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Why did government repression end the Japanese proletarian literature movement?

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Yellow letter tiles on a teal background spell 'what is a haiku?' with abstract calligraphic scribbles in the background — Japanese literature Three lines. Five, seven, five.

The Japanese proletarian literature movement, which sought to use writing as a tool for social reform and revolution, was effectively dismantled by government repression beginning in 1928.1

This suppression was part of a broader state effort to eliminate "dangerous thoughts" and maintain the national essence (kokutai). The government utilized the Tokubetsu Kōtō Keisatsu (Special Higher Police), or Tokkō, to monitor and crush radical movements, including those influenced by Marxism. The legal framework for this crackdown was strengthened by the 1928 revision of the law, which made it a capital crime to agitate against private property or the Japanese national polity.23

The intensity of this state-sanctioned repression is exemplified by the fate of the movement's leading figure, Kobayashi Takiji, who was tortured to death by police in 1933. Through such severe measures, the state successfully stifled the movement, forcing the end of its influence on the Japanese literary world.1