Marquess A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wid ...

(July 18, 1889 – April 6, 1977) was a Japanese statesman who served as

Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of Japan The was an administrative post not of Cabinet rank in the government of the Empire of Japan, responsible for being a direct, personal advisor to the Emperor of Japan, emperor, and keeping the Privy Seal of Japan and State Seal of Japan among oth ...

from 1940 to 1945, and was the closest advisor to emperor

Hirohito , Posthumous name, posthumously honored as , was the 124th emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, from 25 December 1926 until Death and state funeral of Hirohito, his death in 1989. He remains Japan's longest-reigni ...

throughout

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He was convicted of

war crimes A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hos ...

and sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

, of which he served 6 years before being released in 1953.

Biography

Early years

Kōichi Kido was born on July 18, 1889, in Akasaka,

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

to Marquess Takamasa Kido and Sueko Yamao. He was the grand-nephew of

Kido Takayoshi , formerly known as , was a Japanese statesman, samurai and ''Shishi (Japan), shishi'' who is considered one of the Three Great Nobles of the Restoration, three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration. Early life Born Wada Kogorō on Augu ...

, one of the leaders of the

Meiji Restoration The , referred to at the time as the , and also known as the Meiji Renovation, Revolution, Regeneration, Reform, or Renewal, was a political event that restored Imperial House of Japan, imperial rule to Japan in 1868 under Emperor Meiji. Althoug ...

. After graduating from the Gakushuin Peer's School in Tokyo, he went to the law school of

Kyoto University , or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan. The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...

, where

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

economist Hajime Kawakami was one of his professors. After graduation in 1915, he held numerous minor bureaucratic posts in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce, followed by the

Ministry of Commerce and Industry A ministry of trade and industry, ministry of commerce, ministry of commerce and industry or variations is a ministry that is concerned with a nation's trade, industry and commerce. Notable examples are: List *Algeria: Ministry of Industry and ...

. Together with

Shinji Yoshino was a bureaucrat, politician, and cabinet minister in the government of the pre-war Empire of Japan, as well as in post-war Japan. He was the younger brother of political theorist Sakuzō Yoshino, a major proponent of Taishō democracy. Biogra ...

and

Nobusuke Kishi was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan, prime minister of Japan from 1957 to 1960. He is remembered for his exploitative economic management of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in China in the 1930s, ...

, he was one of the architects of the Strategic Industries Control Act on 1931, which set the stage for state control of numerous industries during the increasing militarization of Japan in the 1930s. Kido became chief secretary of the

Home Ministry An interior ministry or ministry of the interior (also called ministry of home affairs or ministry of internal affairs) is a Ministry (government department), government department that is responsible for domestic policy, public security and law e ...

in 1930.Bix, '' Hirohito'' pages 177-178.

Political career

When his long-time friend

Fumimaro Konoe was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1937 to 1939 and from 1940 to 1941. He presided over the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 and breakdown in relations with the United States, which shortly after his t ...

became

Prime Minister of Japan The is the head of government of Japan. The prime minister chairs the Cabinet of Japan and has the ability to select and dismiss its ministers of state. The prime minister also serves as the commander-in-chief of the Japan Self-Defense Force ...

in 1937, Kido was named

Minister of Education An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...

. From January 1938, he concurrently held the post of Minister of Health and Welfare. In January 1939, Kido was appointed

Home Minister An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergenc ...

in the Hiranuma Cabinet. As

from 1940, Kido became one of the most influential advisors to emperor

following the death of

Saionji Kinmochi Kazoku, Prince was a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan, prime minister of Japan from 1906 to 1908, and from 1911 to 1912. As the last surviving member of the ''genrō'', the group of senior statesmen who had directed pol ...

. He recommended to Hirohito that Konoe succeed

Mitsumasa Yonai was a Japanese navy officer and politician. He served as admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, Ministry of the Navy (Japan), Minister of the Navy, and Prime Minister of Japan in 1940. Early life and career Yonai was born on 2 March 1880, in M ...

for a second term as Prime Minister of Japan and was active with Konoe in the movement to replace the existing political parties with the '' Taisei Yokusankai'' (Imperial Rule Assistance Association) to form a single party state. In 1941, Kido recommended that

Hideki Tōjō was a Japanese general and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1941 to 1944 during the Second World War. His leadership was marked by widespread state violence and mass killings perpetrated in the name of Japanese nationalis ...

become Prime Minister after Konoe's third term in office, as being one of the few people eligible who might be able to maintain control over more radical elements within the

Imperial Japanese Army The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA; , ''Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun'', "Army of the Greater Japanese Empire") was the principal ground force of the Empire of Japan from 1871 to 1945. It played a central role in Japan’s rapid modernization during th ...

. However, Kido remained one of the more cautious advisors to Hirohito at the beginning of

, and is known to have advised the emperor against attacking the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies (; ), was a Dutch Empire, Dutch colony with territory mostly comprising the modern state of Indonesia, which Proclamation of Indonesian Independence, declared independence on 17 Au ...

in 1941, explaining that such an attack might provoke the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

into war, and that any oil obtained by taking the East Indies would still have to be transported, and would be subject to blockades and attacks by plane and submarine. Kido also claimed after the war that Hirohito was never aware of the plans to attack

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 Reci ...

until after the attack occurred. As the war situation deteriorated for Japan, Kido was one of the chief advocates of a negotiated peace, and Kido is generally credited with convincing the government to accept 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, ...

and surrender. He also convinced the emperor that it would be necessary to deliver a personal speech in order to ensure that all civilians and soldiers would cease fighting. He was one of the principal targets for assassination during the Kyūjō Incident in the final days of the war.

Post-war period

Kido was not only the chief advisor to the emperor; he was a major liaison between the emperor and the government, and a representative of the Japanese government to the Allied Occupation Forces. He advised

General MacArthur Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American general who served as a top commander during World War II and the Korean War, achieving the rank of General of the Army. He served with distinction in World War I; as chief of ...

on many aspects of the logistics surrounding the surrender, the end of the war, and the

Occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II from the surrender of the Empire of Japan on September 2, 1945, at the war's end until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect on April 28, 1952. The occupation, led by the ...

. One of his chief motives was consistently to protect the honor of the emperor. In the

International Military Tribunal for the Far East The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE), also known as the Tokyo Trial and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, was a military trial convened on 29 April 1946 to Criminal procedure, try leaders of the Empire of Japan for their cri ...

held in Tokyo after the war, Kido was charged as a Class A War Criminal. He initially attempted to plead guilty in order to protect the emperor by taking all responsibility for imperial decisions advocating war unto himself. His personal diary, kept in detail since 1930, was voluntarily turned over to the prosecution, and became an important document in determining the internal workings of the Japanese government during the war and was often cited by the prosecution as evidence against the defendants, including Kido himself. Kido was found guilty of Counts 1, 27, 29, 31, and 32, and was sentenced to life imprisonment 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 23 special wards, ward of Tokyo, Japan. History Sugamo Prison was orig ...

, Tokyo. In 1951, as the Occupation of Japan was ending, Kido sent a message to the emperor, advising him as he had advised three years earlier, to accept responsibility for the defeat and abdicate, at the end of the American Occupation. In addition, Kido opposed the idea of continuing to punish

war criminal A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...

s under Japanese law after the end of the American Occupation. According to his diary, "those called war criminals by the enemy's standards, especially those in responsible positions, were all performing loyal duties, and to punish them in the name of the emperor would be unbearable".Dower. ''Embracing Defeat''. page 477 In 1953, due to health problems, Kido was released from prison. He lived the rest of his life in Oiso,

Kanagawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

and had a flat in Tokyo's Aoyama. He died at age 87 of

cirrhosis Cirrhosis, also known as liver cirrhosis or hepatic cirrhosis, chronic liver failure or chronic hepatic failure and end-stage liver disease, is a chronic condition of the liver in which the normal functioning tissue, or parenchyma, is replaced ...

of the liver at the

Imperial Household Agency The (IHA) is an agency of the government of Japan in charge of state matters concerning the Imperial House of Japan, Imperial Family, and the keeping of the Privy Seal of Japan, Privy Seal and State Seal of Japan. From around the 8th century ...

hospital in Tokyo in 1977. His grave is at the

Tama Cemetery in Tokyo is the largest municipal cemetery in Japan. It is split between the cities of Fuchū, Tokyo, Fuchu and Koganei, Tokyo, Koganei within the Tokyo Metropolis. First established in April 1923 as , it was redesignated Tama Cemetery in 1935. ...

in Tokyo. Kido was married to Kodama Tsuruko, the daughter of General Kodama Gentaro. He had two sons and one daughter.

Cabinet positions

, - , -

References

* Bix, Herbert P. '' Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan''. Harper Perennial (2001). *Dower, John W. '' Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II''. New York: W.W. Norton & Company (1999). *Yagami, Kazuo. ''Konoe Fumimaro and the Failure of Peace in Japan'', 1937–1941. McFarland (2006) *Wetzler. Peter. ''Hirohito and War: Imperial Tradition and Military Decision Making in Prewar Japan''. University of Hawaii Press. (1998) *Finn,Richard B. ''Winners in Peace: MacArthur, Yoshida, and Postwar Japan''. University of California Press (1992)

External links

Annotated bibliography for Koichi Kido from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kido, Koichi 1889 births 1977 deaths People from Minato, Tokyo People from Tokyo Education ministers of Japan Ministers of home affairs of Japan Kazoku Kyoto University alumni Japanese people convicted of war crimes Japanese people convicted of the international crime of aggression Japanese prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by international courts and tribunals People convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East Ministers of health and welfare of Japan Japanese politicians convicted of crimes 20th-century Japanese diarists People paroled from life sentence Government of the Empire of Japan