Everything about Mitsumasa Yonai totally explained
(
2 March 1880 -
20 April 1948) was an
admiral in the
Imperial Japanese Navy, and
politician. He was the 37th
Prime Minister of Japan from
16 January 1940 to
22 July 1940.
Early life & Naval career
Yonai was born in
Morioka city,
Iwate Prefecture as the first son of an ex-
samurai retainer of the
Nambu clan of the Morioka domain. He graduated from the 29th class
Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1901, ranked 68 of 115 cadets. After
midshipman service in the
corvette Kongō, and
cruiser Tokiwa he was commissioned as
ensign in January 1903. He served in administrative positions until near the end of the
Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, when he went to sea again on the
destroyer Inazuma and the cruiser
Iwate.
After the war, he served as chief gunnery officer on the cruiser
Niitaka,
battleship Shikishima, and cruiser
Tone.
After his promotion to
lieutenant commander in December 1912, he graduated from the
Naval War College and was assigned as
naval attaché to
Russia during the height of
World War I, from 1915-1917.
While overseas, he was promoted to
commander; after the collapse of the
Russian Empire, he was recalled to Japan and later became
executive officer on the battleship
Asahi.
He rose to the rank of
captain in December 1920 and was subsequently sent as naval attaché to
Poland from 1921-1922.
On his return to Japan, he was captain of the cruisers
Kasuga (1922-1923),
Iwate (1923-1924), and battleships
Fusō (1924) and
Mutsu (1924-1925). Yonai was promoted to
rear admiral on
1 December 1925.
He became Chief of the 3rd Section of the
Imperial Japanese Navy General Staff in December 1926. Within the Navy General Staff, he served on the Technical Council of the Navy Technical Department.
He was appointed
Commander-in-Chief of the
First Expeditionary Fleet, sent to the
Yangtze River in
China in December 1928. Following the success of this mission, he was promoted to
vice-admiral in December 1930 and placed in command of the
Chinkai Naval Station, in
Korea.
Yonai was given command of the
IJN 3rd Fleet in December 1932, following which he again commanded the
Sasebo Naval District (November 1933),
IJN 2nd Fleet (November 1934) and
Yokosuka Naval District (December 1935) before receiving appointment as
Commander-in-Chief of the
Combined Fleet and concurrently the
IJN 1st Fleet in December 1936.
While in command at Sasebo, the Japanese Navy was shaken by the “Tomozuru Incident”, when it was determined that the basic design of the
Chidori-class torpedo boats was flawed, thus calling into question the basic designs of many of the warships in the Japanese navy.
While in command at Yokosuka, the
February 26 Incident erupted in Tokyo. Yonai was visiting his mistress in
Shimbashi the night the attempted
coup d'État began, only a couple of blocks away, but knew nothing of the situation until he returned to base the following morning.
Naval Minister
Yonai became full
admiral in April 1937 and
Navy Minister in the cabinet of
Prime Minister Senjuro Hayashi in 1937. He served in the same position under the subsequent first
Fumimaro Konoe and
Kiichiro Hiranuma administrations, through August 1939.
After
Nobuyuki Abe became Prime Minister, Yonai remained on the
Supreme War Council. While Navy Minister, Yonai was known as a man of few words. His speeches tended to be short, and were delivered in his almost indecipherable Nambu accent. Written records of his speeches are only about half the length of his contemporaries.
As Navy Minister, Yonai was alarmed by the growing tension between Japan and
Great Britain and the
United States, at a time when the bulk of the
Imperial Japanese Army was tied down in an apparently unending quagmire in China. His efforts to promote peace made him unpopular with ultranationalist extremists, and (as with Admiral
Isoroku Yamamoto), he was the target of several assassination attempts. However, Yonai supported the construction of the
Yamato class battleships in an effort to maintain a military balance with the world’s other two naval superpowers.
Prime Minister of Japan
Yonai was appointed
Prime Minister of Japan from
6 January 1940, largely with the backing of
Emperor Hirohito. As Prime Minister, he continued the strong pro-
British, pro-
American stance he held as Navy Minister and continued his strong opposition to the
Tripartite Pact with
Nazi Germany and
fascist Italy.
Yonai was forced to resign on
21 July 1940, largely due to pressure from the pro-
Axis Imperial Japanese Army. The Tripartite Pact was signed on
27 September 1940.
Subsequent political activity
Yonai served as
Deputy Prime Minister and concurrently as Navy Minister under the cabinet of Prime Minister
Kuniaki Koiso from
22 July 1944, during which time he returned to the active duty roster from the reserve list. By this time,
Saipan had fallen to the Americans.
Yonai remained Navy Minister under the administration of Prime Minister
Kantaro Suzuki. In the last few weeks before Japan's surrender, he sided with Prime Minister Suzuki and
Foreign Minister Shigenori Togo in support of acceptance of the
Potsdam Declaration in opposition to
Minister of War Korechika Anami, Chief of Staff Admiral
Soemu Toyoda and General
Yoshijiro Umezu.
Yonai remained Navy Minister in the cabinets of Prime Minister HIH
Higashikuni Naruhiko and Prime Minister
Kijuro Shidehara from August 1945, during which time he presided over the final dissolution of the Imperial Japanese Navy.
He played a major role during the
Tokyo war crimes trials in working with the major defendants, such as
Hideki Tojo, to coordinate their testimonies so that
Emperor Hirohito would be spared from indictment. According to his interpreter Suichi Mizota, in March 1946
Bonner Fellers asked him to make Tojo bear all responsibility for the
Greater East Asia War After the war, Yonai devoted rest of his life to help to rebuilt the devastated Japan.
Yonai suffered from
high blood pressure most of his life, but he died of
pneumonia in 1948 at the age of 68. His grave is located in his hometown of Morioka.
His honors include the
Order of the Golden Kite (first class) and the Grand Cordon of the
Order of the Rising Sun.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mitsumasa Yonai'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://mitsumasa_yonai.totallyexplained.com">Mitsumasa Yonai Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
