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The day Yukio Mishima chose the sword

Published: 25 Nov. 2025, 00:05 Updated: 09 Dec. 2025, 14:34

Roh Jeong-tae

The author is a writer and senior fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.

On Nov. 25, 1970, just before lunchtime, the headquarters of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force in Ichigaya, central Tokyo, was thrown into chaos.

The novelist Yukio Mishima stepped onto a balcony and began a speech. Though he said that he would speak for 30 minutes, he did not even last 10 as the Self-Defense Force members gathered below responded with jeers, not admiration. Realizing his attempted uprising had failed, Mishima returned to the office of the commanding general, who he and his followers had already taken hostage.

Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima delivers a speech on the balcony of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) building in Tokyo, before committing Harakiri suicide with a short sword. [WIKIPEDIA]

There, in front of the general, he drove a blade into his own abdomen in a ritual form of suicide with the help of an associate, who attempted to complete the act by decapitating him. Mishima was 45 years old.

Mishima had been regarded, alongside Yasunari Kawabata, as a possible contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature. What drove a novelist of his prestige to such an end?

After signing a security treaty with the United States, Japan became a nation that could not fully arm itself or wage war. The country's postwar constitution declared that it would not maintain military forces. Mishima believed that under such constraints, Japan could not preserve its history and cultural traditions centered on the emperor. He argued that the Self-Defense Force should resist, revise the constitution and transform itself into a military capable of projecting power abroad.

His act came only 25 years after Japan’s defeat in World War II. The country had suffered a total collapse and was devoting itself to economic growth within the U.S.-led international order. Neither the United States nor Japan had any interest in abandoning the peace constitution or restoring a fully fledged military. Such a plan was impossible.

The question is what this history means in 2025. Security threats from North Korea, China and Russia continue, and the United States shows clear signs of limiting its role as the world’s police officer, pressuring Europe to strengthen its own defense capabilities and no longer opposing Japan’s rearmament. Korea’s recent decision to pursue the construction and operation of nuclear-propelled submarines also reflects this shift.

The lesson is not to romanticize Mishima’s ideology but to recognize that today’s security environment demands a sober and realistic response. Korea must confront its strategic situation with clear eyes, not nostalgia.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.