was a Japanese

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

and career

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internati ...

. During

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 ...

he was a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official.

Hideaki Kase was a Japanese diplomatic critic known for promoting historical revisionism. His father, Toshikazu Kase, was a diplomat under Shigenori Tōgō who negotiated an end to the Pacific war. Yoko Ono is his cousin. Revisionist organizations Kase wa ...

is his son and

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

is his niece. Surrender of Japan - USS Missouri

Biography

Kase was born in

Chiba Chiba may refer to: Places China * (), town in Jianli County, Jingzhou, Hubei Japan * Chiba (city), capital of Chiba Prefecture ** Chiba Station, a train station * Chiba Prefecture, a sub-national jurisdiction in the Greater Tokyo Area on ...

, Japan, from a family of upper-class landowners.Obituary in "The Telegraph" of June 3, 2004 After passing his Foreign Service Examination in 1925 he left Tokyo Higher Commercial College (later

Hitotsubashi University is a national university located in Tokyo, Japan. It has campuses in Kunitachi, Kodaira, and Chiyoda. One of the top 9 Designated National University in Japan, Hitotsubashi is a relatively small institution specialized solely in social sciences ...

) and attended

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

and

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

as a Research Fellow, graduating in 1927. He had a son, Hideaki Kase, 936-2022who became a diplomatic critic in promoting Japanese WWII historical revisionism books and films. He took up diplomatic posts in both

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

before returning to

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 ...

where he was posted to the North America desk of the Japanese Foreign Office. He was on duty on the weekend of the

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

attack in December 1941. Acting as secretary to Foreign Minister

Shigenori Togo Shigenori (written: , , , , , , or ) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese writer *, Japanese footballer *, Japanese ''daimyō'' *, Japanese general *Shigenori Mori Shigenori Mori (born 9 May 195 ...

, Kase had assisted in the preparation of the document formally terminating negotiations with the United States. In an interview after retirement, he blamed Japanese diplomats in Washington for delays in decoding and delivering the cabled text of the statement, which he claimed should have been delivered an hour prior to the beginning of the attack. On September 2, 1945, Kase was present as part of the Japanese delegation on board USS ''Missouri'' for the signing of the treaty of surrender in 1945. At his suggestion Foreign Minister

Mamoru Shigemitsu was a Japanese diplomat and politician in the Empire of Japan, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs three times during and after World War II as well as the Deputy Prime Minister of Japan. As civilian plenipotentiary representing the Ja ...

and other civilian members of the party wore formal diplomatic attire of morning dress and top hats "because we were representing our sovereign" (an exception to this was Saburo Ota, who wore no hat and whose white suit contrasted with other civilian members' mostly black morning dress). Kase had drafted the English text of the document accepting the terms of the

Potsdam Declaration The Potsdam Declaration, or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender, was a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman, Uni ...

. Kase continued to work in the Foreign Ministry until 1948 when he left to practice journalism. In 1950 Kase published a book that gave an account of the war from a Japanese perspective.''Journey to the Missouri'', Kase, Toshikazu & Rowe, David Nelson, Eds, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1950.
Synopsis from Digital Library for Nuclear Issues
Resuming his diplomatic career in 1954, Kase took up an appointment as chief advisor to the same foreign minister whom he had assisted at the surrender ceremony on board the USS Missouri. In 1955 he became Japan's first

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...

to the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

. His final diplomatic posting, before retiring in 1960, was as ambassador to Belgrade. Kase was interviewed in English for the 1970s documentary series ''

The World at War ''The World at War'' is a 26-episode British documentary television series that chronicles the events of the Second World War. It was produced in 1973, at a cost of £900,000 (), the most expensive factual series ever produced. It was produ ...

''. Kase died, aged 101 years, in

Kamakura is a city in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Kamakura has an estimated population of 172,929 (1 September 2020) and a population density of 4,359 persons per km² over the total area of . Kamakura was designated as a city on 3 November 1939. Kamak ...

, of heart failure.Pearson, Natalie Obiko,
Toshikazu Kase, Japanese Diplomat in War, Peace
. ''Chicago Sun-Times'', June 1, 2004.

References

Other sources

* * * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Kase, Toshikazu 1903 births 2004 deaths Ambassadors of Japan to Yugoslavia Amherst College alumni Harvard Fellows Hitotsubashi University alumni Japanese centenarians Men centenarians Japanese people of World War II Japanese writers People from Chiba Prefecture Permanent Representatives of Japan to the United Nations

Biography

See also

References

Other sources