Yumebito
The Yumebito are a covert society of Dayashinese-Themiclesian soldiers formed in early 1940 to deal with the infiltration threat from Dayashina's Imperial Special Operations Group (D/ISOG), which aimed to infiltrate the Themiclesian Marine Corps in order to assassinate the emperor during the Pan-Septentrion War. Due to the secretive nature of the group's activities, only partial information is known through private memoirs.
Formation
The assassination of the Emperor of Themiclesia was plotted by the Imperial Dayashinese Army to accomplish two main objectives. The more obvious one is to undermine confidence in the Themiclesian government, but the IJA also desired to cast doubt on loyalty of the considerable Dayashinese diaspora in Themiclesia to stir disunity. D/ISOG particularly targeted the Themiclesian Marines because of their small size and its garrisons conveniently proximal to the temporary royal residence of Rjem-m′e′ Palace. Additionally, the Dayashinese diaspora, under the leadership of the Themiclesian Dayashinese Association, had decided to concentrate on the unit so as to dominate its ranks, to avoid linguistic and cultural friction, and infiltrators thus found the unit particularly susceptible to implication. It is also argued that the Marines' reputation for lack of professionalism has also influenced D/ISOG's decision.
After the first attempt on the emperor's life in June 1940, the TDA became concerned about the possibility that the public could mistake the infiltrators for normal Themiclesian soldiers who happened to have Dayashinese heritage. Their fears were not unfounded, as the Themiclesian Coast Guard was under the Home Office's direction to patrol certain areas intensively, and Dayashinese people have been arrested or questioned occasionally. The Navy Ministry's internal investigation of Nov. 1940 failed to find evidence of additional infiltrators, so the TDA instructed a group of trusted marines it had in contact to become extra vigilant in view of the irreparable damage to the diaspora that future assassination attempts would cause. The group known as the Yumebito came together after November 1940.
Not much of the Yumebito's activities are known with certainty. Subsequent accounts have been shown to have been edited for literary interest, and efforts to find the Yumebito have failed without the support of confirmed former members, who generally decline to identify others.
Operation Sunset
The Yumebito's most renowned action was probably the Operation Sunset (ひのいり), occurring on September 3, 1941. At that point, the Yumebito had received word that there was a large drinking party where almost all of the individuals they found suspicious were expected, and under the leadership of Captain Hoshi a group of roughly 50 attacked the party and stabbed or clubbed all partygoers to death. When the police and coast guard were notified, only the innkeeper and 21 corpses were found.
Trial of the Seven
Seven of the Yumebito were eventually arrested and put on trial at the Supreme Court for murder. All of the defendants argued that they only attacked the victims because they thought the latter were actively plotting against the crown, i.e. conspiring to commit treason. Some statements were presented at court to demonstrate that a degree of reasonable suspicion did exist amongst the Yumebito. Sjt. Mrjei RC representing the Crown prosecuted the attackers for murder, arguing they could not claim the right to defend a third person, because the defendants could not show that killing the victims "there and then" was the least destructive practical measure to prevent the alleged crime. Mrjei further demonstrated that the defendants did not know whether the alleged treason was in progress at the moment they were assailed, or if any of them were innocent bystanders; he propounded that the defendants had killed individuals "merely in the vicinity" of the victims actually suspected of treason. He called the case "an egregious, uninhibited, undiscriminating, and ungrounded attack on a drinking party where some were merely suspicious".
The accused marines were given a pro bono defence by two renowned barristers, the Sjts. Nam-njing and Mjak, but the defence was not effectually made due to conflicting statements the defendants had made in custody and the doubt thus cast on their integrity. The prosecution argued that the conflicting statements suggested that the very idea that the drinking party was a treasonous occasion was built on multiple fibs and only existed in the defendants' immaginations. The jury impanelled was at first sympathetic to the defendants, but it failed to deliver a unanimous verdict for any of them. A second jury was impanelled on Mar. 4, 1942, and it too hung. Finally, a third jury delivered guilty verdicts after the presiding judge told them that the question at hand "was not whether they had acted in the defence of the Emperor but whether the defendants had proven that their actions where the only practical recourse to prevent the Emperor's imminent death or grievous bodily harm."
The Court of Appeal rejected the defendants' appeals, and in early 1943 the House of Lords affirmed the original judgment. After conviction, members of the Coast Guard running the prison where marines are incarcerated reportedly treated the prisoners with much deference. One prison guard said, "I never knew someone so brave as to sacrifice themselves to the law for what they believed in." In 1947, the seven's life sentences were commuted to seven-year sentences in the general amnesty that year, and all were released in good health in 1954.