was a Japanese diplomat and politician in the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

, who served as

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

three times during and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as well as the

Deputy Prime Minister of Japan The is the second highest-ranking officer of the executive branch of the government of Japan after the prime minister of Japan, and ranks first in the line of succession to the prime minister. The office of the deputy prime minister is not a perma ...

. As civilian

plenipotentiary A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of his or her sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the word ...

representing the Japanese government, Shigemitsu co-signed the

Japanese Instrument of Surrender The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the written agreement that formalized the surrender of the Empire of Japan, marking the end of hostilities in World War II. It was signed by representatives from the Empire of Japan and from the Allied nat ...

on board the battleship ''

USS Missouri Four ships of the United States Navy have been named USS ''Missouri'' in honor of the state of Missouri: *, a sidewheel frigate launched in 1841 and destroyed by fire in August 1843 *, a ''Maine''-class battleship in service from 1900 to 1922. *, a ...

'' on September 2, 1945.

Early life and career

Shigemitsu was born in what is now part of the city of Bungo-ōno,

Ōita Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Ōita Prefecture has a population of 1,136,245 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,340 km2 (2,448 sq mi). Ōita Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the northwest, Kumam ...

, Japan. He graduated from the Law School of

Tokyo Imperial University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

in 1911 and immediately entered the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...

. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he served in numerous overseas diplomatic assignments, including

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, and, briefly, as consul at the Japanese consulate in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, United States.

Activities in the lead-up to World War II

Following the

Mukden Incident The Mukden Incident, or Manchurian Incident, known in Chinese as the 9.18 Incident (九・一八), was a false flag event staged by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria. On September 18, 1931, L ...

in 1931, Shigemitsu was active in various European capitals, attempting to reduce alarm at Japanese military activities in

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...

. During the First Shanghai Incident of 1932, he was successful in enlisting the aid of western nations in brokering a ceasefire between the Kuomintang Army and the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

. On April 29, 1932, while attending a celebration for the birthday of Emperor

Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, a Korean independence activist,

Yoon Bong-Gil Yun Bong-gil (21 June 1908 – 19 December 1932) was a Korean independence activist who set off a bomb that killed several Japanese dignitaries in Shanghai's Hongkew Park (now Lu Xun Park) in 1932. He was posthumously awarded the Republic of Kor ...

threw a bomb at a reviewing stand killing General

Yoshinori Shirakawa was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army. Biography Early life and education Shirakawa was born as the third son of an ex-''samurai'' of Matsuyama Domain in Iyo, Ehime, Shikoku. He attended Matsuyama Middle School, but was forced to leave w ...

and wounding several others, including Shigemitsu. Shigemitsu lost his right leg in the attack and walked with an

artificial leg In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

and cane for the rest of his life. Shigemitsu later became ambassador to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, and in 1938, he negotiated a settlement of the Russo-Japanese border clash at Changkufeng Hill. He then became Japan's ambassador to the United Kingdom during a period of deteriorating Anglo-Japanese relations, most notably the Tientsin incident of 1939, which pushed Japan to the brink of war with the United Kingdom. He was recalled in June 1941.

World War II

Shigemitsu was highly critical of the foreign policies of

Yōsuke Matsuoka was a Japanese diplomat and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Empire of Japan during the early stages of World War II. He is best known for his defiant speech at the League of Nations in February 1933, ending Japan's participation in the organ ...

, especially the

Tripartite Pact The Tripartite Pact, also known as the Berlin Pact, was an agreement between Germany, Italy, and Japan signed in Berlin on 27 September 1940 by, respectively, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Galeazzo Ciano and Saburō Kurusu. It was a defensive milit ...

, which he warned would further strengthen

anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States has existed since the late 19th century, especially during the Yellow Peril, which had also extended to other Asian immigrants. Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States would peak during World Wa ...

. Shigemitsu spent two weeks in

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

, on the way back from Great Britain, conferring with Ambassador

Kichisaburō Nomura was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy and was the List of ambassadors of Japan to the United States, ambassador to the United States at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Early life and career Nomura was born in Wakayama, Wakayama, ...

to try unsuccessfully to arrange for direct face-to-face negotiations between

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Fumimaro Konoe and US President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

. Shigemitsu's many attempts to stave off

angered the militarists in Tokyo, and only two days after the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

, Shigemitsu was sidelined with an appointment as ambassador to the Japanese-sponsored

Reorganized National Government of China The Wang Jingwei regime or the Wang Ching-wei regime is the common name of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China ( zh , t = 中華民國國民政府 , p = Zhōnghuá Mínguó Guómín Zhèngfǔ ), the government of the pup ...

. In China, Shigemitsu argued that the success of the proposed

Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere The , also known as the GEACPS, was a concept that was developed in the Empire of Japan and propagated to Asian populations which were occupied by it from 1931 to 1945, and which officially aimed at creating a self-sufficient bloc of Asian peo ...

depended on the equal treatment of China and other Asian nations by Japan. On April 20, 1943, in a move that was viewed as a sign that Japan might be preparing for a collapse of the

Axis Powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...

, Japanese Prime Minister

Hideki Tōjō Hideki Tojo (, ', December 30, 1884 – December 23, 1948) was a Japanese politician, general of the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), and convicted war criminal who served as prime minister of Japan and president of the Imperial Rule Assista ...

replaced Foreign Minister

Masayuki Tani (2 September 1889 – 16 October 1962) was a Japanese diplomat and politician who was briefly foreign minister of Japan from September 1942 to 21 April 1943 during World War II. Career Tani was a career diplomat before assuming minis ...

with Shigemitsu, who had been steadfast in his opposition to the militarists. He was thus foreign minister during the

Greater East Asia Conference was an international summit held in Tokyo from 5 to 6 November 1943, in which the Empire of Japan hosted leading politicians of various component members of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The event was also referred to as the Tokyo ...

. The American press often referred to him in headlines as "Shiggy". From July 22, 1944, to April 7, 1945, he served simultaneously as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Greater East Asia in the Koiso administration. He then again served as Minister of Foreign Affairs briefly in August 1945 in the Higashikuni administration, right before Japan's surrender. Shigemitsu, as civilian

, along with General

Yoshijirō Umezu (January 4, 1882 – January 8, 1949) was a Japanese general in World War II and Chief of the Army General Staff during the final years of the conflict. He was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment. Biography Early life a ...

, signed the

on board the battleship ''

'' on September 2, 1945.

Postwar

Despite Shigemitsu's well-known opposition to the war, at the insistence of the Soviet Union, he was taken into custody by the

Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the United States-led Allied occupation of Japan following World War II. It issued SCAP Directives (alias SCAPIN, SCAP Index Number) to the Japanese government, aiming to suppress its "milit ...

and held in

Sugamo Prison Sugamo Prison (''Sugamo Kōchi-sho'', Kyūjitai: , Shinjitai: ) was a prison in Tokyo, Japan. It was located in the district of Ikebukuro, which is now part of the Toshima ward of Tokyo, Japan. History Sugamo Prison was originally built in 1 ...

, as an accused war criminal. Despite a signed deposition by

Joseph Grew Joseph Clark Grew (May 27, 1880 – May 25, 1965) was an American career diplomat and Foreign Service officer. He is best known as the ambassador to Japan from 1932 to 1941 and as a high official in the State Department in Washington from 1944 to ...

, the former ambassador of the United States to Japan, over the protests of Joseph B. Keenan, the chief prosecutor, Shigemitsu's case came to trial. He was convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for waging an aggressive war and not doing enough to protect POWs from inhumane treatment. However, the tribunal was extremely lenient on the grounds that Shigemitsu had regularly opposed Japanese militarism and protested the inhumane treatment of POWs. Shigemitsu was sentenced to 7 years in prison, which was the lightest punishment handed down to anyone convicted at the trial. He was paroled in 1950. After the end of the

occupation of Japan Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States wi ...

, Shigemitsu formed the short-lived

Kaishintō The Kaishintō ( ja, 改進党, lit. ''Reformist Party'') was a political party in Japan. History The party was established on 8 February 1952 as a merger of the National Democratic Party and the Shinsei Club, together with most of the Farmers ...

party, which merged with the Japan Democratic Party in 1954. In October 1952, he was elected to a seat in the

Lower House A lower house is one of two Debate chamber, chambers of a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, the other chamber being the upper house. Despite its official position "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has co ...

of the

Diet of Japan The is the national legislature of Japan. It is composed of a lower house, called the House of Representatives (, ''Shūgiin''), and an upper house, the House of Councillors (, '' Sangiin''). Both houses are directly elected under a paralle ...

, and in 1954, he became

under Prime Minister

Ichirō Hatoyama was a Japanese politician who was Prime Minister of Japan from 1954 to 1956. A conservative, Hatoyama helped oversee the 1955 merger of the Liberal Party and the Democratic Party to create the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), of which Hatoyam ...

, the leader of Japan Democratic Party. The cabinet continued after the merger of JDP and

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

as the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 1955, and Shigemitsu continued to hold the post of

until 1956. Shigemitsu concurrently served as

Foreign minister A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

from 1954 to 1956. In April 1955, he represented Japan at the Bandung Conference held in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, which marked the beginning of the return of Japan to participating in an international conference since the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

. Then in August, Shigemitsu led a high-level Japanese delegation to the United States to press for a revision to the

U.S.-Japan Security Treaty The , more commonly known as the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in English and as the or just in Japanese, is a treaty that permits the presence of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil, and commits the two nations to defend each other if one or th ...

, but this effort was met with a cold reception from Secretary of State

John Foster Dulles John Foster Dulles (, ; February 25, 1888 – May 24, 1959) was an American diplomat, lawyer, and Republican Party politician. He served as United States Secretary of State under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959 and was briefly ...

, who had been the treaty's primary architect and was loath to revisit it. Dulles told Shigemitsu in no uncertain terms that any discussion of treaty revision was "premature" because Japan lacked "the unity, cohesion, and capacity to operate under a new treaty arrangement," and Shigemitsu was forced to return to Japan empty-handed. The following year, Shigemitsu addressed the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

, pledging Japan's support of the founding principles of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

and formally applying for membership. Japan became the UN's 80th member on December 18, 1956.NHK "Sonotoki" transmission 305 of November 14, 2007 Shigemitsu also travelled to

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

in 1956 in an attempt to normalize diplomatic relations and to resolve the

Kuril Islands dispute The Kuril Islands dispute, known as the Northern Territories dispute in Japan, is a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia over the ownership of the four southernmost Kuril Islands. The Kuril Islands are a chain of islands that stretch b ...

. The visit resulted in the

Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956 The Soviet Union did not sign the Treaty of Peace with Japan in 1951. On October 19, 1956, Japan and the Soviet Union signed a Joint Declaration providing for the end of the state of war and for the restoration of diplomatic relations betwee ...

Death

In January 1957, a year after his visit to the USSR, Shigemitsu died of

myocardial infarction A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may ...

, at 69, at his summer home in

Yugawara is a town located in Ashigarashimo District, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 23,267 and a population density of 570 persons per km2. The total area of the town is . Geography Yugawara is located in the fa ...

Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

References

Bibliography

* * Archive Footage references to Shigemitsu at Internet Movie Databas

* Website on exhibition in Japanese Parliament Nov 8–30, 200

accessed November 14, 2007

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Shigemitsu, Mamoru 1887 births 1957 deaths World War II political leaders Japanese people of World War II University of Tokyo alumni Ambassadors of Japan to the Soviet Union Ambassadors of Japan to the United Kingdom Ambassadors of Japan to China Deputy Prime Ministers of Japan Foreign ministers of Japan Japanese amputees Japanese politicians with disabilities Japanese people convicted of war crimes People convicted by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East Permanent Representatives of Japan to the United Nations Members of the House of Representatives (Japan) Democratic Party (Japan, 1954) politicians Liberal Democratic Party (Japan) politicians Japanese politicians convicted of crimes Politicians from Ōita Prefecture Consuls General of Japan in Shanghai