Kuniaki Koiso
Encyclopedia : K : KU : KUN : Kuniaki Koiso
-->Kuniaki Koiso (小磯 國昭 Koiso Kuniaki, March 22 1880–November 3 1950) was the 41st Prime Minister of Japan from July 22 1944 to April 7 1945.
Koiso was born in Tochigi Prefecture in the year 1880. A career soldier, Koiso graduated from Japan's Army Academy in 1900 and went on to attend the nation's War College. He eventually attained the rank of general. Koiso's career took off rapidly in the 1920s and 1930s, when he held a variety of prominent military and governmental positions. These positions included Chief of the Material Mobilization Bureau of the Ministry of War (1929-1930), Chief of the Military Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of War (1930-1931), Vice Minister of War (1932), Chief of the Kwantung Army in occupied Manchuria (1932-1934), and Minister of Overseas Affairs (1939, 1940). Koiso was Governor-General of Korea from 1942 to 1944, where he gained the nickname "The Tiger of Korea" for his harsh administration.
Military career
2dLt (Infantry)--30th Infantry Regiment, June 1901; 1stLt, November 1903; Battalion Adjutant, 30th Infantry, September 1904; Company Commander, same regiment, March 1905; Captain, June 1905; was graduated from War College, November 1910;Instructor, Military Academy, December 1910; Army Staff Officer, Kwantung Government--General, September 1912; Major-Battalion Commander, 2d Infantry Regiment, August 1914; Army General Staff Headquarters, June 1915; LtCol, July 1918; Staff Officer, 12th Division, August 1918; Chief of Staff (LOC), 12th Division, September 1918; Army General Staff Headquarters, April 1919; Army Air Service, July 1921; Colonel, February 1922; official duty, Europe, June 1922; Regimental Commander, 51st Infantry, August 1923
August 1923; Section Chief, Army General Staff, May 1925; Military Instructor, War College (MajGen), December 1926; Chief,Administrative Division, Army Aeronautical Department, July 1927; Chief, Materiel Mobilization Bureau, War Ministry, August 1929; Chief, Military Affairs Bureau, same Ministry, August 1930; LtGen, August 1931; Vice-Minister of War, February 1932; Chief of Staff, Kwantung Army-concurrently Chief, Special Service Department, same army, August 1932; 5th Division Commander (Hiroshima), March 1934; Commanding General, Korea Army, December 1935; General, November 1937; Army General Staff, July 1938.
Entry into politics
During 1920s period he was in the Toseiha (Control Group) faction led by General Kazushige Ugaki, along with Gen Sugiyama, Yoshijiro Umezu, Tetsuzan Nagata, and Hideki Tojo. They represented relative moderation, in opposition to the radical Kodaha (Action Group) under Sadao Araki. During 1944, assumed the leading of the "Kodoha" Party, joining the post of Prime Ministry of Japan.
He restored the ancient sacred rites in the Sukumo river, near Hakone, the "Preliminary Misogi Rite". He defended the State Shintoism doctrine, along with Heisuke Yanagawa, who directed the Government Imperial Aid Association and Chikao Fujisawa, a member of the Diet, who proposed a law that Shinto should be reaffirmed as state religion, as in past times.
Later career
Retired to first reserve list, July 1938; Ministry of Greater East Asia (Japan), April 1939; released from post, August 1939; Ministry of Greater East Asia (Japan),January 1940; released from post, July 1940; Governor-General of Korea, May 1942; Prime Minister, July 1944; Commander-in-Chief, Imperial Volunteer Corps, April 1945; resigned as Premier, April 1945.
In 1944, with the downfall of Hideki Tojo's government, Koiso was chosen to serve as the new Prime Minister of Japan despite strong competition from senior army officials. During his term in office, Japanese forces faced multiple defeats at the hands of the United States Military. In the same period it was reported to Premier Koiso that Wang Chingwei had died of diabetes in a Japanese hospital in Nagoya, on November 10, 1944. A Foreign Ministry official was quoted as saying in respect: "With his [Wang's] death, all our past efforts to sustain the Nanjing regime ended in disaster". For a time, Koiso considered making peace with the Allies, but he could not find a solution that would appease either the Japanese military or the Americans. Left with little choice but to continue the war effort, Koiso eventually tried to extend his power over the army by attempting to assume the position of War Minister, but failed to do so because he was on the list of inactive generals. Koiso eventually resigned in 1945 when U.S. forces attacked Okinawa. After the war, he was captured by the Allies and tried by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for war crimes. Upon conviction, he was given a sentence of life imprisonment. Koiso died in 1950 while serving his sentence.
External links
| [edit] | Prime Ministers of Japan |
|
|---|---|---|
| Ito - Kuroda - Yamagata - Matsukata - Ito (2nd) - Matsukata (2nd) - Ito (3rd) - Okuma - Yamagata (2nd) - Ito (4th) - Katsura - Saionji - Katsura (2nd) - Saionji (2nd) - Katsura (3rd) - Yamamoto - Okuma (2nd) - Terauchi - Hara - Takahashi - To. Kato - Yamamoto (2nd) - Kiyoura - Ta. Kato - Wakatsuki - G. Tanaka - Hamaguchi - Wakatsuki (2nd) - Inukai - Saito - Okada - Hirota - Hayashi - Konoe - Hiranuma - Abe - Yonai - Konoe (2nd) - Tojo - Koiso - K. Suzuki - Prince Higashikuni - Shidehara - Yoshida - Katayama - Ashida - Yoshida (2nd) - Hatoyama - Ishibashi - Kishi - Ikeda - Sato - K. Tanaka - Miki - Fukuda - Ohira - Z. Suzuki - Nakasone - Takeshita - Uno - Kaifu - Miyazawa - Hosokawa - Hata - Murayama - Hashimoto - Obuchi - Mori - Koizumi | ||
|- style="text-align: center;"
Reference
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.