An aristocratic statesman whose diplomacy widened Japan’s imperial war
In October 1941, he said he could not be confident of war and that power should go to someone who could choose diplomacy.
Fumimaro Konoe was an aristocratic Japanese politician and prime minister who directed wartime mobilization for the empire. Although he engaged with socialism and racial equality arguments against Western imperialism, he pursued Japan’s war in China and its project of dominance in East Asia in the name of overcoming that order. He led the Tripartite Pact and the Imperial Rule Assistance Association in 1940, then sought negotiations with the United States without stopping military expansion and resigned in 1941, handing power to Hideki Tojo. Suspected of war crimes after Japan’s defeat, he died by cyanide suicide in 1945.
Career Timeline
- 1916Member of the House of Peers
- 1919Member of Japan’s delegation to the Paris Peace Conference
- 1933–1937President of the House of Peers
- 1937–1939Prime Minister, First Konoe Cabinet
- 1940–1941Prime Minister, Second and Third Konoe Cabinets
- 1940–1941President of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association
- 1945Minister of State in the Higashikuni Cabinet