Ishiwata Sōtarō

Ishiwata Sōtarō

Ishiwata Sōtarō ( Japanese 石 渡 荘 太郎 ; born October 9, 1891 in Tokyo ; died November 4, 1950 ) was a Japanese bureaucrat and politician during the Shōwa period .

Live and act

Ishiwata Sōtarō was the son of the lawyer Ishiwata Bin'ichi (石 渡 敏 一, 1859-1937). After graduating from Tokyo University in 1916, he entered the Treasury Department where he was a tax officer and head of the national tax department. When it came to a special tax in connection with the Japanese invasion of northern China in 1937, there was so much resistance that the plan had to be abandoned.

In 1939 he became finance minister in the Hiranuma cabinet , then in the Koiso cabinet , and in 1940 chief cabinet secretary in the Yonai cabinet , where he, like Yonai, was against the tripartite pact . In 1944 he became finance minister in the Tōjō cabinet . He was also general secretary of the "Support Organization for State Order" (大 政 翼 賛 会, Taisei yokusankai). In 1943 he was sent to Nanjing to assist separate government chairman Wang Jingwei as an economist.

After the end of the Pacific War he was banned from any public activity. He died in 1950, not yet 60 years old, before this provision was repealed in 1952.

Remarks

1. ↑ At that time in Japan disparaging 北 支那 (Kita Shina) instead of 北 中国 (Kita Chūgoku) - "Middle Country" - written.
2. ↑ The special tax (北 支 事件 特別 税, Hokushi jiken tokubetsu zei) with the euphemistic word incident - what is meant is the " incident at the Marco Polo Bridge ", which was supposed to finance the subsequent invasion.

Web links

Commons : Ishiwata Sōtarō  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Ishiwata in the Kotobank

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Ishiwata is the family name, Sōtarō the first name.