Koiso Kuniaki

Koiso Kuniaki

Koiso Kuniaki ( Japanese 小 磯 國 昭 ; born March 22, 1880 in Utsunomiya , Tochigi Prefecture ; † November 3, 1950 in Tokyo ) was a Japanese politician. From July 22, 1944 to April 7, 1945, he was the 41st Prime Minister of Japan (28th incumbent). Koiso was a supporter of the state Shinto . Koiso served until July 1938 in the imperial army of his country, where he had also been in command of the Chosen Army . Between April and August 1939 he was Minister for Colonies under Prime Minister Hiranuma Kiichirō . He held this same post between January and July 1940 under Mitsumasa Yonai .

Koiso was made a military administrator of Korea (May 1942 to 1944).

In July 1944, Koiso became premier. He planned to send a prince to Switzerland and Sweden on a peace mission, but this was unsuccessful due to considerable political resistance. In April 1945, when the Americans invaded Okinawa , he resigned. Hiranuma was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Military Tribunal. Koiso died of esophageal cancer in Sugamo Prison in 1950 . He is buried in central Tokyo in the Aoyama cemetery.

medal

• Order of the Rising Sun (April 5, 1934)
• Order of the Holy Treasure (April 29, 1934)
• Order of the Golden Dragon (2nd Class) (April 29, 1934)

literature

• Richard B. Frank: Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. Penguin 2001, ISBN 0-14-100146-1 .
• Timothy P. Maga: Judgment at Tokyo: The Japanese War Crimes Trials. University Press of Kentucky 2001, ISBN 0-8131-2177-9 .
• Keith Pratt: Everlasting Flower: A History of Korea. Reaction books. 2007, ISBN 1-86189-335-3 .
• John Toland: The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945. Modern Library 2003, ISBN 0-8129-6858-1 .

Web links

Commons : Kuniaki Koiso  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ John Toland: The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945 , p. 529.
2. ^ Keith Pratt: Everlasting Flower: A History of Korea. Reaction Books 2007, ISBN 1-86189-335-3 .
3. ^ Frank, Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire
4. ^ Maga, Judgment at Tokyo
5. ↑ Bedat ( memento of the original from June 29, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

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