Japan

Non-Soviet revolutionary 1859–1933 ○ Natural causes

Japanese communist founder who shook Plekhanov's hand and shaped Comintern East Asia strategy

Amsterdam, 1904. When the chair announced that the vice-chairs were the delegates of the two warring powers — Plekhanov and Katayama — the two rose and clasped hands in silence. The hall answered with a standing ovation.

Father of Japanese communism. Born in Okayama, he studied in the United States and founded Japan's first trade union and Social Democratic Party. As a Comintern Executive Committee member he shaped anti-imperialist strategy for East Asia, and was buried in the Kremlin Wall.

Foreign statesman 1868–1948 ○ Natural causes

The admiral-prime minister who steered Japan toward surrender

On August 10, 1945, Suzuki broke the deadlock by proposing that the emperor’s decision should settle the conference.

Kantaro Suzuki was a Japanese admiral and politician who became prime minister after serving as grand chamberlain and president of the Privy Council. Publicly he upheld the wartime line, while privately managing the cabinet and Supreme War Council as defeat made continuation untenable. After the atomic bombings and Soviet entry, the Big Six remained deadlocked, and Suzuki forced a procedure in which the emperor’s decision would settle the split. Japan then accepted the Potsdam Declaration, though the process did not erase responsibility for the war of aggression or the military’s resistance.

Counter-revolutionary forces 1877–1966 ○ War-crimes conviction, released 1955

A militarist leader of Japan's Imperial Way faction

When young naval officers assassinated Prime Minister Inukai in the 1932 May 15 Incident, War Minister Araki praised the killers as 'irrepressible patriots.'

Sadao Araki was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army and a leading figure of the Imperial Way faction, advocating a militarism that joined emperor-centered national reconstruction to external expansion. As Army Minister after the 1931 Manchurian Incident, he helped consolidate the Kwantung Army's fait accompli into state policy and supported the Northern Expansion Doctrine aimed at the Soviet Far East. Yet the young officers he had cultivated escaped his control and erupted in the February 26 Incident, after which he left active service. Convicted of Class A war crimes at the postwar International Military Tribunal for the Far East, he received a life sentence and was released in 1955.

Foreign statesman 1878–1948 ✕ Executed

A statesman caught between diplomacy and responsibility under military pressure

In June 1945 he approached Malik, while the Soviet side prolonged the talks to gain time for its war preparations against Japan.

Kōki Hirota was a Japanese imperial diplomat and politician who proclaimed international cooperation yet failed to restrain the military’s policy of expansion in China and beyond. As foreign minister and prime minister, he helped restore the active-duty military-minister system and advanced the Anti-Comintern Pact, choices that narrowed civilian autonomy. In June 1945 he approached Soviet ambassador Yakov Malik to explore mediation for ending the war, but the Soviet government used the contacts to delay while preparing its entry into the war against Japan. Convicted of war crimes at the Tokyo Trial, he was hanged in 1948 as the only civilian executed there, a responsibility and sentence that remain contested.

Non-Soviet revolutionary 1859–1933 ○ Natural causes

Japanese communist founder who shook Plekhanov's hand and shaped Comintern East Asia strategy

Amsterdam, 1904. When the chair announced that the vice-chairs were the delegates of the two warring powers — Plekhanov and Katayama — the two rose and clasped hands in silence. The hall answered with a standing ovation.

Father of Japanese communism. Born in Okayama, he studied in the United States and founded Japan's first trade union and Social Democratic Party. As a Comintern Executive Committee member he shaped anti-imperialist strategy for East Asia, and was buried in the Kremlin Wall.

Foreign statesman 1868–1948 ○ Natural causes

The admiral-prime minister who steered Japan toward surrender

On August 10, 1945, Suzuki broke the deadlock by proposing that the emperor’s decision should settle the conference.

Kantaro Suzuki was a Japanese admiral and politician who became prime minister after serving as grand chamberlain and president of the Privy Council. Publicly he upheld the wartime line, while privately managing the cabinet and Supreme War Council as defeat made continuation untenable. After the atomic bombings and Soviet entry, the Big Six remained deadlocked, and Suzuki forced a procedure in which the emperor’s decision would settle the split. Japan then accepted the Potsdam Declaration, though the process did not erase responsibility for the war of aggression or the military’s resistance.

Counter-revolutionary forces 1877–1966 ○ War-crimes conviction, released 1955

A militarist leader of Japan's Imperial Way faction

When young naval officers assassinated Prime Minister Inukai in the 1932 May 15 Incident, War Minister Araki praised the killers as 'irrepressible patriots.'

Sadao Araki was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army and a leading figure of the Imperial Way faction, advocating a militarism that joined emperor-centered national reconstruction to external expansion. As Army Minister after the 1931 Manchurian Incident, he helped consolidate the Kwantung Army's fait accompli into state policy and supported the Northern Expansion Doctrine aimed at the Soviet Far East. Yet the young officers he had cultivated escaped his control and erupted in the February 26 Incident, after which he left active service. Convicted of Class A war crimes at the postwar International Military Tribunal for the Far East, he received a life sentence and was released in 1955.

Foreign statesman 1878–1948 ✕ Executed

A statesman caught between diplomacy and responsibility under military pressure

In June 1945 he approached Malik, while the Soviet side prolonged the talks to gain time for its war preparations against Japan.

Kōki Hirota was a Japanese imperial diplomat and politician who proclaimed international cooperation yet failed to restrain the military’s policy of expansion in China and beyond. As foreign minister and prime minister, he helped restore the active-duty military-minister system and advanced the Anti-Comintern Pact, choices that narrowed civilian autonomy. In June 1945 he approached Soviet ambassador Yakov Malik to explore mediation for ending the war, but the Soviet government used the contacts to delay while preparing its entry into the war against Japan. Convicted of war crimes at the Tokyo Trial, he was hanged in 1948 as the only civilian executed there, a responsibility and sentence that remain contested.