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Kōki Hirota 広田 弘毅 |
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In office 9 March 1936 – 2 February 1937 |
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| Monarch | Shōwa |
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| Preceded by | Keisuke Okada |
| Succeeded by | Senjūrō Hayashi |
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| Born | 14 February 1878 Chūō-ku, Japan |
| Died | 23 December 1948 (aged 70) Sugamo, Japan |
| Political party | Independent |
| Alma mater | Tokyo Imperial University |
Kōki Hirota (広田 弘毅 Hirota Kōki, 14 February 1878 – 23 December 1948) was a Japanese diplomat, politician and the 32nd Prime Minister of Japan from March 9, 1936 to February 2, 1937.
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Hirota was born in what is now part of Chūō-ku, Fukuoka city, Fukuoka Prefecture. His father was a stone mason, and he was adopted into the Hirota family. He graduated with law degree from Tokyo Imperial University. One of his classmates was post-war Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida.
After graduation, Hirota entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to become a career diplomat, and served in a number of overseas posts. In 1923, he became director of the Europe and America Department within the Foreign Ministry. After serving as minister to the Netherlands, he was ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1928 to 1932.
He became Foreign Minister in 1933, under the cabinet of Prime Minister Saitō Makoto just after Japan withdrew from the League of Nations. He retained the position in the subsequent cabinet of Okada Keisuke.
As Foreign Minister, Hirota negotiated the purchase of the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria from Russian interests. He also promulgated the Hirota Sangensoku (the Three Principles by Hirota) on 28 October 1938, as the definitive statement of Japan’s position towards China: the establishment of a Japan-China-Manchukuo bloc, the organization of a Sino-Japanese common front against the spread of communism, and the suppression of anti-Japanese activities within China.
In 1936, with the radical factions within the Japanese military discredited following the February 26 Incident, Hirota was selected to replace Admiral Okada Keisuke as Prime Minister of Japan.
However, Hirota placated the military by reinstating the system by which only active duty Army or Navy officers could serve in the post of War Minister or Navy Minister – a system which the military had abused in the past to bring down civilian governments.
In terms of foreign policy, the Anti-Comintern Pact with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy was signed under his cabinet. This treaty was the predecessor to the Tripartite Pact of 1940.
However, Hirota's term lasted for slightly less than a year. After the disagreement with Hisaichi Terauchi who was serving as the War Minister, over the speech by Kunimatsu Hamada, he resigned from his position. Kazushige Ugaki was appointed, but unable to form the government due to Army's opposition. In February 1937, Senjūrō Hayashi was appointed to replace him.
Hirota soon returned to government service as Foreign Minister under Hayashi's successor, Prince Konoe Fumimaro. While Foreign Minister, Hirota strongly opposed the military’s aggression against China, which completely undermined his efforts to create a Japan-China-Manchukou alliance against the Soviet Union. He also spoke out repeatedly against the escalation of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The military soon tired of his criticism, and forced his retirement in 1938.
In 1945, however, Hirota returned to government service to lead Japanese peace negotiations with the Soviet Union. At the time, Japan and the USSR were still under a non-aggression pact, even though the other Allied Powers had all declared war on Japan. Hirota attempted to persuade Joseph Stalin's government to stay out of the war, but he ultimately failed: the Soviet Union declared war on Japan in between the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Following Japan's surrender, Hirota was arrested as a Class A war criminal and was brought before the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. He offered no defense and was found guilty of the following charges:
He was sentenced to hang, and was executed at Sugamo Prison. The severity of his sentence remains controversial, as Hirota was the only civilian executed as a result of the Tokyo trials. It is often stated that the main factor in his death sentence was the fact that he was party to information about what is now known as the Nanjing Massacre, about which he is alleged to have telegraphed to the Japanese embassy in Washington D.C.. As Foreign Minister, Hirota received regular reports from the War Ministry about the military's atrocities, but lacked any authority over the offending military units themselves. Nonetheless, the tribunal condemned Hirota's failure to insist that the Japanese Cabinet act to put an end to the atrocities.[1] Other possible factors in Hirota's sentence included his signing of the Tripartite Alliance, and the antipathy of China's Kuomintang government towards the Hirota Sangensoku, which they viewed as providing justification for Japan's aggression leading to Second Sino-Japanese War (which began during Hirota's second term as Foreign Minister).
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Kosai Uchida |
Minister of Foreign
Affairs 1933–1936 |
Succeeded by Hachirō Arita |
| Preceded by Keisuke Okada |
Prime Minister of
Japan 1936–1937 |
Succeeded by Senjūrō Hayashi |
| Preceded by Naotake Satō |
Minister of Foreign
Affairs 1937–1938 |
Succeeded by Kazushige Ugaki |
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