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

268 • YONAI, MITSUMASA
relationship with Germany, and, in the endgame of war, was a powerful
force for surrender within the Japanese government.
In a service whose elite officer corps was drawn from highranking
graduates of the Naval Academy, Yonai was somewhat of an
anomaly. He graduated 68th (from a class total of 125) in his Naval
Academy class of 1901. He participated in the Russo–Japanese
War, and, from 1915, served as naval attaché to the Japanese embassy
in Petrograd. Over the ensuing years, he was appointed commander
of the First, Second, and Third Fleets, and commander-inchief
of the Kure, Sasebo, and Yokosuka Naval Districts. In
December 1936, he rose to commander-in-chief of the Combined
Fleet, although he left the post in February 1937 to take up his duties
as navy minister. He was promoted to admiral in April that year. Following
the outbreak of the Sino–Japanese War in July 1937, Navy
Minister Yonai sought to keep the fighting localized. To this end, he
opposed the establishment of Imperial Headquarters, although he was
unsuccessful in this endeavor.
Throughout much of his time as navy minister, Yonai squared off
against the incessant calls of the army for an alliance relationship
with Nazi Germany. Although his subordinates were by no means
unanimous in their approval of this policy, Yonai received inestimable
support from his vice navy minister, Isoroku Yamamoto.
Yonai’s basic premise in refusing to give his assent to the alliance
was simple: tying Japan to America’s quasi-enemy in Europe raised
the risk of a Japanese–American war. As Japan could not hope to
emerge victorious from war with the United States, it was prudent to
avoid measures that gave rise to that possibility.
In January 1940, Yonai was appointed prime minister, and soon
thereafter Adolf Hitler’s armies overran Western Europe. Insistent on
the necessity of an alliance relationship with Germany—and convinced
that such was not possible so long as Yonai remained as prime
minister—the Japanese army in July 1940 brought about the fall of
Yonai’s cabinet.
In July 1944, Yonai was again appointed navy minister in the cabinet
succeeding that of General Hideki Tōjō. He remained in that
post in the cabinet of Admiral Kantarō Suzuki, in which position he
squared off against the army minister, as well as the army and navy
chiefs of staff to emphasize the necessity of surrender.