A diplomat who sought peace after failing to prevent war
In July 1945, he argued that the Potsdam Declaration could serve as the basis for peace, but that Japan should first negotiate with the Soviet Union.
Shigenori Tōgō was a Japanese career diplomat who served as foreign minister at both the opening and the end of the Pacific War. He joined efforts to avoid war with the United States but failed to prevent the attack, and was later tried for the diplomatic responsibility of the wartime government. In 1945 he sought a conditional peace through Soviet mediation while advocating acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, a course that combined an urgent drive to end the war with a grave misreading of Soviet intentions. The International Military Tribunal for the Far East sentenced him to twenty years in prison.
Career Timeline
- 1912Entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after passing the diplomatic and consular examination
- 1933–1935Director of the Bureau of North American and European Affairs
- 1937–1938Ambassador to Germany
- 1938–1940Ambassador to the Soviet Union, handling border and neutrality negotiations
- 1941–1942Foreign Minister and Minister of Colonial Affairs in the Tōjō cabinet
- 1945Foreign Minister and Minister for Greater East Asia in the Suzuki cabinet, pressing acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration
- 1948Sentenced to twenty years by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East