Shimada Shigetaro

Shimada Shigetarō ( Japanese 嶋 田 繁 太郎 ; * September 24, 1883 , † June 7, 1976 ) was one of the commanders of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II .

Life

Shimada Shigetaro

As a graduate of the Japanese Naval Academy, he made a career in the Imperial Japanese Navy , where he was promoted to admiral . Before the Second World War, Shimada held a number of positions in naval command, including commander of the China fleet and deputy chief of the naval general staff . Under Tōjō Hideki he became Minister of the Navy in 1941 . In this capacity, Shimada was aware of the attack plan on Pearl Harbor and agreed to its implementation.

As Minister of the Navy, he was one of Tōjō's most loyal subordinates due to his lack of criticism and his submissive behavior . This loyalty made him unpopular with a large number of officers in the Japanese Navy. Some of his opponents gave him nicknames like “Yurufun” (German: “flabby underpants”) or “Tojo's tee boy”. Despite his unpopularity, he was able to continue his career in February 1944 when he was appointed Chief of the Naval General Staff in place of the deposed Nagano Osami . Since he continued to hold the position of Minister of the Navy, he now had absolute authority over the Japanese Navy.

His enemies in the navy and at the imperial court were so upset by this rise that they constantly harassed Emperor Hirohito with the demand that Shimada be deposed. They did this mainly with reference to the fact that the Japanese fleet lost every sea battle under his command. Shortly after the fall of Saipan in July 1944, Emperor Hirohito made his criticism clear to Prime Minister Tōjō Hideki . He immediately asked for Shimada's resignation, who immediately complied with the request. But that could not prevent the removal of Tōjōs . Like his predecessor Nagano Osami , Shimada was an "advisor to the government" for the rest of the war .

Shimada was arrested by the Allies in 1945 after the end of World War II and charged as a war criminal in the Tokyo trials . He was found guilty of a number of war crimes and sentenced to life in prison . In 1955, however, he was given an amnesty and released.

Web links

Commons : Shigetarō Shimada  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on Imperial Japanese Navy

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