The last Japanese ambassador to the USSR, who received Molotov's declaration of war
We must quickly end this reality of continuing resistance through inertia, and stop it one step short of national destruction.
A Japanese diplomat and statesman. After serving as ambassador to Belgium, France, and Italy, he became foreign minister in 1937 but resigned three months later when his policy of conciliation collided with the army's hard line on China. Posted to Moscow as ambassador in 1942, he spent the war's final years warning Tokyo by cable that Soviet mediation was a fantasy and that only prompt surrender could save Japan. On 8 August 1945, in the Kremlin, Vyacheslav Molotov handed him the Soviet declaration of war. After the war he was elected to the House of Councillors, serving as its president from 1949 to 1953.
Career Timeline
- 1905Entered the Foreign Ministry
- 1917–1919Consul-General in Harbin
- 1927–1930Japanese representative to the League of Nations
- 1930–1937Ambassador to Belgium and France
- 1937.03–06Foreign Minister
- 1942–1945Ambassador to the Soviet Union
- 1945–1946Interned in the USSR
- 1949–1953President of the House of Councillors
Related historical events
- 1945.02–08The Yalta and Potsdam ConferencesJapanese ambassador who received the Soviet declaration of warOn 8 August 1945, he received Molotov's declaration of war and sent cables to Tokyo explaining the futility of hoping for Soviet mediation.
- 1945.08The Soviet Entry into the War against JapanThe last Japanese ambassador to Moscow, to whom both the denunciation and declaration of war were deliveredReceived Molotov's denunciation of the Neutrality Pact on April 5, 1945. Pressed whether the pact was annulled immediately or expired in April 1946; Molotov said it remained valid until expiry.
Moscow and Japan’s Diplomatic Dead End
Naotake Satō’s ambassadorship in Moscow exposed the widening gap between Japan’s wartime diplomacy and the military reality. Appointed in 1942, he first worked to preserve neutrality with the Soviet Union, and in March 1944 negotiated the return of Japan’s oil and coal concessions in northern Sakhalin alongside a renewal of the fishing convention, measures intended to stabilize bilateral relations. Satō nevertheless judged that a separate German-Soviet peace, or Soviet mediation of Japan’s war, had no realistic prospect. When Tokyo continued seeking a favorable settlement through Moscow in the summer of 1945, he repeatedly reported that a special mission without concrete terms would fail and urged a decision close to unconditional surrender. In a long telegram of 20 July, he argued that continued resistance could not save the state and that ending the war was necessary to preserve the population. Tokyo’s delay nullified his warnings, and on 8 August Molotov notified him in Moscow that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan, ending the diplomatic space Satō had tried to protect.