Return of the Nutjobs

A man dressed in camouflage and carrying what appeared to be a Molotov cocktail was arrested early Friday in front of the home of ruling Democratic Party of Japan Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, police said.

The man, who identified himself as Tokyo rightist group member Hiroyuki Tsukui, 40...Japan Times

There was a book published in 1942, now available free online,* titled: Government by Assassination, by Hugh Byas, about the pre-war Japanese government and the number of assassinations of Japanese politicians who had angered various extremists in the country. Some of those extremists could even be considered to have been right-wing nutjobs.

Of course things have changed today and there is little tolerance for any such actions. We can expect the government to launch a thorough investigation and if necessary, crack down on any groups involved. Or, like all the recent nutters, he could be found to simply be an individual acting purely on his own who was perhaps innocently carrying a Molotov cocktail for warmth.

9:30pm: After watching the evening news and the unfolding Ozawa scandal, I think Government by Scandal is more appropriate for modern Japan.

*Be warned that the download is the Adobe Reader PDF crap. I skimmed that book in college and recall that it was about what one would expect for a WW2 era book about an enemy. I would like to look through it again, but I'd rather have a root canal without Novocain than deal with trying to read something of that length in the slow, bulky, buggy Adobe garbage. Apple's preview doesn't work any better on that file either. The very motivated can read it online.