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

YONAI, MITSUMASA • 267
where—contrary to his own beliefs—he carried out his government’s
instructions in demanding parity between Japan, the United States,
and Great Britain. It was at this conference that the era of naval limitation
came to an end.
Appointed vice navy minister in 1936, Yamamoto steadfastly supported
Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai’s blunt opposition to the
conclusion of an alliance relationship with Nazi Germany. He was
subsequently appointed commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet
in August 1939, in which position he convinced an unenthusiastic
Navy General Staff to accept his strategy for an attack on Pearl Harbor.
He remained in this post until his plane was shot down by enemy
fire in April 1943.
YATOI. Meaning “foreign expert,” yatoi or the more honorific, oyatoi,
usually refers to foreigners hired by the Meiji government
or by local Japanese governments. Especially during the 1870s,
many yatoi were hired to assist in establishing government, educational,
and economic institutions. Among Americans hired as yatoi
by the Japanese government were William Smith Clark, David
Murray, and Horace Capron. See also BACON, ALICE MABEL;
BROWN, SAMUEL ROBBINS; FENELOSSA, ERNEST;
GRIFFIS, WILLIAM ELLIOTT; HEPBURN, JAMES CURTIS;
HOUSE, EDWARD; KIDDER, MARY EDDY; LEGENDRE,
CHARLES W.; MORSE, EDWARD; VERBECK, GUIDO.
YOKOI, SHONAN (1809–1869). A renowned philosopher and political
adviser from Kumamoto, Yokoi advocated opening Japan to international
trade and Western scientific ideas during the 1850s and
1860s. His nephews, Sahei and Daihei Yokoi, briefly studied at Rutgers
College in New Jersey in the late 1860s. At the time, his advocacy
of “opening” Japan to the West was controversial and he was assassinated
in 1869. See also MEIJI RESTORATION; REVERE THE
EMPEROR, EXPEL THE BARBARIAN; SAKUMA, SHOZAN.
YONAI, MITSUMASA (1880–1948). An admiral who served as both
navy minister and prime minister in the late 1930s and early 1940s,
Mitsumasa Yonai was a man of courage and determination. Through
the late 1930s, he stubbornly opposed the conclusion of an alliance