was a naval architect, vice admiral in the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...

, entrepreneur and cabinet minister in the pre-war

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 fo ...

Background

Godō was born in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

to an ex-medical doctor (goten-i) family. He graduated from

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 1901 with a degree in naval engineering, and was accepted into the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Engineering Department. He rapidly rose through the ranks, serving as a

military attaché A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission, often an embassy. This type of attaché post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer, who retains a commission while serving with an embassy. Opport ...

to 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 North ...

as a lieutenant commander from June 1911 to July 1913, and to the United States as a captain from May 1917 to January 1918, and June 1919 to June 1920. He was promoted to rear admiral in December 1922 and became commandant of

Kure Naval Arsenal was one of four principal naval shipyards owned and operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy. History The Kure Naval District was established at Kure, Hiroshima in 1889, as the second of the naval districts responsible for the defense of the J ...

in June 1924. In December 1926, he was promoted to vice admiral. In 1928, Godō left the navy to accept the post of president of

Showa Steel Works The () was a Japanese government-sponsored steel mill that was one of the showpieces of the industrialization program for Manchukuo in the late 1930s. Shōwa Steel Works began as the ''Anshan Iron & Steel Works'', a subsidiary of the South Ma ...

, based in

Anshan Anshan () is an inland prefecture-level city in central-southeast Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, about south of the provincial capital Shenyang. As of the 2020 census, it was Liaoning's third most populous city with a population ...

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 Manc ...

, and the following year became one of the directors of the

South Manchurian Railway Company The South Manchuria Railway ( ja, 南満州鉄道, translit=Minamimanshū Tetsudō; ), officially , Mantetsu ( ja, 満鉄, translit=Mantetsu) or Mantie () for short, was a large of the Empire of Japan whose primary function was the operatio ...

. In 1937,

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 not ...

Senjūrō Hayashi was a Japanese politician and general. He served as Imperial Japanese Army Commander of the Japanese Korean Army during the Mukden Incident and the invasion of Manchuria. He briefly served as Prime Minister of Japan in 1937. Early life Hayas ...

asked that Godō accept both the posts of Minister of Commerce and Industry and

Railway Minister A Ministry of Railways is a Cabinet department that exists or has existed in many Commonwealth states as well as others. It generally occurs in countries where railroad transportation is a particularly important part of the national infrastructure. ...

. He was also granted a seat in the House of Peers in 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 paralle ...

. In 1938, he became chairman of both the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the

Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. It is the third largest stock exchange in the world by aggregate market capitalization of its listed companies, and the largest in Asia. It had 2,292 listed co ...

. He led a Japanese trade delegation to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in 1938 to purchase advanced weapons and production machinery, although the German government at the time still strongly favored China in its conflict with Japan.Kudo. Japanese-German Business Relations In 1939, Prime Minister

Nobuyuki Abe was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, Governor-General of Korea, and Prime Minister of Japan. Early life and military career Abe was born on November 24, 1875, in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, the son of former samurai Abe Nobumitsu. H ...

reappointed Godō Minister of Commerce and Industry, and simultaneously Minister of Agriculture and Forestry. He appointed

Nobusuke Kishi was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960. Known for his exploitative rule of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in Northeast China in the 1930s, Kishi was nicknamed the "Monster of the Shō ...

, then still in Manchukuo, as his Assistant Secretary for Commerce and Industry. In 1942, Godō became chairman of the Japan Management Association. In 1945, he served as an advisor to the

Ministry of Munitions The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. The position was created in response to the Shell Crisis of ...

. 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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Godō was apprehended by American occupation authorities along with most members of the pre-war Japanese government under Class A war criminal charges. However, he was subsequently released from

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 in 1 ...

without coming to trial. He continued to hold the title of chairman of the Japan Management Association after his release.

References

*Kudo, Akira. '' Japanese-German Business Relations: Co-operation and Rivalry in the Interwar Period''. Routledge (2012) *Ito, Takeo. ''Life Along the South Manchurian Railway: The Memoirs of Itō Takeo''. M.E. Sharp (1988)

External links

Nishida, People of the Imperial Japanese Navy

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Godo, Takuo 1877 births 1956 deaths People from Tokyo Government ministers of Japan Members of the House of Peers (Japan) University of Tokyo alumni Imperial Japanese Navy admirals