Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

156 • KOIZUMI, JUNICHIRO
May 1939. In October 1941, he was appointed minister of commerce
and industry in the Hideki To - jo - Cabinet.
After World War II, Kishi was arrested on A-class war-crime
charges; however, he was exempted from prosecution and released
from prison in December 1948. As soon as the purge was lifted after
the San Francisco Peace Treaty became effective, Kishi returned to
politics. In 1953, he won the House of Representatives election as a
member of the Liberal Party. In November 1954, he played a major
role in establishing the Japan Democratic Party and became its secretary
general. Kishi was one of the chief promoters of amalgamation
of two major conservative parties, the Japan Democratic Party and
the Liberal Party. As a result, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)
was established in November 1955 and Kishi was appointed its secretary
general. In December 1956, Tanzan Ishibashi defeated Kishi in
the LDP presidential election, and Kishi became foreign minister.
However, when the prime minister resigned his post because of illness,
Kishi became prime minister in February 1957. Kishi began negotiations
with the United States in order to amend the one-sided
Japan–U.S. Security Treaty. On 18 May 1960, Kishi decided to
unilaterally ratify a new Japan–U.S. Security Treaty in the Lower
House. After violent reactions, in June 1960, the Kishi Cabinet dissolved
itself in order to defuse the crisis among the people.
KOIZUMI, JUNICHIRO (1942– ). Junichiro Koizumi was born in
Kanagawa Prefecture. Koizumi was first elected to the House of Representatives
in 1972 as a Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) member.
He became prime minister in April 2001. When the United States suffered
from a series of terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, Prime
Minister Koizumi denounced the terrorism and on 29 November
2001, the Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Law was enacted.
Koizumi seemed to be pro–United States; however, on 17 September
2002, Koizumi visited North Korea as the first Japanese prime minister
in history to do so. He held a summit with Chairman Kim Jongil
and signed the Japan–DPRK Pyongyang Declaration. Prime Minister
Koizumi did this without close consultation with the United
States, and Washington regarded this surprise summit as an indication
of Japan’s moving away from the U.S.–Japan alliance. The
United States imposed strong pressure on the Koizumi administration