to summon the garrison at Eastern Army Headquarters, about a thousand men. He wanted the soldiers to assemble on the parade ground in front of the HQ building; he would make a patriotic speech to them from the balcony.

His plan was already beginning to go wrong.

At 11:20 a party of men beat on the door leading into Mashita's room from the office of the chief of staff. “Open up!” they shouted. “Open up!”

Mishima gestured to the students to stand behind him and moved toward the door, sword held high. Chibi-Koga stood by Mashita with a dagger, taken from the attaché case. His orders were to remain by the general being held hostage.

The army officers beat on the door with their fists. “Open up! What's going on? Open up!”

One turned the handle and pushed. The weak barrier collapsed and five army men, three colonels and a pair of master sergeants, rushed into the room. Colonel Hara was in the lead.

Mishima barred their way. “Out!” he screamed at them.

The men were quite close to Mishima. They hesitated, facing him. None had weapons. Colonel Hara had an old wooden sword, which he had snatched up before going in.

“Out!” screamed Mishima once again.

The men facing him made no move.

Mishima swung the sword at them, swishing over their heads. Some moved, others flinched. The sergeants edged toward him, with a colonel leading the way.

“Out! Out! Out!”

Suddenly Mishima attacked. He aimed glancing blows at the men. A colonel ducked away. Mishima slashed him in the back. The man raised an arm in self-defense and Mishima hit him again.

A sergeant came at Mishima, who struck him on the wrist, almost severing his hand.

“Out!” screamed Mishima.

He stared wildly at the men.

He slashed at a second colonel, three blows in succession on the arms and the back, as Colonel Hara sought to parry the blows with his wooden sword.

The two uninjured men in the party helped the others out of the room. The door slammed to behind them. The wounded men were bleeding profusely.

Orderlies were summoned and a second conference ensued. The officers were excited and unable to think clearly; the sudden emergency was too much for them. Their main concern was for the safety of General Mashita, but they were also worried about their careers. A major scandal was in the making. Who would take responsibility for the fracas? What did Mishima want out of it?
Failure to appreciate the importance of the last question led General Yamazaki to act unwisely; he decided to lead a second party into Mashita's office without having a plan of action and without arms, not even staves. He chose six officers and men to accompany him.

The men forced the door leading into Mashita's room from the vice chief of staff's office. Yamazaki was at the head of the party and entered the room first. Mishima was immediately in front of him, holding his bloodstained sword in the air. The general hesitated. Behind Mishima was the general's commanding officer, tied up in a chair; Chibi-Koga held a knife to his right side.

At Mishima's elbow stood three students. The pallid Ogawa had drawn a black truncheon. Furu-Koga was behind him, a heavy ashtray in his hand. Close to Mishima stood Morita; he had a dagger.

Yamazaki had expected a situation like this. Still, he could not believe his eyes.

Mishima saw the half-dozen men behind Yamazaki. How many more would there be? With his sword he kept them bunched in the corner of the room, not allowing them to deploy to either side of him. His own men were not strong.

“Well!” Mishima shouted. “Now you've seen! Take a good look! If you do not leave, I will kill the general.”

Yamazaki looked past Mishima at his commanding officer. He wanted guidance.

“I repeat,” Mishima screamed, “get out or else!”

“Stop this fooling,” Yamazaki said loudly. “Calm yourself.”

“Out!” screamed Mishima once more. He took a step toward Yamazaki, holding the sword at the general's neck.

“Stop this play-acting,” said Yamazaki.

“If you don't leave,” Mishima repeated, “I will kill the commanding general.”

The army officers edged forward. The men in the lead had climbed over the barrier of furniture, with the others behind them. Then there was a crash and a tinkling of glass. Other Jieitai men had smashed the opaque glass window between Mashita's office and the corridor. They looked in.

Suddenly Mishima backed off. He needed room to use his sword.

Yamazaki spoke again. “We do not understand what you want. Tell us.” It was a parley.

Mishima suspected a trick. There were seven army officers altogether, including Yamazaki. Mishima had only three men; Chibi-Koga had to stay by the general.

Mishima swung his blade at Yamazaki, deliberately missing: “Out!”

The officers behind Yamazaki moved forward. One jumped toward Morita.

Mishima had taken up a posture with the sword held back over his shoulders again. He took a step to the rear and aimed a blow at Yamazaki. The general ducked, Mishima slashing him in the back. It was a light wound, but Yamazaki staggered. An officer caught him from behind and held him for a moment.

One officer grappled with Morita, trying to wrench the knife from his hands.

Three men came at Mishima simultaneously.

Striking back and forth, chopping down, right, left, right, left, he beat the men about their arms, shoulders, and backs with the open blade.

Blood stained the uniforms of three colonels.

Morita had lost his knife to his opponent.

“Out!” Mishima screamed at the officers. “Out!” He swung the sword over their heads. “Out! Or I will kill the general.”

Yamazaki and his men had no time to think whether Mishima was bluffing or not.

“Out!” he shouted again, slashing at a colonel who had come too close, and hitting him on the arm.

The Jieitai men could not understand what Mishima was after. Had he gone mad?

Mishima gave them no more time. Prodding the men with his sword and administering broad strokes to their buttocks, he herded them out of the office.

The seven men tumbled back into the vice chief of staff's room as the door crashed shut behind them. They heard Mishima's men setting up the barricades again.

Yamazaki, though not badly injured, was in a state of collapse. The deputy, Colonel Yoshimatsu, vice chief of staff, took over command. He called for orderlies and conferred with his officers.

Then Colonel Hara, watching from the corridor, took the initiative. “What are your demands?” he shouted, staring through the broken window at Mishima, who stood a few feet away from him.

The two men began to shout at each other. Mishima insisted that the Jieitai officers summon a parade in front of Eastern Army HQ, and Hara said he would do nothing of the kind. Finally Mishima passed a handwritten note to Hara, giving his demands in detail. The colonel went to confer with his senior officer, Colonel Yoshimatsu, in a staff room close by. The men phoned the Jieitai main headquarters in the Defense Agency a mile away, asking for instructions; they were told to handle the situation as they saw fit.

In Mashita's office, Mishima forced the pace. He was behind schedule as a result of the two Jieitai attacks. He had intended to start his speech at 11:30, after compelling Mashita and his men to summon the garrison to parade in front of the Eastern Army HQ.

It was already 11:30. Mishima felt a danger that control of the situation would slip from his hands.

He wiped the sword. Then he walked toward Mashita, raising the weapon in the air. He held the sword over the general.

“Take the gag off,” he said to one of the students.

“Now listen, General,” Mishima began. “I have some demands to make. If you accept them, I guarantee your safety. If you do not, I shall kill you and then commit hara-kiri.”

“What is this folly?” Mashita said.

“Read the demands to the general,” Mishima ordered. One of the students took a piece of paper from the attaché case. It contained a short list of conditions on which Mishima would spare Mashita's life.

“Read!”

All soldiers at the Ichigaya garrison—a thousand men of the 32nd Infantry Regiment, a signals unit, and the HQ staff—were to gather in front of the HQ building by midday.

Mishima would make a speech to them from the balcony outside the general's office.

There must be no interruption of the speech. He must be heard in complete silence.

The Jieitai must summon the forty Tatenokai members who were waiting at Ichigaya Hall, a Jieitai center just outside the gates of the base. They must be present to hear Mishima's speech.

There would be a period of truce, lasting ninety minutes. During this time the Jieitai must guarantee not to attack Mishima and his group.

At the end of the truce Mishima would hand Mashita over to his own men. If, however, the truce were broken, or it looked as if it might be, Mishima would kill the general and commit suicide.

He wanted instant action.

“This is foolish,” Mashita said. “What is there to gain?”

Mishima ignored him. “I will give these demands to your officers. You will order them to obey me,” he said.

He wasted no more time on the general. It was late.

Mishima walked over to the broken windows looking out into the corridor beyond.

“Who is in command?” he shouted. “Bring him here.”

A soldier rushed off to inform Yoshimatsu. The officer appeared a moment later. “I have taken over, as Yamazaki is injured. What is it?”

The two men faced each other through the broken window. Yoshimatsu saw the sword in Mishima's hand.

“I have made my demands,” replied Mishima. “If you do not comply, I will kill the general and commit suicide.”

The officer looked through the broken window. On the far side of the room was Mashita, tied to the chair.

“The general orders you to carry out my orders,” said Mishima.

Mashita nodded.

“When?” asked Yoshimatsu.

“Now. And hurry!”

It was 11:35.

Yoshimatsu went back to his office. It was decided to call in outside help.

The Eastern Army staff telephoned a police station near the
gates of the Ichigaya base. They asked for ambulances as well. They also communicated their decision to the Jieitai headquarters at Roppongi, two miles away. And they decided who should make the announcement to the garrison, summoning the soldiers to parade; they would do this after the police arrived.

Mishima, meanwhile, was relaxing quietly with his men. He had no notion that the police were being summoned.

The students took out a set of
hachimaki
from the attaché case. The headbands were dyed with red circles—the Rising Sun—and emblazoned in black Chinese ink:
Shichisho Hōkoku
(“Serve the Nation for Seven Lives”), a medieval samurai battle slogan.