was a Japanese diplomat and politician in the
Empire of Japan
The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent form ...
, who served as
Minister of Foreign Affairs
A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...
three times during and after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
as well as the
Deputy Prime Minister of Japan. As civilian
plenipotentiary
A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of his or her sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the wor ...
representing the Japanese government, Shigemitsu co-signed the
Japanese Instrument of Surrender
The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the written agreement that formalized the surrender of the Empire of Japan, marking the end of hostilities in World War II. It was signed by representatives from the Empire of Japan and from the Allied ...
on board the battleship ''
USS Missouri'' on September 2, 1945.
Early life and career
Shigemitsu was born in what is now part of the city of
Bungo-ōno,
Ōita Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Ōita Prefecture has a population of 1,136,245 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,340 km2 (2,448 sq mi). Ōita Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northwest, Kum ...
, Japan. He graduated from the Law School of
Tokyo Imperial University
, abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...
in 1911 and immediately entered the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The enti ...
.
After
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, he served in numerous overseas diplomatic assignments, including
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
, the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
, and, briefly, as consul at the Japanese consulate in
Seattle, Washington
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region ...
, United States.
Activities in the lead-up to World War II
Following the
Mukden Incident
The Mukden Incident, or Manchurian Incident, known in Chinese as the 9.18 Incident (九・一八), was a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
On September 18, 1931, ...
in 1931, Shigemitsu was active in various European capitals, attempting to reduce alarm at Japanese military activities in
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
.
During the
First Shanghai Incident of 1932, he was successful in enlisting the aid of western nations in brokering a ceasefire between the
Kuomintang Army
The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; ), sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army () before 1928, and as National Army () after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang (KMT, or the Chinese Nationalist Party) from 1925 until 1947 in Chin ...
and the
Imperial Japanese Army
The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emper ...
. On April 29, 1932, while attending a celebration for the birthday of Emperor
Hirohito
Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...
in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...
, a
Korean independence activist
The Korean independence movement was a military and diplomatic campaign to achieve the independence of Korea from Japan. After the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910, Korea's domestic resistance peaked in the March 1st Movement of 1919, which w ...
,
Yoon Bong-Gil
Yun Bong-gil (21 June 1908 – 19 December 1932) was a Korean independence activist who set off a bomb that killed several Japanese dignitaries in Shanghai's Hongkew Park (now Lu Xun Park) in 1932. He was posthumously awarded the Republic of Ko ...
threw a bomb at a reviewing stand killing General
Yoshinori Shirakawa and wounding several others, including Shigemitsu. Shigemitsu lost his right leg in the attack and walked with an
artificial leg and cane for the rest of his life.
Shigemitsu later became ambassador to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
, and in 1938, he negotiated a settlement of the Russo-Japanese border clash at
Changkufeng Hill. He then became Japan's ambassador to the United Kingdom during a period of deteriorating Anglo-Japanese relations, most notably the
Tientsin incident of 1939, which pushed Japan to the brink of war with the United Kingdom. He was recalled in June 1941.
World War II
Shigemitsu was highly critical of the foreign policies of
Yōsuke Matsuoka, especially the
Tripartite Pact
The Tripartite Pact, also known as the Berlin Pact, was an agreement between Germany, Italy, and Japan signed in Berlin on 27 September 1940 by, respectively, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Galeazzo Ciano and Saburō Kurusu. It was a defensive milit ...
, which he warned would further strengthen
anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States
Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States has existed since the late 19th century, especially during the Yellow Peril, which had also extended to other Asian immigrants.
Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States would peak during World ...
. Shigemitsu spent two weeks in
Washington, DC
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morg ...
, on the way back from Great Britain, conferring with Ambassador
Kichisaburō Nomura to try unsuccessfully to arrange for direct face-to-face negotiations between
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
Fumimaro Konoe
Prince was a Japanese politician and prime minister. During his tenure, he presided over the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and the breakdown in relations with the United States, which ultimately culminated in Japan's entry into World W ...
and US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Shigemitsu's many attempts to stave off
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
angered the militarists in Tokyo, and only two days after the
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...
, Shigemitsu was sidelined with an appointment as ambassador to the Japanese-sponsored
Reorganized National Government of China
The Wang Jingwei regime or the Wang Ching-wei regime is the common name of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China ( zh , t = 中華民國國民政府 , p = Zhōnghuá Mínguó Guómín Zhèngfǔ ), the government of the pup ...
. In China, Shigemitsu argued that the success of the proposed
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere depended on the equal treatment of China and other Asian nations by Japan.
On April 20, 1943, in a move that was viewed as a sign that Japan might be preparing for a collapse of the
Axis Powers
The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
, Japanese Prime Minister
Hideki Tōjō replaced Foreign Minister
Masayuki Tani with Shigemitsu, who had been steadfast in his opposition to the militarists. He was thus foreign minister during the
Greater East Asia Conference. The American press often referred to him in headlines as "Shiggy".
From July 22, 1944, to April 7, 1945, he served simultaneously as Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Minister of Greater East Asia in the
Koiso administration. He then again served as Minister of Foreign Affairs briefly in August 1945 in the
Higashikuni administration, right before Japan's surrender.
Shigemitsu, as civilian
plenipotentiary
A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of his or her sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the wor ...
, along with General
Yoshijirō Umezu, signed the
Japanese Instrument of Surrender
The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the written agreement that formalized the surrender of the Empire of Japan, marking the end of hostilities in World War II. It was signed by representatives from the Empire of Japan and from the Allied ...
on board the battleship ''
USS Missouri'' on September 2, 1945.
Postwar
Despite Shigemitsu's well-known opposition to the war, at the insistence of the Soviet Union, he was taken into custody by the
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers and held in
Sugamo Prison
Sugamo Prison (''Sugamo Kōchi-sho'', Kyūjitai: , Shinjitai: ) was a prison in Tokyo, Japan. It was located in the district of Ikebukuro, which is now part of the Toshima ward of Tokyo, Japan.
History
Sugamo Prison was originally built ...
, as an accused
war criminal. Despite a signed deposition by
Joseph Grew, the former ambassador of the United States to Japan, over the protests of
Joseph B. Keenan
Joseph Berry Keenan (11 January 1888, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island – 8 December 1954, in Asheboro, North Carolina , the chief prosecutor, Shigemitsu's case came to trial. He was convicted by the
International Military Tribunal for the Far East
The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial or the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on April 29, 1946 to try leaders of the Empire of Japan for crimes against peace, conv ...
for waging an aggressive war and not doing enough to protect POWs from inhumane treatment. However, the tribunal was extremely lenient on the grounds that Shigemitsu had regularly opposed Japanese militarism and protested the inhumane treatment of POWs. Shigemitsu was sentenced to 7 years in prison, which was the lightest punishment handed down to anyone convicted at the trial. He was paroled in 1950.
After the end of the
occupation of Japan
Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the
Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States ...
, Shigemitsu formed the short-lived
Kaishintō party, which merged with the
Japan Democratic Party in 1954. In October 1952, he was elected to a seat in the
Lower House
A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...
of the
Diet of Japan
The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paral ...
, and in 1954, he became
Deputy Prime Minister of Japan under Prime Minister
Ichirō Hatoyama
was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1954 to 1956. A conservative, Hatoyama helped oversee the 1955 merger of the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party to create the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), of which Hatoy ...
, the leader of Japan Democratic Party. The cabinet continued after the merger of JDP and
Liberal Party as the
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 1955, and Shigemitsu continued to hold the post of
Deputy Prime Minister of Japan until 1956.
Shigemitsu concurrently served as
Foreign minister
A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...
from 1954 to 1956. In April 1955, he represented Japan at the
Bandung Conference
The first large-scale Asian–African or Afro–Asian Conference ( id, Konferensi Asia–Afrika)—also known as the Bandung Conference—was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place on 18–2 ...
held in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...
, which marked the beginning of the return of Japan to participating in an international conference since the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference th ...
. Then in August, Shigemitsu led a high-level Japanese delegation to the United States to press for a revision to the
U.S.-Japan Security Treaty
The , more commonly known as the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in English and as the or just in Japanese, is a treaty that permits the presence of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil, and commits the two nations to defend each other if one or th ...
, but this effort was met with a cold reception from Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles (, ; February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American diplomat, lawyer, and Republican Party politician. He served as United States Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959 and was briefly ...
, who had been the treaty's primary architect and was loath to revisit it. Dulles told Shigemitsu in no uncertain terms that any discussion of treaty revision was "premature" because Japan lacked "the unity, cohesion, and capacity to operate under a new treaty arrangement," and Shigemitsu was forced to return to Japan empty-handed.
The following year, Shigemitsu addressed the
United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
, pledging Japan's support of the founding principles of the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
and formally applying for membership. Japan became the UN's 80th member on December 18, 1956.
[NHK "Sonotoki" transmission 305 of November 14, 2007] Shigemitsu also travelled to
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
in 1956 in an attempt to normalize diplomatic relations and to resolve the
Kuril Islands dispute
The Kuril Islands dispute, known as the Northern Territories dispute in Japan, is a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over the ownership of the four southernmost Kuril Islands. The Kuril Islands are a chain of islands that stretch ...
. The visit resulted in the
Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956.
Death
In January 1957, a year after his visit to the USSR, Shigemitsu died of
myocardial infarction
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
, at 69, at his summer home in
Yugawara,
Kanagawa
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kanagaw ...
.
References
Bibliography
*
* Archive Footage references to Shigemitsu at Internet Movie Databas
* Website on exhibition in Japanese Parliament Nov 8–30, 200
accessed November 14, 2007
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shigemitsu, Mamoru
1887 births
1957 deaths
World War II political leaders
Japanese people of World War II
University of Tokyo alumni
Ambassadors of Japan to the Soviet Union
Ambassadors of Japan to the United Kingdom
Ambassadors of Japan to China
Deputy Prime Ministers of Japan
Foreign ministers of Japan
Japanese amputees
Japanese politicians with disabilities
Japanese people convicted of war crimes
People convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East
Permanent Representatives of Japan to the United Nations
Members of the House of Representatives (Japan)
Democratic Party (Japan, 1954) politicians
Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians
Japanese politicians convicted of crimes
Politicians from Ōita Prefecture
Consuls General of Japan in Shanghai