Shigeru Yoshida

For more information on Yoshida Shigeru, visit Britannica.com.

(b. Tokyo, 22 Sept. 1878; d. 20 Oct. 1967) Japanese; Prime Minister 1946 – 7, 1949 – 55 Yoshida Shigeru was born into a large samurai family of the Tõsa Clan which had played an instrumental part in the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and later adopted into a powerful merchant family. He graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1906 and joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and his first overseas posting was as consulgeneral to Mukden in Manchuria. In 1928 he was appointed Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, and in 1930 he was posted to Rome as ambassador. In 1936 the army blocked his appointment to the position of Foreign Minister because they were critical of his liberal views, and instead he was appointed ambassador to London, where he remained until he retired in 1939, disillusioned at the direction that the military was taking Japan. He was arrested by the Japanese authorities in 1945 for calling for peace talks with the Allied powers.

Yoshida's credentials made him an ideal candidate for the Allied Occupation authorities to deal with. He was appointed Foreign Minister, and in May 1946 became Prime Minister following the unexpected purge of Hatoyama Ichiro. Yoshida was out of office during the short period of the socialist. Prime Minister Ashida, but returned to office from 1949 until 1955. In his joint role as Foreign Minister and Prime Minister, he was intimately involved in all the key issues of the Occupation, including the drafting of the "Peace Constitution", the "reverse course" where US policy moved away from the democratization and demilitarization of Japan to rebuilding the country as a Cold War ally, and negotiated on behalf of Japan during the San Francisco Peace Conference and negotiations over the Security Treaty in 1952. Growing dissatisfaction with his leadership and pro-American stance led to his being pushed from power in 1954 and replaced by his conservative rival Hatoyama. Yoshida vigorously defended Article 9 of the 1946 constitution which forbade Japan maintaining armed forces in the face of growing US pressure for Japan to rearm, though he later argued that he intended this position to be temporary until the time Japan was strong enough to afford such a role. Yoshida's view of post-war Japan was that it would be tied closely into the US security arena, and that it should follow the US lead on all foreign policy issues, a posture that was later called the "Yoshida Doctrine", although Yoshida himself decried this appellation. As a consequence of his pro-US stance he put his name to the so-called "Yoshida Letter", a note written by John Foster Dulles in 1952 stating that Japan would recognize Chiang Kai-shek's regime on Taiwan as the sole, legitimate government of China. Yoshida remained an advocate for Taiwan following his retirement.

Yoshida was one of the most important Japanese politicians of the twentieth century whose policies became the broad parameters of Japan's foreign policy up to the end of the Cold War. His Memoirs were published in English in 1961.

Shigeru Yoshida (1878-1967), Japanese diplomat and prime minister, led his country through a difficult period of postwar recovery.

Shigeru Yoshida was born on Sept. 22, 1878, in Tokyo, the fifth son of Tsuna Takenouchi, a prominent politician from Tosa on the island of Shikoku. He was subsequently adopted by a family acquaintance, Kenso Yoshida, who wanted a son to carry on his family name and prosperous silk business.

Early Career

Following his graduation from Tokyo Imperial University in 1906, Yoshida embarked upon a distinguished diplomatic career that was greatly favored by his marriage to the eldest daughter of Count Nobuaki Makino, who became lord privy seal and a close adviser of the Emperor. After appointment to various consular posts in China and Manchuria, Yoshida served in London and Washington, and in 1919 he was a member of the Japanese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference. He was named vice-minister of foreign affairs in the Giichi Tanaka Cabinet and served successively as ambassador to Italy and to Great Britain.

Yoshida was recalled from his post in London and retired from the Foreign Service in March 1939. Reportedly, he had been considered for the position of foreign minister in the Koki Hirota Cabinet in 1936 but was vetoed by the military because of its dislike for his father-in-law. In any case, it proved fortunate for Yoshida that he was in private life during the war years.

Service as Prime Minister

Untainted by association with the military leadership and possessing the added advantage of having been arrested during the war by the military police and briefly jailed, Yoshida was one of the comparatively few prominent prewar political figures who were not purged by the Occupation. In September 1945 he was appointed foreign minister in the first postwar Cabinet.

In the 1946 House of Representatives election, the Liberal party won a plurality, and the party president, Ichiro Hatoyama, seemed assured the premiership. But the Occupation found him unacceptable, and Yoshida was persuaded to take his place as party president and prime minister of Japan, a position he held (except for a 16-month interval in 1947-1948) until the end of 1954. Yoshida's tough, pragmatic, anti-Communist attitudes suited the Occupation authorities. On the whole, he worked harmoniously with Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and together they presided over an era of revolutionary changes in Japanese society.

Yoshida built up a strong personal following, composed mostly of former bureaucrats, in the Diet, and he ruled in an autocratic fashion rare in Japanese politics. With the end of the Occupation in 1952, purged party leaders began to return to politics, undermining Liberal party unity and eroding Yoshida's strength. Conservative opposition to him gradually coalesced about Hatoyama, who unseated Yoshida in 1954.

Yoshida continued after his resignation to be an influential elder statesman and adviser. He died on Oct. 20, 1967, in his seaside estate at Oiso. Representatives of 74 countries attended his funeral, the first state funeral in Japan since the war.

Further Reading

Yoshida's recollections of his postwar leadership are in his The Yoshida Memoirs (1962). A general account of the Occupation is Kazuo Kawai, Japan's American Interlude (1960). For a close analysis of the workings of Japanese politics in the Yoshida era see Donald C. Hellmann, Japanese Foreign Policy and Domestic Politics (1969).

Additional Sources

Dower, John W., Empire and aftermath: Yoshida Shigeru and the Japanese experience, 1878-1954, Cambridge, Mass.: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University: Distributed by Harvard University Press, 1988.

In this Japanese name, the family name is Yoshida.

Shigeru Yoshida 吉田 茂
Prime Minister of Japan
In office 22 May 1946 – 24 May 1947
Monarch	Shōwa
Governor	Douglas MacArthur
Preceded by	Kijūrō Shidehara
Succeeded by	Tetsu Katayama
In office 15 October 1948 – 10 December 1954
Monarch	Shōwa
Governor	Douglas MacArthur Matthew Ridgway
Preceded by	Hitoshi Ashida
Succeeded by	Ichirō Hatoyama
Born	22 September 1878(1878-09-22) Yokosuka, Japan
Died	20 October 1967 (aged 89) Tokyo, Japan
Political party	Liberal Democratic Party (1955–1967)
Other political affiliations	Liberal Party (1945–1950) Democratic Liberal Party (1950–1955)
Alma mater	Tokyo Imperial University
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Shigeru Yoshida (吉田 茂, Yoshida Shigeru^?), KCVO (September 22, 1878 – October 20, 1967) was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1946 to 1947 and from 1948 to 1954.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Prime Minister 3 Policies 4 Later years 5 Selected works 6 Notes 7 References 7.1 Further reading 8 External links

Early life

Yoshida was born in Yokosuka near Tokyo and educated at Tokyo Imperial University. He entered Japan's diplomatic corps in 1906 just after Japan's victory against Russia in the Russo-Japanese War. He was Japan's ambassador to Italy and the United Kingdom during the 1930s and finally retired from his last appointment as ambassador to London in 1938. Throughout the 1930s and before the war ended in the early 1940s, Yoshida continued to participate in Japan's imperialist movement. After several months' imprisonment in 1945, he became one of Japan's key postwar leaders.

Prime Minister

Yoshida became the 45th prime minister on May 22, 1946. His pro-American and pro-British ideals and his knowledge of Western societies, gained through education and political work abroad are what made him the perfect candidate in the eyes of the postwar Allied occupation.

After being replaced with Tetsu Katayama on May 24, 1947, he returned to the post as the 48th prime minister on October 15, 1948.

Policies

Yoshida's policies, emphasizing Japan's economic recovery and a reliance on United States military protection at the expense of independence in foreign affairs, became known as the Yoshida Doctrine and shaped Japanese foreign policy during the Cold War era and beyond.^[1]

Under Yoshida's leadership, Japan began to rebuild its lost industrial infrastructure and placed a premium on unrestrained economic growth. Many of these concepts still impact Japan's political and economic policies. However, since the 1970s environmental movement, the bursting of Japan's economic bubble, and the end of the Cold War, Japan has been struggling to redefine its national goals. His administration openly encouraged a "3-S" policy—sports, screen, and sex, a change from the strict pre-war censorship of materials labeled obscene or immoral.

He was retained in three succeeding elections (49th: February 16, 1949; 50th: October 30, 1952; and 51st: May 21, 1953). Power slipped away as he was ousted on December 10, 1954, when he was replaced by Ichirō Hatoyama.

Yoshida retired from the Diet of Japan in 1955.

Later years

In 1967, Yoshida was baptized on his deathbed after hiding his Catholic religion throughout most of his life. His funeral was held in St. Mary's Cathedral, Tokyo.

Yoshida's grandson, Tarō Asō, is a Japanese politician and served as the 92nd Prime Minister of Japan from 2008-2009.

Selected works

Yoshida's published writings encompass 150 works in 213 publications in 6 languages. His work can be found in the collections of 5,202 libraries worldwide.^[2]

The most widely held works by Yoshida include:

This is an incomplete list, which may never be able to satisfy certain standards for completion. You can help by expanding it with sourced additions.

• The Yoshida Memoirs: the Story of Japan in Crisis; 15 editions published between 1957 and 1983 in English and Japanese and held by 875 libraries worldwide.^[2]
• Japan's Decisive Century, 1867-1967; 1 edition published in 1967 in English and held by 650 libraries worldwide.^[2]
• Yoshida Shigeru: Last Meiji Man; 2 editions published in 2007 in English and held by 286 libraries worldwide.^[2]
• 日本を決定した百年; 7 editions published between 1967 and 2006 in 3 languages and held by 46 libraries worldwide.^[2]
• 大磯隨想; 5 editions published between 1962 and 1991 in Japanese and held by 34 libraries worldwide.^[2]
• 吉田茂書翰; 2 editions published in 1994 in Japanese and held by 31 libraries worldwide.^[2]
• 世界と日本; 3 editions published between 1963 and 1992 in Japanese and held by 26 libraries worldwide.^[2]
• Japan im Wiederaufstieg; die Yoshida Memoiren (German); 1 edition published in 1963 in German and held by 9 libraries worldwide.^[2]

Notes

1. ^ Beeson, Mark. (2001). "Japan and Southeast Asia: The Lineaments of Quasi-Hegemony," p. 4 of linked e-reprint, citing Pyle, Kenneth B. (1998) "Restructuring Foreign Policy and Defence Policy: Japan," in McGrew, A. et al. (1998). Asia-Pacific in the New World Order, pp. 121-36.
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} WorldCat Identities: Yoshida, Shigeru 1878-1967

References

• Rodan, Garry, Hewison, Kevin and Robison, Richard. (1997). The Political Economy of South-East Asia: An Introduction. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. 10-ISBN 0-195-53736-X/13-ISBN 978-0-195-53736-9; OCLC 464661946
• McGrew, Anthony and Christopher Book. (1998) Asia-Pacific in the New World Order. London: Routledge. 10-ISBN 0-415-17272-1/13-ISBN 978-0-415-17272-1; 10-ISBN 0-415-17271-3/13-ISBN 978-0-415-17271-4; OCLC 60184921
• Shigeru, Yoshida and Hiroshi Nara. (2007). Shigeru: Last Meiji Man. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. 13-ISBN 978-0-742-53932-7/10-ISBN 0-742-53932-6; 13-ISBN 978-0-742-53933-4/10-ISBN 0-742-53933-4; OCLC 238440967

Further reading

• Dower, John W. Empire and Aftermath: Yoshida Shigeru and the Japanese Experience, 1878-1954.
• Edström, Bert. Yoshida Shigeru and the Foundation of Japan's Postwar Foreign Policy.
• Finn, Richard B. Winners in peace: MacArthur, Yoshida, and Postwar Japan.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Shigeru Yoshida

Political offices
Preceded by Mamoru Shigemitsu	Minister of Foreign Affairs 1945–1947	Succeeded by Hitoshi Ashida
Preceded by Kijūrō Shidehara	Prime Minister of Japan 1946–1947	Succeeded by Tetsu Katayama
Preceded by Hitoshi Ashida	Minister for Foreign Affairs 1948–1954	Succeeded by Mamoru Shigemitsu
	Prime Minister of Japan 1948–1954	Succeeded by Ichirō Hatoyama

v • d • e Prime Ministers of Japan (list) H. Itō · Kuroda · Sanjō · Yamagata · Matsukata · H. Itō · Kuroda · Matsukata · H. Itō · Ōkuma · Yamagata · H. Itō · Saionji · Katsura · Saionji · Katsura · Saionji · Katsura · Yamamoto · Ōkuma · Terauchi · Hara · Uchida · Takahashi · To. Katō · Uchida · Yamamoto · Kiyoura · Ta. Katō · Wakatsuki · G. Tanaka · Hamaguchi · Shidehara · Hamaguchi · Wakatsuki · Inukai · Takahashi · Saitō · Okada · Gotō · Okada · Hirota · Hayashi · Konoe · Hiranuma · N. Abe · Yonai · Konoe · Tōjō · Koiso · K. Suzuki · Higashikuni · Shidehara · Yoshida · Katayama · Ashida · Yoshida · I. Hatoyama · Ishibashi · Kishi · Ikeda · Satō · K. Tanaka · Miki · T. Fukuda · Ōhira · M. Itō · Z. Suzuki · Nakasone · Takeshita · Uno · Kaifu · Miyazawa · Hosokawa · Hata · Murayama · Hashimoto · Obuchi · Aoki · Mori · Koizumi · S. Abe · Y. Fukuda · Aso · Y. Hatoyama Italics denote acting Prime Ministers

v • d • e Foreign Ministers of Japan Inoue · Itō · Ōkuma (1st) · Aoki (1st) · Enomoto · Mutsu · Saionji (1st) · Ōkuma (2nd) · Nishi · Ōkuma (3rd) · Aoki (2nd) · Katō (1st) · Sone · Komura (1st) · Katō (2nd) · Saionji (2nd) · T. Hayashi · Terauchi (1st) · Komura (2nd) · Uchida · Katsura · Katō (3rd) · Makino · Katō (4th) · Ōkuma (4th) · Ishii · Terauchi (2nd) · Motono · Gotō · Uchida (2nd) · Yamamoto · Ijuin · Matsui · Shidehara · G. Tanaka · Shidehara (2nd) · Inukai · Yoshizawa · Uchida (4th) · Saitō · Hiroda · Arita · S. Hayashi · N. Satō · Hirota · Ugaki · Arita · N. Abe · K. Nomura · Arita · Matsuoka · Toyota · S. Togo · Tojo · Tani · Shigemitsu · S. Togo (2nd) · Shigemitsu (2nd) · K. Suzuki · Yoshida · Ashida · Yoshida (2nd) · Shigemitsu (3rd) · Kishi · Fujiyama · Kosaka · Ōhira · Shiina · Miki · Aichi · Fukuda · Ōhira · Kimura · Miyazawa · Kosaka · Hatoyama · Sonoda · Okita · M. Ito · Sonoda · Sakurauchi · S. Abe · Kuranari · Uno · Mitsuzuka · Nakayama · Watanabe · Muto · Hata · Kakizawa · Kono · Ikeda · Obuchi · Kōmura · M. Tanaka · Koizumi · Kawaguchi · Machimura · Aso · Machimura (2nd) · Kōmura (2nd) · Nakasone · Okada

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)