Bruce Fraser, 1st Baron Fraser of North Cape
Admiral of the Fleet Bruce Austin Fraser, 1st Baron Fraser of North Cape, was a senior Royal Navy officer. He served in the First World War, saw action during the Gallipoli Campaign and took part in the internment of the German High Seas Fleet at the end of the war, he served in the Second World War as Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy and as second-in-command and afterwards as commander of the Home Fleet, leading the force that destroyed the German battleship Scharnhorst. He went on to be First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff in which role he assisted in establishing NATO and agreed to the principle that the Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic should be an American admiral, in the face of fierce British opposition. Born the son of General Alexander Fraser and Monica Stores Fraser, Fraser was educated at Bradfield College, he joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in the training ship HMS Britannia in September 1902 and passed out as a midshipman in the battleship HMS Hannibal in the Channel Fleet on 15 January 1904.
He transferred to the battleship HMS Prince George in the Channel Fleet in February 1905 and, having been promoted to sub-lieutenant on 15 March 1907, he joined the battleship HMS Triumph in May 1907. He moved to the destroyer HMS Gypsy in September 1907 and, having been promoted to lieutenant on 15 March 1908, he joined the cruiser HMS Lancaster in the Mediterranean Fleet. Fraser transferred to the Home Fleet in August 1910 and remained there serving in HMS Boadicea until July 1911 when he joined HMS Excellent, the Royal Navy's school of Gunnery at Whale Island in Portsmouth harbour where he commenced the'long course' to qualify as a specialist Gunnery Officer, he assisted on the Advanced Gunnery Course at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich in 1912 and joined the instructing staff at HMS Excellent in 1913. Fraser served in the First World War in the cruiser HMS Minerva providing naval gunfire support during the Gallipoli Campaign and carrying troops to protect Egypt's Western frontier, he returned to HMS Excellent early in 1916 and, having been promoted to lieutenant commander on 15 March 1916, he joined the battleship HMS Resolution as Gunnery Officer at the end of the year.
He spent the remainder of the War with the Grand Fleet and took part in the internment of the German High Seas Fleet in November 1918. After the war and following his promotion to commander on 30 June 1919 and his appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 17 July 1919, Fraser volunteered to serve with the White Russian Caspian Flotilla, he served returned to HMS Excellent before joining the Naval Ordnance Department at the Admiralty in June 1922. He became Fleet Gunnery Officer for the Mediterranean Fleet in December 1924 and, having been promoted to captain on 30 June 1926, he became Head of the Tactical Division of the Admiralty in January 1927, he was appointed to command the cruiser HMS Effingham on the East Indies Station in September 1929 and became Director of the Naval Ordnance Department at the Admiralty in July 1933. Fraser returned to sea to take command of the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious in May 1936 and became Chief Staff Officer to the Flag Officer Aircraft Carriers in 1937.
He reached Flag rank as a rear admiral on 11 January 1938 and was made Chief of Staff to the Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Fleet in April 1938. He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1939 New Year Honours. In March 1939, shortly before the outset of the Second World War, Fraser was appointed Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy. Promoted to vice admiral on 8 May 1940, he was advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1941 Birthday Honours and became second-in-command, Home Fleet and Flag Officer, 2nd Battle Squadron in June 1942, he was appointed a Grand Officer of the Dutch Order of Orange-Nassau on 19 January 1943. Fraser was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet in May 1943 and appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1943 Birthday Honours. In the role of Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, he commanded the Royal Navy force that destroyed the German battleship Scharnhorst at the Battle of the North Cape on 26 December 1943.
Units of the Home Fleet escorted convoys to Murmansk in the Soviet Union: Fraser was convinced that Scharnhorst would attempt an attack on Convoy JW 55B, put to sea in his flagship HMS Duke of York to reach a position between the convoy and the German battleship's base in North Norway. Scharnhorst was hit by an initial wave of four torpedoes and after concentrated gunfire and further torpedo attacks, sank at 7.45pm that night. Thus Fraser avenged the destruction of his old command, HMS Glorious, by Scharnhorst three years earlier. For this action he was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 5 January 1944, awarded the Russian Order of Suvorov, First Degree on 25 February. Promoted to full admiral on 7 February 1944, Fraser took command of the Eastern Fleet in August 1944 and of the British Pacific Fleet in December 1944, he commanded from ashore at his Headquarters in Sydney in Australia and built a strong relationship with the United States Navy adopting their system of signal communications.
Fraser was the British signatory to the Japanese Instrument of Surrender at Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945. On 27 April 1946 Fraser was appointed First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp to the King and, in September, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Fraser of North Cape, of Molesey in the County of Surrey, he became Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth in Septem
Thomas Blamey
Field Marshal Sir Thomas Albert Blamey, was an Australian general of the First and Second World Wars, the only Australian to attain the rank of field marshal. Blamey joined the Australian Army as a regular soldier in 1906, attended the Staff College at Quetta. During the First World War he participated in the landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, served as a staff officer in the Gallipoli Campaign, where he was mentioned in despatches for a daring raid behind enemy lines, he served on the Western Front, where he distinguished himself in the planning for the Battle of Pozières. He rose to the rank of brigadier general, served as chief of staff of the Australian Corps under Lieutenant General Sir John Monash, who credited him as a factor in the Corps' success in the Battle of Hamel, the Battle of Amiens and the Battle of the Hindenburg Line. After the war Blamey was Deputy Chief of the General Staff, was involved in the creation of the Royal Australian Air Force, he resigned from the regular Army in 1925 to become Chief Commissioner of the Victoria Police, but remained in the Militia, rising to command the 3rd Division in 1931.
As chief commissioner, Blamey set about dealing with the grievances that had led to the 1923 Victorian Police strike, implemented innovations such as police dogs and equipping vehicles with radios. His tenure as chief commissioner was marred by a scandal in which his police badge was found in a brothel, a attempt to cover up the shooting of a police officer led to his forced resignation in 1936, he made weekly broadcasts on international affairs on Melbourne radio station 3UZ. Appointed chairman of the Commonwealth Government's Manpower Committee and controller general of recruiting in 1938, he headed a successful recruiting campaign which doubled the size of the part-time volunteer Militia. During the Second World War Blamey commanded the Second Australian Imperial Force and the I Corps in the Middle East. In the latter role he commanded Australian and Commonwealth troops in the disastrous Battle of Greece. In the former role, he attempted to protect Australian interests against British commanders who sought to disperse his forces on all manner of missions.
He was appointed deputy commander-in-chief of Middle East Command, was promoted to general in 1941. In 1942, he returned to Australia as commander-in-chief of the Australian Military Forces and commander of Allied Land Forces in the South West Pacific Area under the command of General Douglas MacArthur. On the orders of MacArthur and Prime Minister John Curtin, he assumed personal command of New Guinea Force during the Kokoda Track campaign, relieved Lieutenant General Sydney Rowell and Major General Arthur Allen under controversial circumstances. Blamey planned and carried out the significant and victorious Salamaua–Lae Campaign. Nonetheless, during the final campaigns of the war he faced vociferous criticism of the Army's performance, he signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on behalf of Australia at Japan's ceremonial surrender in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945, personally accepted the Japanese surrender at Morotai on 9 September. He was promoted to field marshal in June 1950; the seventh of ten children, Blamey was born on 24 January 1884 in Lake Albert, near Wagga Wagga, New South Wales.
He was the son of Richard Blamey, a farmer who had emigrated from Cornwall at the age of 16 in 1862, his Australian-born wife, Margaret. After farming failures in Queensland and on the Murrumbidgee River near Wagga Wagga, his father Richard moved to a small 20-acre property in Lake Albert, where he supplemented his farm income working as a drover and shearing overseer. Blamey acquired the bush skills associated with his father's enterprises and became a sound horseman, he attended Wagga Wagga Superior Public School, where he played Australian football, was a keen member of the Army Cadet unit. He transferred to Wagga Wagga Grammar when he was 13, was head cadet of its unit for two years. Blamey began his working life in 1899 as a trainee school teacher at Lake Albert School, he transferred to South Wagga Public School in 1901, in 1903 moved to Western Australia, where he taught for three years at Fremantle Boys School. He coached the rifle shooting team of its cadet unit there to a win in the Western Australian Cup.
He remained involved with his church. By early 1906 he was a lay preacher, church leaders in Western Australia offered him an appointment as an associate minister in Carnarvon, Western Australia. With the creation of the Cadet Instructional Staff of the Australian Military Forces, Blamey saw a new opportunity, he sat the exam and came third in Australia, but failed to secure an appointment as there were no vacancies in Western Australia. After correspondence with the military authorities he persuaded the Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, Major Julius Bruche, that he should be given the option of taking up an appointment for one of the vacancies in another state, he was appointed to a position in Victoria with the rank of lieutenant, commencing duty in November 1906 with responsibility for school cadets in Victoria, was confirmed in his rank and appointment the following 29 June. In Melbourne, Blamey met Minnie Millard, the daughter of a Toorak stockbroker, involved in the Methodist Church there.
They were married at her home on 8 September 1909. His first child was born on 29 June 1910, named Charles Middleton after a friend of Blamey's who had died in a shooting accident. A second child, a boy named Thomas, was born four years later. Blamey was promoted to captain on 1 December 1910, became brigade major of the 12th Brigade Area
Tokyo
Tokyo Tokyo Metropolis, one of the 47 prefectures of Japan, has served as the Japanese capital since 1869. As of 2018, the Greater Tokyo Area ranked as the most populous metropolitan area in the world; the urban area houses the seat of the Emperor of Japan, of the Japanese government and of the National Diet. Tokyo forms part of the Kantō region on the southeastern side of Japan's main island and includes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands. Tokyo was named Edo when Shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu made the city his headquarters in 1603, it became the capital after Emperor Meiji moved his seat to the city from Kyoto in 1868. Tokyo Metropolis formed in 1943 from the merger of the former Tokyo Prefecture and the city of Tokyo. Tokyo is referred to as a city but is known and governed as a "metropolitan prefecture", which differs from and combines elements of a city and a prefecture, a characteristic unique to Tokyo; the 23 Special Wards of Tokyo were Tokyo City. On July 1, 1943, it merged with Tokyo Prefecture and became Tokyo Metropolis with an additional 26 municipalities in the western part of the prefecture, the Izu islands and Ogasawara islands south of Tokyo.
The population of the special wards is over 9 million people, with the total population of Tokyo Metropolis exceeding 13.8 million. The prefecture is part of the world's most populous metropolitan area called the Greater Tokyo Area with over 38 million people and the world's largest urban agglomeration economy; as of 2011, Tokyo hosted 51 of the Fortune Global 500 companies, the highest number of any city in the world at that time. Tokyo ranked third in the International Financial Centres Development Index; the city is home to various television networks such as Fuji TV, Tokyo MX, TV Tokyo, TV Asahi, Nippon Television, NHK and the Tokyo Broadcasting System. Tokyo third in the Global Cities Index; the GaWC's 2018 inventory classified Tokyo as an alpha+ world city – and as of 2014 TripAdvisor's World City Survey ranked Tokyo first in its "Best overall experience" category. As of 2018 Tokyo ranked as the 2nd-most expensive city for expatriates, according to the Mercer consulting firm, and the world's 11th-most expensive city according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's cost-of-living survey.
In 2015, Tokyo was named the Most Liveable City in the world by the magazine Monocle. The Michelin Guide has awarded Tokyo by far the most Michelin stars of any city in the world. Tokyo was ranked first out of all sixty cities in the 2017 Safe Cities Index; the QS Best Student Cities ranked Tokyo as the 3rd-best city in the world to be a university student in 2016 and 2nd in 2018. Tokyo hosted the 1964 Summer Olympics, the 1979 G-7 summit, the 1986 G-7 summit, the 1993 G-7 summit, will host the 2019 Rugby World Cup, the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2020 Summer Paralympics. Tokyo was known as Edo, which means "estuary", its name was changed to Tokyo when it became the imperial capital with the arrival of Emperor Meiji in 1868, in line with the East Asian tradition of including the word capital in the name of the capital city. During the early Meiji period, the city was called "Tōkei", an alternative pronunciation for the same characters representing "Tokyo", making it a kanji homograph; some surviving official English documents use the spelling "Tokei".
The name Tokyo was first suggested in 1813 in the book Kondō Hisaku, written by Satō Nobuhiro. When Ōkubo Toshimichi proposed the renaming to the government during the Meiji Restoration, according to Oda Kanshi, he got the idea from that book. Tokyo was a small fishing village named Edo, in what was part of the old Musashi Province. Edo was first fortified in the late twelfth century. In 1457, Ōta Dōkan built Edo Castle. In 1590, Tokugawa Ieyasu was transferred from Mikawa Province to Kantō region; when he became shōgun in 1603, Edo became the center of his ruling. During the subsequent Edo period, Edo grew into one of the largest cities in the world with a population topping one million by the 18th century, but Edo was Tokugawa's home and was not capital of Japan. The Emperor himself lived in Kyoto from 794 to 1868 as capital of Japan. During the Edo era, the city enjoyed a prolonged period of peace known as the Pax Tokugawa, in the presence of such peace, Edo adopted a stringent policy of seclusion, which helped to perpetuate the lack of any serious military threat to the city.
The absence of war-inflicted devastation allowed Edo to devote the majority of its resources to rebuilding in the wake of the consistent fires and other devastating natural disasters that plagued the city. However, this prolonged period of seclusion came to an end with the arrival of American Commodore Matthew C. Perry in 1853. Commodore Perry forced the opening of the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate, leading to an increase in the demand for new foreign goods and subsequently a severe rise in inflation. Social unrest mounted in the wake of these higher prices and culminated in widespread rebellions and demonstrations in the form of the "smashing" of rice establishments. Meanwhile, supporters of the Meiji Emperor leveraged the disruption that t
Katsuo Okazaki
Katsuo Okazaki was a Japanese sportsman and political figure. He served as the Japanese foreign minister in the 1950s, he was the final – and only Japanese – chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Council. Okazaki was born on 10 July 1897 in Japan, he was the 10th son of Yasunosuke Okazaki. He studied law at the University of Tokyo and joined the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Okazaki participated in the 1924 Paris Olympic Summer Games, qualifying for the 5,000 m final with a time of 15.22.2e. In the final, he was carried away by medics, he had much success at the Far Eastern Championship Games, winning the mile run at the 1921 Games doing a middle-distance double in the mile and 880 yards at the 1923 event in Osaka. Okasaki served as second secretary to the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D. C. in the early 1930s. He served in numerous positions in China during the 1930s, including serving as Japanese Consul-General in Nanjing after the Fall of Nanking to the Imperial Japanese Army and during the Nanking Massacre.
In 1938, he was serving as Japanese Consul General in Canton. In October 1939 was appointed Japanese Consul at Hong Kong, a position he held until January 1941. In early January 1942 he was appointed as Chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Council after the British and American members resigned following the commencement of the Pacific War and the occupation of the Shanghai International Settlement by Japanese troops, he served until 1943. Okazaki took part in the surrender negotiations between the Japanese emissaries and American military officials on Iejima in 1945, he was present as a representative of Japan at the formal surrender on 2 September 1945 aboard the USS Missouri. Okazaki was elected to the Japanese House of Representatives in 1949. In 1951, he was appointed by Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida as Chief Cabinet Secretary and state minister without portfolio. In 1952, he was appointed Foreign Minister and served in that position until 1954. In 1954, building on work by Ikeda, Okazaki signed a Mutual Security Assistance Agreement with U.
S. Ambassador John Allison. In 1961 he was called out of retirement to serve in the United Nations in what was described at the time as a move to strengthen the Japanese delegation, he served as Japan's delegate to the United Nations from April 1961 to July 1963. Okazaki died on 10 October 1965 in Tokyo of a stomach ulcer at the age of 68. Okazaki was married to Shimako with whom he had a son, a daughter, Yoshiko, he is the grandfather of the Japanese-American figure skater Kyoko Ina, Yoshiko's daughter
Sir
Sir is a formal English honorific address for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Traditionally, as governed by law and custom, Sir is used for men titled knights i.e. of orders of chivalry, also to baronets, other offices. As the female equivalent for knighthood is damehood, the suo jure female equivalent term is Dame; the wife of a knight or baronet tends to be addressed Lady, although a few exceptions and interchanges of these uses exist. Since the Late Modern era, "Sir" has been used as a respectful way to address any commoners of a superior social status or military rank. Equivalent terms of address for women are Madam, in addition to social honorifics such as Mr, Mrs and Miss.'Sir' derives from the honorific title sire, used in Spanish, French and Swedish. Sire developed alongside the word seigneur used to refer to a feudal lord. Both derived from the Vulgar Latin senior, sire comes from the nominative case declension senior and seigneur, the accusative case declension seniōrem.
The form'Sir' is first documented in English in 1297, as title of honour of a knight, latterly a baronet, being a variant of sire, used in English since at least c.1205 as a title placed before a name and denoting knighthood, to address the Sovereign since c.1225, with additional general senses of'father, male parent' is from c.1250, and'important elderly man' from 1362. The prefix is never with the surname alone. For example, whilst Sir Alexander and Sir Alexander Fleming would be correct, Sir Fleming would not; the equivalent for a female who holds a knighthood or baronetcy in her own right is'Dame', follows the same usage customs as'Sir'. Although this form was also used for the wives of knights and baronets, it is now customary to refer to them as'Lady', followed by their surname. For example, while Lady Fiennes is correct, Lady Virginia and Lady Virginia Fiennes are not; the widows of knights retain the style of wives of knights, however widows of baronets are either referred to as'dowager', or use their forename before their courtesy style.
For example, the widow of Sir Thomas Herbert Cochrane Troubridge, 4th Baronet, would either be known as Dowager Lady Troubridge or Laura, Lady Troubridge. Today, in the UK and in certain Commonwealth realms, a number of men are entitled to the prefix of'Sir', including knights bachelor, knights of the orders of chivalry and baronets. Dual nationals holding a Commonwealth citizenship that recognise the British monarch as head of state are entitled to use the styling. Common usage varies from country to country: for instance, dual Bahamian-American citizen Sidney Poitier, knighted in 1974, is styled'Sir Sidney Poitier' in connection with his official ambassadorial duties, although he himself employs the title; the permissibility of using the style of'Sir' varies. In general, only dynastic knighthoods in the personal gift of the Sovereign and Head of the Commonwealth – the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Thistle and the knighthoods in the Royal Victorian Order – are recognised across the Commonwealth realms, along with their accompanying styles.
Knighthoods in the gift of the government of a Commonwealth realm only permit the bearer to use his title within that country or as its official representative, provided he is a national of that country. For instance, Anthony Bailey was reprimanded by Buckingham Palace and the British government in 2016 for asserting that an honorary Antiguan knighthood allowed him the style of'Sir' in the UK. Knight Commander or Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Baronet Knight of the Order of the Garter Knight of the Order of the Thistle Knight Commander or Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Commander or Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knight Commander or Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire Knight Bachelor Knight of the Order of the National Hero Knight Commander, Knight Grand Cross, or Knight Grand Collar of the Order of the Nation Knight of the Order of Australia Knight of St. Andrew of the Order of Barbados Knight Commander, Knight Grand Cross, or Knight Grand Collar of the Order of the Nation in the Order of Grenada Knight Companion or Knight Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Lucia Established in 1783 and awarded to men associated with the Kingdom of Ireland, Knights of the Order of St. Patrick were entitled to the style of'Sir'.
Regular creation of new knights of the order ended in 1921 upon the formation of the Irish Free State. With the death of the last knight in 1974, the Order became dormant; as part of the consolidation of the crown colony of India, the Order of the Star of India was established in 1861 to reward prominent British and Indian civil servants, military officers and prominent Indians associated with the Indian Empire. The Order of the Indian Empire was established in 1878 as a junior-level order to accompany the Order of the Star of India, to recognise long service. From 1861 to 1866, the Order of the Star of India had a single class of Knights, who were entitled to the style of'Sir'. In 1
World War II
World War II known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries; the major participants threw their entire economic and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China, it included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, the only use of nuclear weapons in war. Japan, which aimed to dominate Asia and the Pacific, was at war with China by 1937, though neither side had declared war on the other. World War II is said to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and the United Kingdom.
From late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Finland and the Baltic states. Following the onset of campaigns in North Africa and East Africa, the fall of France in mid 1940, the war continued between the European Axis powers and the British Empire. War in the Balkans, the aerial Battle of Britain, the Blitz, the long Battle of the Atlantic followed. On 22 June 1941, the European Axis powers launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, opening the largest land theatre of war in history; this Eastern Front trapped most crucially the German Wehrmacht, into a war of attrition. In December 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States as well as European colonies in the Pacific. Following an immediate U. S. declaration of war against Japan, supported by one from Great Britain, the European Axis powers declared war on the U.
S. in solidarity with their Japanese ally. Rapid Japanese conquests over much of the Western Pacific ensued, perceived by many in Asia as liberation from Western dominance and resulting in the support of several armies from defeated territories; the Axis advance in the Pacific halted in 1942. Key setbacks in 1943, which included a series of German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy, Allied victories in the Pacific, cost the Axis its initiative and forced it into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and turned toward Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in Central China, South China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy and captured key Western Pacific islands; the war in Europe concluded with an invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops, the suicide of Adolf Hitler and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945.
Following the Potsdam Declaration by the Allies on 26 July 1945 and the refusal of Japan to surrender under its terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August respectively. With an invasion of the Japanese archipelago imminent, the possibility of additional atomic bombings, the Soviet entry into the war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria, Japan announced its intention to surrender on 15 August 1945, cementing total victory in Asia for the Allies. Tribunals were set up by fiat by the Allies and war crimes trials were conducted in the wake of the war both against the Germans and the Japanese. World War II changed the political social structure of the globe; the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The Soviet Union and United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the nearly half-century long Cold War. In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia.
Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic expansion. Political integration in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities and create a common identity; the start of the war in Europe is held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred and the two wars merged in 1941; this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935; the British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the fo
Mamoru Shigemitsu
Mamoru Shigemitsu was a Japanese diplomat and politician in the Empire of Japan, who served as the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs at the end of World War II and as the Deputy Prime Minister of Japan. Shigemitsu was born in what is now part of the city of Ōita Prefecture, Japan, he graduated from the Law School of Tokyo Imperial University in 1907. After World War I, he served in numerous overseas diplomatic assignments, including Germany, the United Kingdom, as consul at the Japanese consulate in Seattle, United States. Following the Mukden Incident, Shigemitsu was active at various European capitals to attempt to reduce alarm at Japanese military activities in Manchuria. 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. On April 29, 1932, while attending a celebration for the birthday of Emperor Hirohito in Shanghai, a Korean independence activist, Yoon Bong-Gil threw a bomb at a reviewing stand killing General Yoshinori Shirakawa and wounding several others, including Shigemitsu.
Shigemitsu lost his right leg in the attack and walked with an artificial leg and cane for the rest of his life. Shigemitsu became ambassador to the Soviet Union, in 1938, he negotiated a settlement of the Russo-Japanese border clash at Changkufeng Hill, he 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. Shigemitsu was critical of the foreign policies of Yōsuke Matsuoka the Tripartite Pact, which he warned would further strengthen anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States. Shigemitsu spent two weeks in Washington, DC, on the way back, conferring with Ambassador Kichisaburō Nomura to try unsuccessfully to arrange for direct face-to-face negotiations between Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Shigemitsu's many attempts to stave off World War II angered the militarists in Tokyo, only two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Shigemitsu was sidelined with an appointment as ambassador to the Japanese-sponsored Reorganized National Government of China.
In China, Shigemitsu argued that the success of the proposed Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere depended on the equal treatment of China and other Asian nations with Japan. On April 20, 1943, in a move, viewed as a sign that Japan might be preparing for a collapse of the Axis Powers, Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō replaced Foreign Minister Masayuki Tani with Shigemitsu, steadfast in his opposition to the militarists, he was thus foreign minister during the Greater East Asia Conference. The American press referred to him in headlines as "Shiggy". From July 22, 1944, to April 7, 1945, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Greater East Asia in the Koiso administration, he again held that post in August 1945 in the Higashikuni administration. Shigemitsu, as civilian plenipotentiary, along with General Yoshijirō Umezu, signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on September 2, 1945. 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 and held in Sugamo Prison, under charges of war crimes.
Despite a signed deposition by Joseph Grew, 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 at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment for waging "an aggressive war." He was paroled in 1950. After the end of the occupation of Japan, Shigemitsu formed the short-lived Kaishintō party, which merged with the Japan Democratic Party in 1954. In October 1952, he was elected to a seat in the Lower House of the Diet of Japan, in 1954, he became Deputy Prime Minister of Japan under Prime Minister Ichirō Hatoyama, the leader of Japan Democratic Party; the cabinet continued after the merger of JDP and Liberal Party as the Liberal Democratic Party in 1955, Shigemitsu continued to hold the post of Deputy Prime Minister of Japan until 1956. Shigemitsu served as Foreign minister from 1954 to 1956 under the 1st to the 3rd Hatoyama administrations.
He represented Japan at the 1955 Asian–African Conference held in Indonesia, which marked the beginning of the return of Japan to participating in an international conference since the League of Nations. The following year, he addressed the United Nations General Assembly, pledging Japan's support of the founding principles of the United Nations and formally applying for membership. Japan became its 80th member on December 18, 1956. Shigemitsu travelled to Moscow in 1956 in an attempt to normalize diplomatic relations and to resolve the Kuril Islands dispute; the visit resulted in the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956. Shigemitsu died of angina pectoris, at 69, at his summer home in Kanagawa. Mamoru Shigemitsu and Her Destiny: My Struggle for Peace, New York: Dutton. Questia Archive Footage references to Shigemitsu at Internet Movie Database Website on exhibition in Japanese Parliament 08-30 Nov 2007, accessed 14 Nov 2007 Newspaper clippings about Mamoru Shigemitsu in the 20th Century Press Archives of the German National Library of Economics
Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu [3]
Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz for the United States (9:12 a.m.)[1][5]
General Hsu Yung-chang for China (9:13 a.m.)[1][6]
Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser for the United Kingdom (9:14 a.m.)[1][7]
Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko for the Soviet Union (9:16 a.m.)[1][8][note 2]
General Sir Thomas Blamey for Australia (9:17 a.m.)[1][9]
Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave for Canada (9:18 a.m.)[1][10]
Général de Corps d'Armée Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque for France (9:20 a.m.)[1][11]
Lieutenant Admiral C. E. L. Helfrich for the Netherlands (9:21 a.m.)[1][12]
Air Vice-Marshal Leonard M. Isitt for New Zealand (9:22 a.m.)[1][13]
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