Kanno Sugako
1881-1911
Kanno Sugako was a Japanese anarcha-feminist journalist. She was the author of articles about gender oppression and a defender of freedom and equal rights.
Kanno was from a family who owned a mining business and at 15 was raped by a miner. Kanno’s first exposure to socialism was an essay by Sakai Toshihiko in which Sakai advised rape victims not to carry the guilt of the event around.
At age 17, she married into a Toyko merchant family. She was interested in writing.
Kanno joined the Women’s Moral Reform Society to mount campaigns against the system of concubines and advocated for the independence of women.
After its head editor of Wakayama Prefecture newspaper was jailed for insulting authorities, Kanno took over the position.
Kanno attended a socialist anarchist rally where she and many were arrested by the police and tortured for months. She came to believe violence was necessary to topple the current system.
After contracting tuberculosis and being fired from her position as editor, she was forced to stop publishing and take on domestic duties for income.
Believing the tenant farmers were impoverished due to the exploitation of the Emperor and elites, Kanno became involved in a plan to assassinate the Emperor. The police arrested Kanno and those associated and 26 anarchists were put on trial. Kanno being the only woman present.
Kanno refused to avoid responsibility saying, “When I was imprisoned in June 1908 in connection with the Red Flag incident I was outraged at the brutal behavior of the police. I concluded that a peaceful propagation of our principles could not be conducted under these circumstances…I hoped to destroy not only the emperor but other elements too.”
She was the first woman with the status of political prisoner to be executed in the history of modern Japan.
“What a nation…it takes pride in spilling the life blood of 100,000 people for one inch of the map.”
-Kanno Sugako