Shigeru Yoshida
Shigeru Yoshida was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as prime minister of Japan from 1946 to 1947 and again from 1948 to 1954, serving through most of the country's occupation after World War II. Yoshida played a major role in determining the course of post-war Japan by forging a strong relationship with the United States and pursuing economic recovery.
Born in Tokyo to a former samurai family, Yoshida graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1906 and joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He held various assignments abroad, including in China, where he advocated increased Japanese influence. From 1928 to 1930, Yoshida served as vice minister of foreign affairs, then served as ambassador to Italy until 1932. In 1936, he was considered for foreign minister in the cabinet of Kōki Hirota, but he was opposed by the Army, who strongly identified him with liberalism and friendship with Great Britain and the United States. Yoshida served as ambassador to Britain from 1936 to 1938. He largely avoided political participation during the Pacific War. During the U.S. occupation after the war's end, Yoshida served as foreign minister in the cabinets of Prince Higashikuni and Kijūrō Shidehara.
Yoshida became prime minister in 1946, after Ichirō Hatoyama was purged by authorities on the verge of taking office; Yoshida served as foreign minister in his own first three cabinets. He oversaw the adoption of the Constitution of Japan before losing office after the election of 1947. He returned to the premiership in 1948, and negotiated the Treaty of San Francisco, which ended the occupation and saw the restoration of sovereignty to Japan, and a security treaty with the U.S. Yoshida pursued a strategy of concentrating on economic reconstruction while relying on an alliance with the United States for defense, a strategy known as the Yoshida Doctrine. The last years of his premiership were marked by conflict with Hatoyama, who had by then been depurged. This culminated in Yoshida being ousted and replaced by Hatoyama in 1954.
Yoshida's legacy continued to play an important part in Japanese political life, particularly through his two protégés, Hayato Ikeda and Eisaku Satō, who served as prime ministers from 1960 to 1964 and 1964 to 1972 respectively. Yoshida died in 1967 and received a state funeral. His grandson, Tarō Asō, served as prime minister from 2008 to 2009.
Early life and education
Shigeru Yoshida was born on 22 September 1878, in Kanda-Surugadai, Tokyo, the fifth son of Tsuna Takeuchi, a former samurai of the Tosa domain. Tsuna Takeuchi was a close aide to Taisuke Itagaki in the 1880s and would serve in the first National Diet elected in 1890. The identity of Yoshida's biological mother is not known. It is likely she was a concubine of Takeuchi and possibly a geisha.Shortly before Yoshida's birth, his biological father was imprisoned for anti-government conspiracy in connection to the Satsuma Rebellion, and his mother gave birth to him at the house of Kenzō Yoshida, a friend of his father. As young samurai, Tsuna and Kenzō had made names for themselves amidst the decades of unrest around the time of Meiji Restoration. Since Takeuchi had several sons and his friend Kenzō Yoshida had none, Yoshida was adopted by Kenzō Yoshida and his wife Kotoko in August 1881. Kenzō Yoshida was a former samurai who had traveled to England as a stowaway in his youth. He then established himself in Yokohama as a branch manager for Jardine Matheson, before becoming a successful businessman in his own right. Kotoko was the granddaughter of the Edo period Confucian scholar Issai Satō.
Yoshida spent his early childhood in Yokohama. After he graduated from elementary school there in 1889, he was enrolled at Koyo Juku, a prestigious rural boarding school. That same year, Kenzō Yoshida died, and Shigeru inherited a substantial fortune from him. Kotoko subsequently raised Shigeru on the family's estate in Ōiso when he was not at school.
Yoshida spent five years at Koyo Juku. In 1894 he went to Tokyo and spent a year studying at Nihon Gakuen, a school run by the famous educator Jugo Sugiura. He then went on to Higher Commercial School, but soon found he was unsuited for business and dropped out. He then briefly studied at Seisoku Academy and the Tokyo Physics School while preparing for higher school examinations, but he fell ill and had to spend a year at home in Ōiso. Returning to Tokyo in 1897, he entered the prestigious Peers' School, the headed by Prince Atsumaro Konoe. Yoshida advanced to the university department at Peers’ School, which Prince Konoe had established to train diplomats. The university department became defunct after Prince Konoe died in 1904, so Yoshida transferred to Tokyo Imperial University and graduated with a law degree in 1906. He passed the Foreign Service Entry Exam and entered Japan's diplomatic corps that same year, shortly after Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War.
Diplomatic career
Yoshida's diplomatic career began with a posting in China, first at the Japanese mission in Tianjin in November 1906, then in Fengtian in 1907. In 1909, Yoshida married Yukiko Makino, the eldest daughter of Nobuaki Makino. That same year he was assigned to Italy, and in 1912, he was posted to Andong in Japanese-ruled Korea, where he served concurrently as secretary to the Governor General Masatake Terauchi. When Terauchi was appointed prime minister in 1916, Yoshida turned down an offer to serve as his personal secretary. He was instead assigned to the Japanese embassy in the United States, but this appointment was cancelled when the Ministry became aware Yoshida had opposed the Twenty-One Demands, which he thought undermined the Japanese policy in China by alienating the Western powers and provoking Chinese opposition. Yoshida was instead made chief of the documents section the following year and in 1918 he was appointed consul in Jinan, China.In 1919, he was part of the Japanese delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, as secretary to his father-in-law Makino, one of the Japanese plenipotentiaries. When the conference concluded in 1920, he was assigned as first secretary to the Japanese embassy in the United Kingdom. In 1922, he returned to China and served as consul in Tianjin until 1925, then as Consul General in Fengtian until 1928.
In March 1928, Yoshida was first appointed minister to Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, but before assuming the post he was appointed vice minister for foreign affairs in July of the same year, after having recommended himself to the Prime Minister Giichi Tanaka. Tanaka served concurrently as minister for foreign affairs. During this time, Yoshida supported increasing Japanese influence in China, and advocated for the independence of Manchuria and Mongolia to weaken the Republic of China. He acquainted Ichiro Hatoyama, who was chief cabinet secretary under Tanaka. Yoshida remained in his post when Tanaka was replaced as prime minister by Osachi Hamaguchi and as foreign minister by Kijūrō Shidehara in July 1929, until he was appointed ambassador to Italy in December 1930. He returned to Japan in 1932 and, after having turned down the ambassadorship to the United States, for which he considered himself unsuitable, held a nebulous role as an ambassador-in-waiting. He undertook some foreign tours on behalf of the ministry and notably developed a warm relationship with the American ambassador Joseph Grew. Yoshida formally retired from the ministry in 1935.
In the aftermath of the February 26 incident of 1936, Prince Fumimaro Konoe contacted Yoshida to request that he'd help persuade Koki Hirota accept the premiership. Yoshida assisted Hirota in the cabinet formation and was himself considered for the post of foreign minister. However, he was included on a list of potential cabinet ministers unacceptable to the army presented by the incoming War Minister Hisaichi Terauchi. This prevented his appointment. Instead he became ambassador to the United Kingdom. After his ambassadorship to the United Kingdom ended in 1938, he retired, again, from the diplomatic service.
During the Pacific War
Although considered a "hawk" on China, Yoshida was firmly against war with the United States and United Kingdom. Despite holding no official positions during World War II, he was active in trying to prevent war with the Allies, and then to try to bring about an early end of the war, allying himself with Prince Fumimaro Konoe.Right before the Pacific War began, Yoshida joined Konoe in unsuccessfully attempting to deescalate the situation. During the war, Yoshida continued to associate with Konoe in trying to get the government to negotiate a peace with the Allies. In April 1945, he was arrested and briefly imprisoned over his association with Prince Konoe.
Post-war period and premiership
Following the Japanese surrender in August 1945, the Allied occupation of the country began. Yoshida was brought out of retirement to serve as foreign minister in the cabinet of Prince Higashikuni after the resignation of Mamoru Shigemitsu in September 1945. At that point, the main function of the foreign minister was to liaise with the occupation authority: the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. As such, Yoshida came into regular contact with General Douglas MacArthur. When Prince Higashikuni resigned Yoshida was approached by the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal Koichi Kido to become prime minister, but he turned him down and suggested Kijuro Shidehara for the post, who was duly appointed. Yoshida remained foreign minister in the Shidehara Cabinet.The first post-war election in April 1946 brought a plurality of the seats in the Diet to the Liberal Party led by Yoshida's old friend Ichirō Hatoyama. Hatoyama was expected to become prime minister, but was abruptly purged by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers on the eve of his appointment. Hatoyama approached Yoshida to take his place as prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party, despite Yoshida not even being a member of the party. Although reluctant, Yoshida eventually accepted, becoming prime minister of Japan on 22 May 1946. In the same month he joined the Liberal Party and was first made chairman of the general council before being formally elected party president four months later.