Kuniaki Koiso

Koiso Kuniaki, Lt-General (1880–1950),Japanese Army officer who succeeded Tōjō as prime minister in July 1944 after serving as chief of staff of the Kwantung Army in Manchukuo (1932–4), minister of overseas (colonial) affairs (1939–40), and then from mid- 1942, governor-general of Korea. But he was, as one Japanese diplomat remarked, ‘utterly ignorant of the realities of the military situation’ (quoted in P. Calvocoressi et al., Total War, London, 1989, p. 1178 n.), and made no attempt to work with his deputy prime minister, Admiral Yonai Mitsumasa, a former prime minister who was striving for peace. Koiso eventually resigned in April 1945 after his unrealistic negotiations to split China from her western Allies were leaked, and the Japanese Army had rebuffed his suggestion that he should also become war minister. He was succeeded by Suzuki Kantarō and died in prison after being given a life sentence at the Far East war crimes trials. See also Japan, 3.

Kuniaki Koiso , 1880-1950, Japanese general. He was chief of staff of the Kwantung army, commander in chief in Korea, and governor-general of Korea before he replaced Tojo as prime minister in July, 1944. He resigned in Apr., 1945, after Iwo Jima, the Philippines, and Okinawa were lost. Sentenced (1948) to life imprisonment as a war criminal, he died in a U.S. army hospital.

Suzuki Kantarō (1867–1948),retired Japanese admiral who spent the war as a member of the privy council until, in April 1945, following the resignation of the prime minister, Koiso Kuniaki, he formed Japan's last wartime government. A universally popular figure in Japan, who was backed by those fervently seeking peace, this venerable and moderate gentleman was then aged 78, and it was beyond his means to give the country the lead it needed to bring the war to its conclusion. He unsuccessfully sought terms through various intermediaries, but his response to the Allies' Potsdam conference declaration in July 1945 (see TERMINAL), given at a press conference, was ambiguous, and on 6 August the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He resigned when Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945. See also Japan, 3.