Shigemitsu Mamoru

Mamoru Shigemitsu (1936)

Shigemitsu signs Japan's surrender in World War II

Shigemitsu Mamoru ( Japanese 重 光 葵 ; born July 29, 1887 in Ōita Prefecture ; died June 27, 1957 in Yugawara ) was Japan's Foreign Minister during World War II .

Live and act

Shigemitsu Mamoru graduated from Tokyo University in 1911 and entered the Ministry of Finance. He worked in Tokyo and then as a diplomat in various countries before becoming ambassador to China from 1930 to 1932. He lost his right leg in the assassination attempt by Yun Bong-gil on April 29, 1932, on the emperor's birthday.

As deputy foreign minister from 1933 to 1936, he aroused the displeasure of the military. - From 1936 to 1938 he was ambassador to the Soviet Union , then until 1941 ambassador to Great Britain and in 1942 ambassador again to China during the Wang Jingwei regime.

Shigemitsu was from 1943 to 1945 Secretary of State in the Cabinet Tōjō , Cabinet Koiso , the Cabinet Suzuki and Cabinet Higashikuni . Together with Yoshijiro Umezu, he signed the unconditional surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945 on board the battleship USS Missouri . As part of the Tokyo trials , he was sentenced as a war criminal to seven years in prison, but was pardoned in 1950.

In 1952 Shigemitsu became president of the newly founded party "Nihon Kaishintō" (日本 改進 党), which in 1954 merged with the Nihon Jiyūtō (日本 自由 党) to form the "Nihon Minshutō" (日本 民主党), ie the "Liberal Democratic Party of Japan". When it came to power in 1954, Shigemitsu was again Japan's foreign minister in 1956. He worked to improve Russian-Japanese relations and gain admission to the UN.

Shigemitsu's "Thoughts on Diplomacy" (外交 回想 禄, Gaikō kaisō roku) appeared in 1953.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Shigemitsu Mamoru . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X
• Hunter, Janet: Shigemitsu Mamoru . In: Concise Dictionary of Modern Japanese History. Kodansha International, 1984. ISBN 4-7700-1193-8 .

Web links

Commons : Shigemitsu Mamoru  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Newspaper article about Shigemitsu Mamoru in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

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