Wikipedia

Kijūrō Shidehara

The native form of this personal name is Shidehara Kijūrō. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Baron Kijūrō Shidehara (幣原 喜重郎, Shidehara Kijūrō, 13 September 1872 – 10 March 1951) was a Japanese diplomat and politician, who was prime minister of Japan from 1945 to 1946 and a leading proponent of pacifism in Japan before and after World War II. He was the last Japanese Prime Minister who was a member of the peerage (kazoku). His wife, Masako, was the fourth daughter of Iwasaki Yatarō, founder of the Mitsubishi zaibatsu.

Baron
Kijūrō Shidehara
幣原 喜重郎
Prime Minister of Japan
In office
9 October 1945 – 22 May 1946
MonarchHirohito
GovernorDouglas MacArthur
Preceded byNaruhiko Higashikuni
Succeeded byShigeru Yoshida
In office
14 November 1930 – 10 March 1931
Acting
MonarchHirohito
Preceded byOsachi Hamaguchi
Succeeded byOsachi Hamaguchi
Speaker of the House of Representatives
In office
11 February 1949 – 10 March 1951
MonarchHirohito
Preceded byKomakichi Matsuoka
Succeeded byJoji Hayashi
Member of the House of Representatives
for Osaka 3rd District
In office
26 April 1947 – 10 March 1951
Member of the House of Peers
In office
29 January 1926 – 25 April 1947
Personal details
Born(1872-09-13)13 September 1872
Sakai, Nara Prefecture, Empire of Japan
(nowadays Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture, Japan)
Died10 March 1951(1951-03-10) (aged 78)
Tokyo, Allied-occupied Japan
Political partyIndependent
Alma materTokyo Imperial University
Signature

Early life and career

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Shidehara was born on 13 September 1872, in Kadoma, Osaka, into a wealthy farming family (gōnō).[1] His brother Taira was the first president of Taihoku Imperial University. Shidehara attended Tokyo Imperial University, and graduated from the Faculty of Law, where he had studied under Hozumi Nobushige. After graduation, he found a position within the Foreign Ministry and was sent as a consul to Chemulpo in Korea in 1896.

In 1903 Shidehara married Masako Iwasaki, who came from the family that founded the Mitsubishi zaibatsu.[2] This made him the brother-in-law of Katō Takaaki, who had also been prime minister.[3]

He subsequently served in the Japanese embassy in London, Antwerp, and Washington D.C., and as ambassador to the Netherlands, returning to Japan in 1915.

In 1915, Shidehara was appointed Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and continued in this position during five consecutive administrations. In 1919, he was named ambassador to the United States and was Japan's leading negotiator during the Washington Naval Conference. His negotiations led to the return of Jiaozhou Bay concession to China. However, while he was ambassador, the United States enacted discriminatory immigration laws against Japanese, which created much ill will in Japan.

Shidehara was elevated to the title of danshaku (baron) under the kazoku peerage system in 1920, and appointed to a seat in the House of Peers in 1925.

First term as Foreign Minister

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In 1924, Shidehara became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Katō Takaaki and continued in this post under Prime Ministers Wakatsuki Reijirō and Osachi Hamaguchi. Despite growing Japanese militarism, Shidehara attempted to maintain a non-interventionist policy toward China, and good relations with Great Britain and the United States, which he admired. In his initial speech to the Diet of Japan, he pledged to uphold the principles of the League of Nations.

The term "Shidehara diplomacy" came to describe Japan's liberal foreign policy during the 1920s. In October 1925, he surprised other delegates to the Beijing Customs Conference in pushing for agreement to China's demands for tariff autonomy. In March 1927, during the Nanking Incident, he refused to agree to an ultimatum prepared by other foreign powers threatening retaliation for the actions of Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang troops for their attacks on foreign consulates and settlements.

Disgruntlement by the military over Shidehara's China policies was one of the factors that led to the collapse of the administration of Prime Minister Wakatsuki in April 1927. During his diplomatic career, Shidehara was known for his excellent command of the English language. At one press conference, an American reporter was confused regarding the pronunciation of Shidehara's name: the foreign minister replied, "I'm Hi(he)-dehara, and my wife is Shi(she)-dehara." Because his wife was a Quaker, Shidehara was rumoured to be one too.

Second term as Foreign Minister

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Shidehara on the cover of the 12 October 1931 issue of Time magazine

Shidehara returned as Foreign Minister in 1929, and immediately resumed the non-interventionist policy in China, attempting to restore good relations with Chiang Kai-shek's government now based in Nanjing. This policy was assailed by military interests who believed it was weakening the country, especially after the conclusion of the London Naval Conference 1930, which precipitated a major political crisis.

When Prime Minister Osachi Hamaguchi was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt, Shidehara served as interim prime minister until March 1931. In September 1931, the Kwantung Army invaded and occupied Manchuria in the Manchurian Incident without prior authorization from the central government. This effectively ended the non-interventionist policy towards China, and Shidehara's career as foreign minister.

In October 1931, Shidehara was featured on the cover of Time with the caption "Japan's Man of Peace and War".[4]

Shidehara remained in government as a member of the House of Peers from 1931 to 1945. He maintained a low profile through the end of World War II.

As Prime Minister

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Kijūrō Shidehara
 
9 October 1945, with ministers of the Shidehara Cabinet

At the time of Japan's surrender in 1945, Shidehara was in semi-retirement. However, largely because of his pro-American reputation, he was appointed to serve as Japan's first post-war prime minister, from 9 October 1945 to 22 May 1946. Along with the post of prime minister, Shidehara became president of the Progressive Party (Shinpo-tō).

Shidehara's cabinet appointed a non-official committee to look into the question of drafting a new constitution for Japan in line with General Douglas MacArthur's policy directives, but the draft was vetoed by the occupation authorities. According to MacArthur and others, it was Shidehara who originally proposed the inclusion of Article 9 of the Constitution of Japan, a provision which limits Japan's ability to wage war. Shidehara, in his memoirs Gaikō gojūnen ("Fifty-years Diplomacy", 1951) also admitted to his authorship, and described how the idea came to him on a train ride to Tokyo. Already when he was ambassador in Washington, he had become acquainted with the idea of 'outlawing war' in international and constitutional law. One of his famous sayings was: "Let us create a world without war (sensō naki sekai) together with the world-humanity (sekai jinrui).”

However, his supposed conservative economic policies and family ties to the Mitsubishi interests made him unpopular with the leftist movement.

The Shidehara cabinet resigned following Japan's first postwar election, when the Liberal Party of Japan captured most of the votes. Shigeru Yoshida became prime minister in Shidehara's wake.

Shidehara joined the Liberal Party a year later, after Prime Minister Tetsu Katayama formed a socialist government. As one of Katayama's harshest critics, Shidehara was elected speaker of the House of Representatives. He died in this post in 1951.

Honours

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From the Japanese Wikipedia article

Peerages

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Japanese

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Foreign

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Court order of precedence

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  • Sixth rank (10 October 1903)
  • Senior sixth rank (27 December 1905)
  • Fifth rank (30 March 1908)
  • Senior fifth rank (20 September 1911)
  • Fourth rank (10 December 1915)
  • Third rank (10 November 1922)
  • Senior third rank (1 December 1925)
  • Second rank (16 February 1931)
  • First rank (10 March 1951; posthumous)

Notes

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  1. ^ "幣原喜重郎 | 三菱グループサイト". www.mitsubishi.com (in Japanese). Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  2. ^ "Klaus Schlichtmann, A Statesman for the Twenty-First Century? The Life and Diplomacy of Shidehara Kijuuroh (1872-1951)". Archived from the original on 5 May 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2010.
  3. ^ Nihon dai hyakka zensho. Shōgakkan, 小学館. 1989. 幣原喜重郎. ISBN 4-09-526001-7. OCLC 14970117.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. ^ "TIME Covers". Time. Archived from the original on 10 March 2007. Retrieved 8 January 2013.

References

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  • Kenpou daikyuujou ga toikakeru. Kokka shuken no seigen—kakkoku kenpou to hikaku shi nagara (Investigating Article 9. Limitations of national sovereignty—a comparison with other constitutions), The SEKAI (Tokyo, Iwanami), 3 (2006 March, no. 750), pp. 172–83
  • Bix, Herbert P. (2001). Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan, Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-093130-2
  • Brendon, Piers (2002). The Dark Valley: A Panorama of the 1930s. Vintage; Reprint edition. ISBN 0-375-70808-1
  • Dower, John W. (2000). Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II, W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-32027-8.
  • Schlichtmann, Klaus (1995). 'A Statesman for The Twenty-First Century? The Life and Diplomacy of Shidehara Kijûrô (1872–1951)', Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, fourth series, vol. 10 (1995), pp. 33–67
  • Schlichtmann, Klaus (2001). 'The Constitutional Abolition of War in Japan. Monument of a Culture of Peace?'‚ Internationales Asienforum – International Quarterly for Asian Studies, vol. 32 (2001), no. 1–2, pp. 123–149
  • Schlichtmann, Klaus (2009). Japan in the World: Shidehara Kijűrô, Pacifism and the Abolition of War, Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto etc., 2 vols., Lexington Books.
  • Schlichtmann, Klaus, "Article Nine in Context – Limitations of National Sovereignty and the Abolition of War in Constitutional Law" The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 23-6-09, 8 June 2009. - See more at: http://japanfocus.org/-klaus-schlichtmann/3168#sthash.6iVJNGnx.dpuf
  • Shiota, Ushio (1992). Saigo no gohoko: Saisho Shidehara Kijuro, Bungei Shunju. ISBN 4-16-346380-1
  • Takemoto, Toru (1979). Failure of Liberalism in Japan: Shidehara Kijuro's Encounter With Anti-Liberals, Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-8191-0698-4
 
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Political offices
Preceded by Minister for Foreign Affairs
1924–1927 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Prime Minister of Japan
Acting
1930–1931 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Prime Minister of Japan
1945–1946 		Succeeded by
New title Deputy Prime Minister of Japan
1947 		Succeeded by
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Japanese Ambassador to the United States
1919–1922 		Succeeded by
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