was a statesman, politician and cabinet minister in
Taishō and early
Shōwa period Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
.
Biography
Mizuno was the son of a
samurai
The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...
in the service of
Akita Domain, and was born at the Akita Domain’s
Edo residence in what is now the
Asakusa area of
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 ...
. He was a graduate of the law school of
Tokyo Imperial University in 1892, where one of his classmates was future Prime Minister
Wakatsuki Reijirō.
Hozumi Nobushige introduced Mizuno to
Shibusawa Eiichi, who offered him a position at his bank: however, Mizuno accepted
Ume Kenjirō’s offer of an introduction to the
Minister of Agriculture & Commerce and opted for a career as a government bureaucrat instead. In 1894, he changed to 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 ...
, working initially for the Bureau of Mines, and subsequently serving in numerous other roles.
He was one of the Japanese delegates to the
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in
Switzerland
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
, which resulted in the promulgation of the initial version of the
Copyright law of Japan in 1899.
By the invitation of
Hara Takashi, Mizuno joined the ''
Rikken Seiyūkai
The was one of the main political party, political parties in the pre-war Empire of Japan. It was also known simply as the ''Seiyūkai''.
Founded on September 15, 1900, by Itō Hirobumi,David S. Spencer, "Some Thoughts on the Political Devel ...
'' and was appointed to the
upper house
An upper house is one of two Legislative chamber, chambers of a bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the lower house. The house formally designated as the upper house is usually smaller and often has more restricted p ...
of the
Diet of Japan
, transcription_name = ''Kokkai''
, legislature = 215th Session of the National Diet
, coa_pic = Flag of Japan.svg
, house_type = Bicameral
, houses =
, foundation=29 November 1890(), leader1_type ...
. Under the administration of
Prime Minister
A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
Terauchi Masatake, he was appointed to the Cabinet as Home Minister for the first time.
From 1919 to 1922, Mizuno served as Parliamentary Commissioner of the
Governor-General of Korea, a post which was effectively the head of the civilian administration of
Korea under Japanese rule
From 1910 to 1945, Korea was ruled by the Empire of Japan under the name Chōsen (), the Japanese reading of "Joseon".
Japan first took Korea into its sphere of influence during the late 1800s. Both Korea (Joseon) and Japan had been under polic ...
. Mizuno was regarded as particularly suited for this role, as he was familiar with the security apparatus for monitoring Korean residents in Japan and had experience in the suppression of civil disturbance due to his term as Home Minister during the
Rice Riots of 1918. During his tenure in Korea, he greatly expanded the telephone infrastructure of the country, which had economic as well as security benefits, On December 25, 1920 Mizuno was awarded the Grand Cordon of the
Order of the Rising Sun.
Mizuno returned to the Cabinet as Home Minister again under the
Katō administration from 1922 to 1923, turning the post over to
Gotō Shinpei the day after the
1923 Great Kantō earthquake.
Mizuno is infamous for his role in the
1923 Kantō Massacre. He stoked rumors that Koreans were committing crimes or taking revenge on the Japanese. An indiscriminate massacre of anyone suspected to be Korean followed. Over 6,000 Koreans were killed by Japanese civil militias.
At the end of 1923, after the
Toranomon Incident, he was requested to return to the Cabinet as Home Minister for a third time, under the
Keigo administration.
From 1927 to 1928, Mizuno served as
Minister of Education. As Education Minister, he took steps to purge leftist professors from Japan's
imperial universities
The were founded by the Empire of Japan between 1886 and 1939, seven in Mainland Japan, one in Korea under Japanese rule and one in Taiwan under Japanese rule. These universities were funded by the imperial government until the end of World War I ...
and to ban radical leftist student groups.
In 1928, Prime Minister
Tanaka Giichi attempted to appoint his close friend
Fusanosuke Kuhara, a businessman noted for his radical right-wing politics and first-year member of the Diet to the post of Home Minister. Mizuno resigned in protest, which should have brought down Tanaka’s Cabinet. However, Tanaka brought Mizuno a message from 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 ...
asking Mizuno to withdraw his resignation. The incident caused an uproar in the House of Peers and threatened to precipitate a
constitutional crisis
In political science, a constitutional crisis is a problem or conflict in the function of a government that the constitution, political constitution or other fundamental governing law is perceived to be unable to resolve. There are several variat ...
, as this would mean that the Emperor was violating a long-standing rule of not interfering directly in politics and the action was perceived to be favorable to the ''Rikken Seiyūkai'' over their rivals, the ''
Rikken Minseitō''. Mizuno was forced to resign once again, and Tanaka fell increasingly out of favor with the Emperor; the incident was a major force in driving Tanaka from office in 1929.
[Bix. ''Hirohito''. Page 212]
In his later years, Mizuno served as chairman of the
, and other posts. On 17 April 1938, Mizuno was awarded the
Order of the Paulownia Flowers. At the end of
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 arrested by the
Allied occupation forces and held in
Sugamo Prison for Class-A
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 ...
charges for his position as honorary vice-chairman of the ''Dai-Nippon Koa Domei'' (Japan Pan-Asian Alliance), a war-time nationalist society, but was released on 1 September 1947 without coming to trial. He died on 25 November 1949 at the age of 81.
Notes
References
*
Bix, Herbert P. ''
Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan''. Harper Perennial (2001). .
*Yang, Daqing. ''Technology of Empire: Telecommunications and Japanese Expansion in Asia, 1883-1945''. Harvard University Asia Center (2011)
* Marshall, Bryan. ''Academic Freedom and the Japanese Imperial University, 1868-1939''. University of California Press (1992)
* Weiner, Michael. ''Race and Migration in Japan''. Routledge
* Yamagami Kazuo. '' Konoe Fumimaro And the Failure of Peace in Japan, 1937-1941: A Critical Appraisal Of The Three-time Prime Minister''. Mcfarland & Co Inc (2006). . Page 22
External links
Mizuno Rentaro Museum home page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mizuno, Rentaro
1868 births
1949 deaths
University of Tokyo alumni
Members of the House of Peers (Japan)
Rikken Seiyūkai politicians
Government ministers of Japan
Education ministers of Japan
Ministers of home affairs of Japan
Recipients of the Order of the Paulownia Flowers
Grand Cordons of the Order of the Rising Sun
Kantō Massacre