On May 1, rallies occurred in major cities nationwide. Police put the total number of participants at 1.25 million, but more sympathetic sources placed it at twice that number. The turnout in Tokyo was stunning, with as many as half a million men, women, and children flooding into the plaza before the imperial palace. The previous day, a worker in Yokohama had made a brief notation in his diary: “Yesterday, the emperor’s birthday, was not a holiday, but for tomorrow’s May Day we have the day off. . . . How the world has changed!”
