Kano allegedly died of Pneumonia in 1938, aboard the SS Hikawa Maru after attending an IOC conference, promoting Judo as an Olympic sport. There is however growing evidence that he died actually of food poisoning. In the historical context, Japan was engaging in World War II, and the government had plans to turn the Kodokan into a military academy. Kano was outspoken in his opposition to this and he stated that there was no place for militarism in the Kodokan. After his death, a few weeks later, the Kodokan was indeed a military academy.
If I’m reading this correctly the implication is that he was murdered by the militarist Japanese government, however in traditional little-visited-article Wikipedia style there are no sources or references for the claim. Is this true, or even seriously postulated?
Apologies if this is common knowledge, repost or nonsense.
Even if it were true, food poisoning happens all the time, especially in places without food safety inspections for restaurants. Out here in the FSM, in just a few months I’ve personally got hit hard already by staph food poisoning. So, someone dying from really bad food poisoning wouldn’t even be suspicious.
But I definatly wouldn’t rule out the possiblity. I read somewhere (on the internet) that Mas Oyama was involved with Yakuza, and had them break one of his students legs for leaving his organization.
Then again, all my info comes from the internet so it’s probably not very credible.
Damn, why is it that when someone dies in asia everyone always thinks it’s assasination. Bruce died of an allergic reaction to aspirin. It happens. I knew a girl in college that went into anaphylactic shock from smoking a cigar and died in the emergency room. They checked the cigar for everything possibly poisonous but nope, it was just a cigar.
Kano was an old man, and medicine wasn’t exactly stellar back then. In fact, food poisoning in asia is pretty god damn common. On top of that, why the hell would imperial japan bother poisoning him? It seems like they’d just toss him in jail or put him under house arrest until he “changed his mind.” What serious threat would they have to worry about?
Wikipedia generates noise, not knowledge. Previous encyclopedias were well-researched and contained precise information that could be trusted to be correct. Wikipedia, on the other hand, contains a large amount of errors, omissions and superfluous trivia
Actually, the study found it to be LESS accurate. Also, consider the martial arts articles. Lots of omissions, lots of factual errors, lots of BS insinuated and the NPV clause allows a lot of bullshit to slide. Then start looking at their articles on the occult. Can’t tell fact from fiction in those things.
Well its allways like this, one someone “important” dies theories rise, personaly I dont buy it, Kano’s students wouldn’t let something like that go unanswered
Thanks Meng Mao, but yes, you have blown my cover, the mothership will be picking me back up shortly. First time I’ve wandered into Wikopedia for anything I actually wanted to read - this one is fairly obviously crap. Strange idea overall, create an encyclopedia that anyone can update information or change pages. Someone could just wander around aimlessly erasing information.
Joe Svinth discussed the Kano-murder idea briefly in his “Getting a Grip: Judo in the Nikkei Communities of the Pacific Northwest 1900-1950.” You can find it at www.ejmas.com if you’re interested (I recommend it for those interested in early US jujutsu and mixed jj-wrestling matches).
Anyway, Joe’s points were that: a) Japanese assassin’s tended to be a little more direct, and b) the death certificate cause of pneumonia is consistent with the accounts of Kano’s fellow travelers.