Yoshimichi Iwata

He was one of the central leaders of the Japanese Communist Party in the early Showa period. He was born in Kitakata Village, Haguri County, Aichi Prefecture (Ichinomiya City). In 1923 (Taisho 12), he entered the Faculty of Economics at Kyoto Imperial University, where he participated in the student movement and formed the Social Science Research Society with Hemmi Shigeo and others. In December 1925, he was charged with violating the Peace Preservation Law in the Kyoto University Ren Incident and sentenced to ten months in prison. He then moved to Tokyo and joined the Industrial and Labor Research Institute. He joined the Communist Party around February 1928 (Showa 3), and was involved in the party's reconstruction efforts after the March 15 Incident (1928) and April 16 Incidents (1929), including editing the Musansha Shimbun newspaper. In January 1931, he re-established the Communist Party Central Committee with Kazama Joukichi, Konno Yojiro and others. He was in charge of the peasant movement and led the movement of all the Zenno factions, while also working on editing the party's newspaper, Akahata, which he published in April 1957. On October 30 of the same year, he was arrested on the streets of Kanda, Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, with the help of Matsumura Noboru (Iizuka Mitsunobu), a spy known as M, who had infiltrated the Central Committee, and was tortured by the Special Higher Police before being massacred on November 3.

[Shojiro Sase]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

昭和前期の日本共産党の中心的幹部の一人。愛知県葉栗(はぐり)郡北方村（一宮市）に生まれる。1923年（大正12）京都帝国大学経済学部に入学、学生運動に参加し、逸見重雄(へんみしげお)らと社会科学研究会を結成。25年12月に起きた京大学連事件で治安維持法違反に問われ、禁錮10か月の判決を受けた。その後上京して産業労働調査所に入所。28年（昭和3）2月ごろ共産党に入党し、『無産者新聞』の編集を担当するなど、三・一五事件（1928）、四・一六事件（1929）後の党再建活動に携わった。31年1月、風間丈吉(かざまじょうきち)、紺野与次郎(こんのよじろう)らとともに共産党中央委員会を再建。農民運動を担当し全農全会派の運動などを指導するとともに、機関紙『赤旗』の編集活動に従事し、32年4月その活版化を実現した。同年10月30日、中央委員会に潜入していたスパイMこと松村昇（飯塚盈延(いいづかみつのぶ)）の手引きによって、東京・千代田区神田(かんだ)の路上で逮捕され、特高警察による拷問を受けて、11月3日虐殺された。

［佐瀬昭二郎］

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