Matsuoka Yōsuke

Matsuoka Yōsuke (1880–1946),Japanese ambassador to the League of Nations at the time Japan left the League in 1933 because of Japan's occupation of Manchuria (see Manchukuo). He later served as foreign minister in the critical year from July 1940 to July 1941. Though thoroughly westernized—from the age of thirteen he had been brought up in the USA and he had been to university there—Matsuoka mistrusted both the UK and the USA, and during his time as foreign minister Japan moved irrevocably down the path which led to the Pacific war. In 1940 he successfully demanded military bases in French Indo-China and the temporary closure of the Burma Road. The same year he negotiated the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy—which, contrary to his intentions, caused increasingly belligerent US policies—and attempted a solution to the China incident by recognizing Wang Ching-wei's puppet regime (see China, 3(b)). In April 1941, to the astonishment of his government, he signed a non-aggression treaty with Japan's traditional antagonist, the USSR (see Japanese–Soviet campaigns). As a result—and, more importantly, because of the China Incident—Japan's hands were tied when Hitler invaded the USSR in June 1941 (see BARBAROSSA). To get rid of him the prime minister, Prince Konoe, and his whole government had to resign, and it was then reformed without Matsuoka. Arrested at the end of the war, Matsuoka died before he could appear at the Far East war crimes trials.