May 15 Incident

Inukai's struggle against the military led to his assassination during the May 15 Incident of 1932, which effectively marked the end of civilian political control over government decisions until after World War II. Inukai was shot by eleven junior Navy officers (most were just turning twenty years of age) in the Prime Minister's residence in Tokyo. Inukai's last words were roughly If I could speak, you would understand (話せば分かる hanaseba wakaru) to which his killers replied Dialogue is useless (問答無用 mondō muyō).^[8] The insurgents also attacked the residence of Makino Nobuaki, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, the residence and office of Saionji Kinmochi, headquarters of the Rikken Seiyukai, and tossed hand grenades into Mitsubishi Bank headquarters in Tokyo, and several electrical transformer substations. The original assassination plan had included killing the English film star Charlie Chaplin – who had arrived in Japan on 14 May and was Inukai's guest – in the hopes that this would provoke a war with the United States. However, at the time, Chaplin was watching a sumo wrestling match with the prime minister's son, Inukai Takeru, and thus escaped. Inukai’s murderers received only light sentences for their actions.^[9][10]

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May 15 Incident